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Unexpected sighting

I went to Lysterfield Wednesday afternoon, after seeing a client and before returning home. It had been a lovely afternoon, the power had been off all day at my place due to power works being done and I didn’t feel in the need to rush back. So I wandered around a bit enjoying the scenery and then got back into my car to drive home. Alongside the road leading to the park are horse agistment properties and one seems to always have large birds on the grounds, such as egrets, so I like to see what’s there as I pass by. But what I saw was a surprise.  It’s on the fence beyond the horse who thought I had stopped to give him a pat.
Unexpected sighting
Can you see what it was?
And I did give the horse a pat but below is a closeup, although rather grainy because I couldn’t get physically closer for a shot.
Wedge-tail eagle

There were also two crows harassing the eagle but it seemed undisturbed and happy to stay put. I was hoping to see it in flight and waited for sometime but it just stayed put.

By the way, the Grassroots Community Market in Upwey is on tomorrow morning. If you’re able to get there please look for the green marquee with Dandenong Ranges Nature Photography on it and say hi.

Red-tailed black cockatoo

I’d not seen one of these before. I was taking a young Canadian visitor around and showing him a bit of our beautiful countryside and bird and animal life. Healesville Sanctuary was one of the places we visited and we were told about the parrot cage. I don’t remember hearing about that before so off we went. There we saw several parrots and one in particular was very happy for attention and was a real poser as you’ll see below. I wonder if they use him in their bird shows? A female red-tailed black cockatoo was happy to perform for me too. They’re beautiful birds and very large, but unfortunately low in number in our country.

Red-tailed Black Cockatoo, Healesville Sanctuary

He wanted to show me his pretty tail.

Red-tailed Black Cockatoo, Healesville Sanctuary

This is his mate. She was a little coy.

Red-tailed Black Cockatoo, Healesville Sanctuary

Kangaroos in the park

Especially for my American and Canadian friends, two roos that were close to my car as I came back from my walk on Thursday. Sometimes I can get almost close enough to touch them, but I don’t. They’re wild animals, could react in a way that would not be pleasant at all, and I don’t want to scare them or make them feel dependent on humans. But I do love to enjoy watching them.

Eastern Grey Kangaroo

Eastern Grey Kangaroo

Two views of the jetty

Still at Lysterfield Park on that lovely day.

Jetty at the park

Jetty at the park

Lysterfield Lake, looking beautiful

This is a panoramic view from my favourite jetty taken last Thursday which was a beautiful sunny day.

LysterfieldLake

Huge leaf

Saw this huge leaf on the ground at home the other day and wondered where on earth it had come from. Then as I wandered around the garden I noticed a tall tree at the side of our property that I’d not taken a lot of notice of in the past and realised the leaf must have come from there. It appears to be a maple of some sort – I’ll have to do some research to find out what type.

Because the tree is so tall and the leaves are high up, I hadn’t realised how big they actually are.

Maple leaf

Maple leaves