Aussie wildlife...

I know the northern hemisphere types among you are hanging out for some kangaroos. We hopped up the road (heh) to Walyunga National Park, which is only 15 minutes away, on Saturday. As usual (I've been there many times), it was nearly empty. The extent of the walk trails here are about what you'd find at a local nature preserve in a U.S. city — it's not similar to a U.S. national park in that respect, though I think there is a lot of land set aside as wilderness. Maybe it's more comparable to a piece of Nature Conservancy land. Much less built-up, too. We took an hour-long, very slow stroll (at the pace my 86-year-old MIL could manage) in the late afternoon (hence the grainy photo quality).

Anyway, it's a reliable place to find nice Australian birds, like these pink-and-grey galahs:

and a good place to find roos. If you flip your hair from side to side at them, they flip their ears back at you, and they let you get quite close!



Here is a young joey still nursing from the pouch, even though he's up and hopping around now:Still a mama's boy. Awww.