Mulligan's Flat Woodland Sanctuary

[calissa]

Yesterday my sweetheart and I headed out to Mulligan's Flat Woodland Sanctuary. The place does some amazing conservation work, for example recently reintroducing bettongs to the sanctuary, making it the first time bettongs have lived on mainland Australia in around a century.

While we would have been delighted with bettongs, our main aim was to see some echidnas. Apparently, it's mating season.

It's also wattle season.



We didn't see much to start with. Just a few Eastern Grey Kangaroos.





There were plenty of trees.





And wallabies.







And a couple of birds, like this currawong and the kookaburra below.





Although the visit got off to a slow start, in the end we managed to see not one echidna but three. They waddled along adorably, with complete disregard for our presence. Carrying a coat of spikes has its advantages.





There was hardly an ant nest or termite mound unscathed in the sanctuary, bearing scars where they had been excavated by the echidnas. The echidna below was happily feeding on the ants present in the log.



It's not a great shot, but if you look carefully at the photo below, you can see the echidna's tongue at the tip of its snout.





Unfortunately, the weather turned while we were there, so we had to hurry off. I'm looking forward to visiting again sometime and maybe seeing some of the bettongs and reptiles.

Comments

[alee_grrl]

Thank you for taking us along with you! :) The photos turned out wonderful. <3

[calissa]

My pleasure! And thank you. I was pleased with how the photos turned out.

[onewhitecrow]

Thank you for sharing these pictures, they are quite exquisite. Pretty much any of these'd be worth putting on a wall - maybe a thought for future presents to fellow wildlife-lovers or something to sell/enter into competitions when work is slow?

[calissa]

I was thinking of starting up a Red Bubble account to make some of these photos available as cards and things. Competitions could also be a good idea, thank you.

[onewhitecrow]

A smart plan! Be sure to read the fine print/check general reviews of sites like that so's you don't find some chain store running off with your profits. They really are extremely good images.

edit, FYI: just came across this on t'internet, which made me remember why I'd associated Redbubble in particular with rumours of fine print dodginess. I suspect those people didn't read through...

[pantha]

Oh, how lovely. Thank you for sharing the photos. The echidnas are just adorable. The currawong is rather striking, too.

[calissa]

I'm glad you liked them.

[bunny_m]

These are all good (and Echidnas are adorable), but those Roo pictures in particular are excellent.

[calissa]

Thank you! There was one of the three roos where they were all looking at the camera and it definitely looked like an album cover.

[winterbird]

Oh my goodness, all of these photos are amazing. And the echidna!!! What a treat to see them ambling around like that, and actually active! They're such gorgeous interesting creatures. :D :D

The kangaroos and wallabies also look great. Our local wallabies are so shy, by the time you see them they're already high-tailing it away.

And currawongs! I haven't seen one in such a long time, but those yellow eyes are so distinctive.

[calissa]

It was so exciting to see the echidnas. I'm surprised Sahaquiel didn't have bruises on his arm from me clutching it in excitement.

Quite aside from the currawong in the picture, we have so many around here! They're everywhere when I'm out walking the dogs.