Come for a Night Walk with Me!

[Mad Aussie]

Last night my wife and I went out for a walk as it got dark.
Our target was the Tawny Frogmouth ... a bird often mistaken for, and often called an owl.

After walking for about 30 mins, the sky was dark and we had reached our intended furtherest point of the walk. The intention now was to head for home slowly and look for the Frogmouths and anything else that might be around.

Our first find was this Koala. He was only about 3 metres up a small tree so I got quite close. Koala's suffer from 4 common koala diseases caused by the chlamydia organism: conjunctivitis which can cause blindness, pneumonia, urinary tract infections and reproductive tract infections, which can cause female infertility. The symptoms of chlamydia manifest as sore eyes, chest infections, and "wet bottom" or "dirty tail".
As you can clearly see, this one is suffering from conjunctivitis ...
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7042/6831159586_2ed25fbb47_o.jpg

Moving on it wasn't long before more bright orange eyes were staring back at us.
These two shots are good illustrations of the colour difference we see in the possums here, and why this species gets it's name ...
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7053/6831159972_3d8cb0cc90_o.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7046/6831160298_15029718ab_o.jpg

High in a tree a few metres down the trail I saw more eyes and found this guy high in the branches. He must have been at 20 metres up.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7182/6977288897_990c1b8aa6_o.jpg

My wife, in the meantime, is saying "that's not a Koala ... it's an owl"
Huh? I'm thinking "how the hell do you mistake a 20lb ball of fur for an owl?" Turns out she hadn't seen the Koala I was looking at ... in the same tree only about 5 metres above the ground was our intended quarry! The Tawny Frogmouth!!
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7206/6977288275_5b069eb764_o.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7189/6977288533_5bf896cb05_o.jpg

As we walked along, we saw several more Koala's and Possums, and also lots of sleeping birds in the tree branches. Then I saw this little guy who was asleep only about 2 metres off the ground. He's about 150mm (6 in) long.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7210/6831162088_240ed44634_o.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7185/6977289385_7bdd70b2b3_o.jpg

more very shortly ...

[Mad Aussie]

Damn Toads! These bloody things are everywhere. We were literally tripping over them as we walked at times. They are an introduced nightmare. They were deliberately introduced from Hawaii to Australia in 1935, to control scarab beetles that were pests of sugar cane. In 2012, Cane Toads occur throughout the eastern and northern half of Queensland and have extended their range to the river catchments surrounding Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory and now threaten to cross into Western Australia. In New South Wales they occur on the coast as far south as Yamba, and there is isolated colonies well south of Port Macquarie.
Poisonous and not wanted!
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7058/6831162456_16e5dfc42d_o.jpg

Almost home again we came across this large leaf (about the size of a human males hand) just floating motionless.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7199/6977290211_9da335530b_o.jpg

Walking back, you can see what's going on ...
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7062/6831163310_0ef564736a_o.jpg

High above the culprit ...
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7210/6831162908_65327e240c_o.jpg

A closer look at the Garden Orb Weaver Spider
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7061/6831161458_236b00a668_o.jpg

And that's it folks ... a nice little 5 km walk through a bit of Aussie bush in the suburbs.

[celksy]

Your photos are always good as well as interesting, and your knowledge of the wildlife is impressive. Looks beautiful there; would love to visit that part of the world sometime.

[Mad Aussie]

Your photos are always good as well as interesting, and your knowledge of the wildlife is impressive. Looks beautiful there; would love to visit that part of the world sometime.
Thanks Celksy ... that's nice to hear.
Not all that 'knowledge' is straight out of my head though ... Google is my friend.
Like all places I guess, it's fairly ordinary around here, unless you are someone like me who walks, rides and drives around to see what's around. Local knowledge is so important. You'd barely look twice at the area I took these during the day.

[kmunroe]

very nice images

[Bambi]

wow, that was an interesting walk!!

[Mad Aussie]

Thanks Km and Bambi. Glad you liked strolling with me :)

[Marko]

I really enjoyed that MA and completely agree with Celsky!
Well done!

[Mad Aussie]

I really enjoyed that MA and completely agree with Celsky!
Well done!
Glad you also enjoyed the little walk. It's a whole other world out there in the dark.
I'll have to show you guys my setup for night shooting when I get a chance.

[mbrager]

Pictures are great and the story is interesting. I'd love to know your flash setup. Thanks for sharing this.

[Mad Aussie]

Pictures are great and the story is interesting. I'd love to know your flash setup. Thanks for sharing this.
Thanks MB. I'll definitely show you my night shooting setup soon.

[Runmonty]

That was quite a walk. Great set

[Mad Aussie]

That was quite a walk. Great set
Cheers Runmonty.

[jude01]

Awesome set M.A, wish my walks where like that!

[Mad Aussie]

Awesome set M.A, wish my walks where like that!
Maybe they can :)

[kat]

Cool set up to the end ;)

[Iguanasan]

Cool set up to the end ;)

Ditto :)

[Mad Aussie]

Thanks Kat and Iggy :)

[aubintbay]

Neat work MA. Like the Tawney!

[Mad Aussie]

Neat work MA. Like the Tawney!
Thanks AB :)

[Hillbillygirl]

Another well done set MA, and love the interesting subjects you captured so well. really like that last Orb Weaver shot.

[Mad Aussie]

Another well done set MA, and love the interesting subjects you captured so well. really like that last Orb Weaver shot.
Glad you enjoyed HBG :)

[Jason]

Awesome shots MA. I really appreciated the thread with your setup for this little trek through the woods.

[Mad Aussie]

Awesome shots MA. I really appreciated the thread with your setup for this little trek through the woods.
Thanks Jason. Glad you found that setup thread interesting also.