Wildlife in a beachside National Park

I promised to show the creatures that we encountered on a short walk around the lower edge of the National Park at Burleigh Heads. As can be expected, with a park that is surrounded by buildings and main roads and is traversed by hundreds of people everyday, there are not too many large animals to be found in the park - and yet there are still plenty of smaller creatures to be seen.

Colin and I were walking slowly and really looking about us and we were surprised at how close we were walking to the water dragons. In my back yard the water dragons (which are common everywhere in this region and over most of Australia) are extremely timid but here they have become so used to people walking along the path that they freeze and become invisible among the leaves and twigs of the undergrowth.

I found it extremely difficult to take photos of them because it was really quite dark under the trees - and the dull grey clouds overhead, threatening the coast with a deluge like you would not believe (we had 380mm overnight), did not help with the lighting situation.

If I did not have the ability to review the picture and change the settings after seeing the results I would have been very disappointed with my pictures. I just love digital! "If at first you don't succeed, try, try and try again!" That certainly applies to me!

One of the Water dragons sat up at the edge of the track and I knelt down and took his picture - and a group of people walking from the opposite direction marched all the way past him - making him scuttle off into the bush - and hadn't even seen him! I don't know what they thought I was aiming the camera at! The couldn't have missed seeing me crouched down in front of them with a camera! Maybe they thought I was taking pictures of them!

The water dragons in my back yard are more than twice the size of the larger of the two shown here - the one on the track - and they have very large and bulgy tummies. There must be plenty of good "tucker" in my yard! As you can tell from their name, these lizards can always be found near water. They are good swimmers and they can sit under the water hiding from danger for up to ninety minutes!!!!!! I used to be able to stay under water for ninety seconds.

The final image today is of a native turkey that is either called a scrub turkey or a bush turkey. They stand about knee height and scratch a huge mound of leaves and debris when they make their nest. They are among a group of birds that build an incubator for their eggs. The leaves rot down and create heat so the turkey scratches away the top leaves to let some of the heat out. at night the leaves are scratched back over again. During the mating season the males show off by letting their red and yellow throats bloat out and then dangle down in front of them. They are quite ugly (to us humans!)

AJ