When you can’t get to the wildlife, let the wildlife come to you!

I’ve been keeping a bit of a routine bubbling along in this lockdown. One that doesn’t include daily servings of freshly baked apple crumble. For dinner. Let’s just say, I’ve matured since the last time. But I’ve been walking each morning near the ocean, which always does something amazing to my head, sometimes I’m down on the sand hoping that that’ll do something amazing to my thighs and butt but most of the time I’m close enough to enjoy the sights and sounds but far enough away to not feel the burn constantly. Today I saw THE most amazing thing: a dog riding a surfboard!!! Couldn’t believe my eyes, and yes I broke into a jog to get a touch closer, you know, to really enjoy the show. Turns out it was just a kid on a surfboard. But he was on all fours. And dog sized. If by dog sized I mean a very large dog. Which I do. Anyway. It was good while it lasted 😂🤷‍♀️

This morning started amazingly with me being woken up nice and early by the very familiar ooming call of a Tawny Frogmouth. I haven’t seen the Tawnies in our yard for a month or two and have been really worried and totally missing them but as soon as I heard that call I knew I’d have to spend at least part of my day scouring our trees to see if I could pick it out from within the foliage.

Turned out to be super easy to spot Tony/Toni or some other iteration of our previous Tawny based visitors, as he had perched himself in a fairly open spot, trying to soak up the little sun that showed itself today. But when that sun hit him? Oh boy, total bliss! His head curled over to the side and he snoozed the rest of the afternoon away.

Not sure how he managed to keep snoozing though as a fairly big flock of very chatty Brown Thornbills flew into the yard. They’ve been here most days, although you wouldn’t know it, considering the number of photos I (don’t) have of them. Flighty buggers! They jumped from branch to branch, swinging upside down and snatching at insects and teeny spiders trying to live a quiet life on the bark or in the leaves. They fly back and forth, very quickly, from one tree to another and then back again, sometimes hovering, Hummingbird-like to get at little grubs and similar on the very tips of the branches. They are HORRIBLE to try and take photos of, well for me at least, and must have been a noisy surprise for Tony/Toni as they chattered around him.

But look I’ll take any wildlife that wants to come my way, the more photogenic the better!

Tawny Frogmouth and Brown Thornbill – Northern Illawarra