Life in Australia. And Plenty of It!

Two weeks I probably scared quite a few of you with my post about the arrival of spring and with it the waking of the snakes.

Then at the end of last week I may have scared a few more of you with my post about swooping magpies attacking people.

As these posts were separated only by talk of going to the dentist in Australia and the weather forecast suggesting that the entire first full week of the spring school holiday would be noted mainly for its non-stop raining, I imagine Australia is not looking too attractive right now.

Turned out the weather was only really bad for a couple of days but at least that gave me the opportunity of writing a post about the cost of going to the cinema here in Australia. And that pretty much rounds up the last fortnight here on BobinOz.

So what have we got today?

Well any of you who have read most of my series covering Australia’s bad things can be forgiven for believing that the wildlife here can only be described as scary. But in just the last two days a few sightings by both me and Mrs BobinOz has shown that nothing could be further from the truth.

The following photographs have been taken during the last 48 hours and all within around 5 km from where I live. And not in a zoo either, these photographs have been taken from the side of the road.

The quality of the pictures is not fantastic, but they were all taken with my (or my wifes) iPhone. Yes, I’ve worked out where the camera bit is.

First up, this glorious peacock.

Yesterday, I was driving along a country road when, out of the corner of my right eye I saw this beautiful peacock perched on the roof of a house…

Here’s a sideways view…

Then today I was driving along the same road and I checked the roof again, but he was gone. But incredibly I saw him again, this time out of the corner of my left eye.

He was just having a look around the side of the road. When I approached, he scuttled off. I honestly don’t know how rare, or not, the sighting of a wild peacock is around here. But I do not think peacocks are native to Australia, I think they come from Asia. But maybe this isn’t a wild peacock, maybe he’s somebody’s pet. I just don’t know.

Laugh, three kookaburras, laugh!

Also today, in a second incident I saw three kookaburras, not sitting in an old gum tree, oh no! This is 2010. They were perched on top of a lamp post.

Having a bit of a chat.

But the best sighting of the day was by my wife. These two little cuties hopping around in a local front garden, just about visible from the road.

Here’s the one on the left………

And here’s the one on the right…

And here they are about to run off into the distance, having spotted my wife taking the photos…..

Yes, life in Australia, there is plenty of it. And it’s a joy to see.