Wildlife Down Under

While in Australia, our host Eric took us on some great wildlife tours. He also has a fantastic camera so we were able to get some fun shots. I'm missing a few creatures as I believe they are on Loel's camera so I'll add those later.
Here the gang checks out some coral, plants and fish at the Austrailian Institute of Marine Science.

These dancing birds are known as Brolgas. Their heads are red (I can't remember much of what I learned about them. Sorry!)

The rainbow lorakeet. Very pretty, native bird.

A pheasant hawk I think?

Hmm... what is Patti spying in the distance?

Fishies! Can't talk about wildlife without these tasty..err I mean.. pretty creatures.




Rock crabs. I have to admit, when we were snorkeling, these guys freaked me out. You would be near the rocks and then all of the sudden they would just start scurrying up the face of the rock. It was quite unnerving actually.

These crabs, on the other hand, were hilarious to watch. They have one enormous orange claw and the rest of the body is normal size. Check out these two. They are fighting with their 'good' claw.

Here is what the crab looks like as he scuttles about near his hole. You can see his one giant claw as he waddles about.

From the back...

From the front. See? The claw is the entire size of his body! He must walk lopsided to carry all that weight.


Patti and Liam do a bit of climbing to see if they can spot anything new.

Loel gets up close and personal with lizards. I'm standing well back of this thank you very much.

Wallaby sighting! Exciting for me but boring for the Aussies. To them it is like seeing deer all the time. I think they are cuter than deer.


This wallaby liked to hang out by the hotel pool.

And last but not least, a picture of me swimming with the fishes. :o) Gotta love the aquarium.

I'm off again this week. Friend Anuj is getting married so I'm joining the festivities in India. I've got lots of work to get done between now and then so no more posts until I'm back. Enjoy!