Australia Zoo in our backyard

Cascade Gardens. The beautiful park with little cascading waterfalls, palm trees of all sorts and picnic areas right behind our house. Remember I told you about it? This afternoon, after quite a while I had a few hours off from work, and so had Ann. And because she had seen a few interesting creatures hanging upside down on the trees, we decided to go and take a closer look and bring our cameras (especially my new PowerShot) with us.

So what did we see or who did we meet? The cute little batty creatures hanging on the trees are called flying-foxes and there's a whole colony of them living (or should I say hanging) in our lovely neighbourhood. They are said to be highly intelligent and social animals, not aggressive by nature. They have a range of sounds which they use to communicate with each other. And believe me, they do communicate. Almost 24 hours a day. Their vocalisation is similar to that of humans and reaches a peak during mating season allowing very little sleep for the flying-foxes during the day.. and very little sleep for us during the night.

Known as social animals, they also drink and drive. Little fiends. During very long dry spells they drink by flying low over water and dipping their bellies. They then lick the water off their fur. Campsites are usually located on or near water and it’s thought they use rivers and even roads for navigation. That’s why they love our cascades and the Little Tallebudgera Creek running along the GC HWY through the park! By day the colony hangs together, grooming, sleeping or arguing with their neighbours. I told you they were intelligent.. just like humans. When it is hot, they cool down by fanning their body with their wings. Every evening around dusk, flying-foxes head off to search for food and return to the campsite anytime during the night, but usually not before dawn. Party animals!

The next fellow that we usually meet on our way home through the park and who was present also today is the eastern water dragon, or physignathus lesueurii, an impressive lizard that grows up to 20 cm with a strong long tail that grows 2.5 times the body length. Quick calculation says they therefore grow up to one meter in length (including the tail). Scary. Our neighbours are a bit smaller though, but sneaky. Hardly distinguished from the park background, they usually surprise you when you least expect. And when you express your feelings about the ‘nice’ surprise at a bit louder voice, they quickly turn their back and escape. So I haven’t had a chance to make good friends with them yet. And I doubt I ever will.

The same goes for the ibises, the long-legged wading birds that are little friendly and even less social. They all have long down curved bills, and usually feed as a group, probing mud for food items, mostly crustaceans.. Which explains why they always look so filthy. Little pigs.

And last but not least comes the local fisherman-park guard. As it was the first time I met him, I don’t know much about him yet. But remind me and I will tell you more some other time :) Oh! The big fat frogs, 10x bigger in size than the ones back home, whose funeral I saw the other day (the fisherman-park guard finally took it away after the poor thing had been lying by our pathway for days), must have been all hiding. Probably didn't wanna be photographed today.