hello cocky!

who doesn't love the good ol' cockatoo? arrogant brash noisy attention-seeking birds that they are. we get loads of them (and other birds) around our house here in canberra. i have placed a bowl out on the wall beside our front gate, in which i put a mixed seed and pieces of fruit. these featured cockies and their friends showed up one rainy day to feast on some seeds, then they drank water out of the gutters, before departing noisily - leaving behind a solitary feather which i stuck in the soil of the bottom of the lemon tree pot.

merely a meerkat

with stoic and unwavering concentration, not even a smile for the camera, this meerkat performed his sentry duties from the highest point above the ground while the remainder of his group happily foraged for food in the knowledge that they would have ample warning of any impending danger. each member of the group takes a turn on lookout. the meerkat is native to the west coast of africa. this one (and his friends) was located in the open plains dubbo zoo which i visited as part of a dubbo roadtrip for a friend's 40th birthday.

colca canyon condor

we rose early on a bitterly cold windy morning and drove for a good hour or so through a hilly barren landscape to a rocky outcrop ledge on the edge high in the colca canyon, the world's second deepest canyon.there was nothing else we were there for except the hope of condors, not a promise as we were given no guarantee of even seeing one. we waited patiently in a steadily growing crowd for over an hour before we noticed someone down the far end of the ledge pointing excitedly - and desperately followed the rough line their finger indicated. and then we saw our first majestic andean condor with its wingspan of metres, soaring silently but at great speed on the canyon updrafts. it was a spectacular example of perfect nature.