Red deer
IRL Wildlife Encounters
- Thread starter Markiz
- Start date
And now I will post pics and my encounters from Northern England 
I was staying in a hotel in Bamburgh and from there we drove around. it was a birding trip and we saw many familiar faces in the English country side. But the most interesting species we found on the Farne Islands;
Razorbill
Guillemots
Not just one, thousands;
But here and there a little shag;
Grey seals too! Big and small ones!
Eiders, plenty of those near the coast;
And off course; The Atlantic puffin
It was also in England where I encountered the Barn owl which was a pleasant surprise!
Tomorrow! The North and South Island of New Zealand
I was staying in a hotel in Bamburgh and from there we drove around. it was a birding trip and we saw many familiar faces in the English country side. But the most interesting species we found on the Farne Islands;
Razorbill
Guillemots
Not just one, thousands;
But here and there a little shag;
Grey seals too! Big and small ones!
Eiders, plenty of those near the coast;
And off course; The Atlantic puffin
It was also in England where I encountered the Barn owl
which was a pleasant surprise!Tomorrow! The North and South Island of New Zealand
So November 2022! New Zealand! it was finally happening
One of my first encounters of birdlife in New Zealand was the Tui bird
When hiking along the track towards the Haruru falls, we found a nesting group of little pied cormorants
Along with sea birds, in the Bay of Isles, we encountered a group of common dolphins
New Zealand scaup on a river boat cruise
Around Lake Taupo, I saw New Zealand Bell bird
On lake Taupo I also encountered the New Zealand grebe
And one of the absolute highlights, Australasian Gannet at Cape Kidnappers
And to finish the North Island, the Kaka parrot in a botanical garden in Wellington A parrot I was really happy with seeing!
One of my first encounters of birdlife in New Zealand was the Tui bird
When hiking along the track towards the Haruru falls, we found a nesting group of little pied cormorants
Along with sea birds, in the Bay of Isles, we encountered a group of common dolphins
New Zealand scaup on a river boat cruise
Around Lake Taupo, I saw New Zealand Bell bird
On lake Taupo I also encountered the New Zealand grebe
And one of the absolute highlights, Australasian Gannet at Cape Kidnappers
And to finish the North Island, the Kaka parrot in a botanical garden in Wellington
A parrot I was really happy with seeing!Onwards to the South Island, we visited Abel Tasman national park where we saw the Weka with a chick
On the coast, we saw New Zealand Oystercatchers
Onwards to Cape Foulwind and the New Zealand fur seals
At the pancake rocks, Great spotted shag
A trip along with a boat trip to Milfjord, it delivered an encounter with the Kea
And perhaps the highlight of the milfjord, we managed to spot; Fjordland crested penguins
And on the last day, a sperm whale and an Albatross at Kaikoura
Next up! the expedition cruise towards Svalbard
On the coast, we saw New Zealand Oystercatchers
Onwards to Cape Foulwind and the New Zealand fur seals
At the pancake rocks, Great spotted shag
A trip along with a boat trip to Milfjord, it delivered an encounter with the Kea
And perhaps the highlight of the milfjord, we managed to spot; Fjordland crested penguins
And on the last day, a sperm whale and an Albatross at Kaikoura
Next up! the expedition cruise towards Svalbard
Attachments
And now my latest trip to Svalbard.
While on the ship we traveled across the North Sea, along the Shetland Islands, to Jan Mayen, the surrounding sea of Greenland until at last, Svalbard! During our travel we'd often encounter Northern Gannets, flying among the ship, along with Northern Fulmars.
On our first island stop, Foula, we saw a large amount of the Great Skua, we even saw a group of them chasing away a White-tailed eagle :O
As we left Foula, on the next day we encountered our first whale! The humpback whale! Afterwards we cruised further up north and passed the Arctic circle, from that point it was 24 hours sunlight
We went up further north towards Greenland and while still on the sea we encountered on of our first and most perculiar seal; Harp Seals
It was also there, when we saw the Fin whale and Northern bottlenose whales
Then we entered Greenland, where we managed to encounter the king of the North, the Polar bear! Along with many, many Harp seals!
It was after another day at sea, when we arrived at Svalbard! There we made a little landing to see some of the walrusses there They didn't do much, except those in the water
Another highlight for me, King eiders! along with common eiders
I stayed in Longyearbyen for some time where I did some excursions and little boat trips. I saw plenty of Svalbard reindeer and svalbard ptarmigans too!
While on the ship we traveled across the North Sea, along the Shetland Islands, to Jan Mayen, the surrounding sea of Greenland until at last, Svalbard! During our travel we'd often encounter Northern Gannets, flying among the ship, along with Northern Fulmars.
On our first island stop, Foula, we saw a large amount of the Great Skua, we even saw a group of them chasing away a White-tailed eagle :O
As we left Foula, on the next day we encountered our first whale! The humpback whale! Afterwards we cruised further up north and passed the Arctic circle, from that point it was 24 hours sunlight
We went up further north towards Greenland and while still on the sea we encountered on of our first and most perculiar seal; Harp Seals
It was also there, when we saw the Fin whale and Northern bottlenose whales
Then we entered Greenland, where we managed to encounter the king of the North, the Polar bear! Along with many, many Harp seals!
It was after another day at sea, when we arrived at Svalbard! There we made a little landing to see some of the walrusses there
They didn't do much, except those in the water Another highlight for me, King eiders! along with common eiders
I stayed in Longyearbyen for some time where I did some excursions and little boat trips. I saw plenty of Svalbard reindeer and svalbard ptarmigans too!
Svalbard ptarmigan, both males and females, plenty of them!
On a small boat cruise around the waters of longyearbyen, I encountered, the Beluga along with more walrusses!
On the last boat trip, we saw the Minke whale
Sadly, no Arctic foxes, some people of my group saw them, but I sadly didn't! Ah well, it's all a matter of luck.
And that's it for my travels as of now xD Finally! I hope people enjoyed and I look forward to seeing more of you guys when it comes to wildlife encounters and I off course, look forward to my next travel, which is soon to Ecuador and the Galapagos islands Blue and red footed boobys! Giant tortoises and much more exciting stuff!
On a small boat cruise around the waters of longyearbyen, I encountered, the Beluga along with more walrusses!
On the last boat trip, we saw the Minke whale
Sadly, no Arctic foxes, some people of my group saw them, but I sadly didn't! Ah well, it's all a matter of luck.
And that's it for my travels as of now xD Finally! I hope people enjoyed and I look forward to seeing more of you guys when it comes to wildlife encounters
and I off course, look forward to my next travel, which is soon to Ecuador and the Galapagos islands Blue and red footed boobys! Giant tortoises and much more exciting stuff!
Although all your trips look great, this one made me the most jealous: Whales, Walruses and Polar Bears, man what I wouldn't give to see those at some point.Svalbard ptarmigan, both males and females, plenty of them!
View attachment 377459
On a small boat cruise around the waters of longyearbyen, I encountered, the Beluga along with more walrusses!
View attachment 377460
On the last boat trip, we saw the Minke whale
View attachment 377461
Sadly, no Arctic foxes, some people of my group saw them, but I sadly didn't! Ah well, it's all a matter of luck.
And that's it for my travels as of now xD Finally! I hope people enjoyed and I look forward to seeing more of you guys when it comes to wildlife encounters
The Polar Bear is so close, the pic looks great!
Thanks! It was really a remarkable trip. Yeah at one point the bear was around 30 metres away, so a good distance for my camera. Made another 500 pictures of the bear xD
IF I could travel for wildlife, I'd go to Tanzania, Israel, Iceland, India, China, Australia, and Alaska...
For Tanzania I'd hope to see: Giraffe, Side-striped Jackal, antelope
Israel could see hyena and oryx
Iceland has the arctic fox
India would be just cool in general...
China has the wild donkeys and weird sand foxes...
Australia is similar to India in that its just cool for wildlife.
Alaska goes without saying for Northern wolves...
For Tanzania I'd hope to see: Giraffe, Side-striped Jackal, antelope
Israel could see hyena and oryx
Iceland has the arctic fox
India would be just cool in general...
China has the wild donkeys and weird sand foxes...
Australia is similar to India in that its just cool for wildlife.
Alaska goes without saying for Northern wolves...
I’ve been to Alaska once many years ago. Just the natural beauty was worth it. Also, you never think about how big a moose it until one’s right in front of you. I got pretty close to one at a drive-through wildlife park. Don’t worry, I was safe. It was behind a fence.
Well well sounds like its time to tell you all a little about my favorite place to walk my dog.
Im living in Düsseldorf at the Rhine, a river very prone to flooding and both sides have their own way to deal with it.
One side has a two level high wall, which used to be a haven but is now filled with restaurants and stuff, meanwhile the other and for this case more interesting side did a similar thing with two meadows, each capped of by a dike, making this area basically a floodplain.
Heres a pic from recently from ontop of the first dike. Normally you can walk on dry land up to the second pillar of the bridges, but as you can see that was very much not the case on this day.
As you might imagine, this makes the area a great spot for waterfowl, with ducks, seagulls, herons, cormorants, geese and many kinds of migratory birds being found in masses here, aswell as a large flock of crows that defend the trees as their territory, making live hard for any raptors that come to the area. With the second level basically being just a meadow filled with bunnys and mice, raptors can be seen frequently.
As my pics are pretty iffy cause my camera kinda got touched with acid fingers (lab experience) im gonna include better pics of most birds aswell.
The first one doesnt even have one from me, as the pair of common kestrels that like to hunt here are really annoying to get a pic of, even when they are very easy to identify by their rusty red color and small size. They seem to be among the few resident raptors not bullied into oblivion by the crows and its allways fun watching them methodically skim through the meadow, searching for anything that moves and moving to the next spot once they dont find something.
Another frequent that indied gets very much bullied anytime they come close to the crows favorite trees on the first dike is atleast one common buzzard, which i could catch sitting in a tree, before a crow pecked him often enough to annoy him away. I frequently seem them being chased by crows and while very fun to watch, poor guy.
Speaking of crows, they are also odly happy with the water, allways hanging around the shore. If i wouldnt know better, id assume that they are water birds aswell
Speaking of actual waterbirds though, have a very bad pic of a bunch of cormorants, a grey heron and even more gulls.
In between the beaches at the shore there are rocky outskirts with a pole at the end, build to measure the waterlevel.
These are prime resting spots for especally cormorants, who love to gater in large groups on them, as you can see here.
Watching them hunt and dive is allways a ton of fun, but as im walking a dog she often scares them away, which usually means they jump into the water, wait 5 minutes 2 meters away from their place and come back once my white devil has moved on.
Also a pick of a cormorant as they are absolutly underrated yet super cool birds. For anyone interested in Paleontology, they are more or less a modern day Hesperornis that can fly, diving after their prey by using their feets as paddles while keeping their wings close to their bodys. Theyd be a super fun and unique additon to the game and the Eurasian species alone allready has 80 EAZA holdings, so they are also quite common, would love them.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJtF4VvKBTA
Another fun crowd can be found on the christmas market in the central of the city, as while people are drinking and eating on the ground, the air and trees are filled by the chants and screams of hundreds of rose ringed parakeets! These pretty little green guys have been introduced in the 50ths during a massoutbreak from a pet shop in cologne and have since then spread throughout the rhine valley, with the largest populations found in cologne and düsseldorf.
There has been extensive studys in them to declare the impact they have on the local ecosystem and surprisingly instead of being declared invasives they suppousidly are filling in a new open niche without impacting other urban animals. Their diet consists of the largely uncontested foodsource of hard nuts, which only squirrels compete with them on, but are so abundant that both species can coexist without a problem. So if your ever in the rhineland for that peak zoo trip im recommending dont be surprised when you see lots of green jewels loudly squaking in the sky
Im living in Düsseldorf at the Rhine, a river very prone to flooding and both sides have their own way to deal with it.
One side has a two level high wall, which used to be a haven but is now filled with restaurants and stuff, meanwhile the other and for this case more interesting side did a similar thing with two meadows, each capped of by a dike, making this area basically a floodplain.
Heres a pic from recently from ontop of the first dike. Normally you can walk on dry land up to the second pillar of the bridges, but as you can see that was very much not the case on this day.
As you might imagine, this makes the area a great spot for waterfowl, with ducks, seagulls, herons, cormorants, geese and many kinds of migratory birds being found in masses here, aswell as a large flock of crows that defend the trees as their territory, making live hard for any raptors that come to the area. With the second level basically being just a meadow filled with bunnys and mice, raptors can be seen frequently.
As my pics are pretty iffy cause my camera kinda got touched with acid fingers (lab experience) im gonna include better pics of most birds aswell.
The first one doesnt even have one from me, as the pair of common kestrels that like to hunt here are really annoying to get a pic of, even when they are very easy to identify by their rusty red color and small size. They seem to be among the few resident raptors not bullied into oblivion by the crows and its allways fun watching them methodically skim through the meadow, searching for anything that moves and moving to the next spot once they dont find something.
Another frequent that indied gets very much bullied anytime they come close to the crows favorite trees on the first dike is atleast one common buzzard, which i could catch sitting in a tree, before a crow pecked him often enough to annoy him away. I frequently seem them being chased by crows and while very fun to watch, poor guy.
Speaking of crows, they are also odly happy with the water, allways hanging around the shore. If i wouldnt know better, id assume that they are water birds aswell
Speaking of actual waterbirds though, have a very bad pic of a bunch of cormorants, a grey heron and even more gulls.
In between the beaches at the shore there are rocky outskirts with a pole at the end, build to measure the waterlevel.
These are prime resting spots for especally cormorants, who love to gater in large groups on them, as you can see here.
Watching them hunt and dive is allways a ton of fun, but as im walking a dog she often scares them away, which usually means they jump into the water, wait 5 minutes 2 meters away from their place and come back once my white devil has moved on.
Also a pick of a cormorant as they are absolutly underrated yet super cool birds. For anyone interested in Paleontology, they are more or less a modern day Hesperornis that can fly, diving after their prey by using their feets as paddles while keeping their wings close to their bodys. Theyd be a super fun and unique additon to the game and the Eurasian species alone allready has 80 EAZA holdings, so they are also quite common, would love them.
Another fun crowd can be found on the christmas market in the central of the city, as while people are drinking and eating on the ground, the air and trees are filled by the chants and screams of hundreds of rose ringed parakeets! These pretty little green guys have been introduced in the 50ths during a massoutbreak from a pet shop in cologne and have since then spread throughout the rhine valley, with the largest populations found in cologne and düsseldorf.
There has been extensive studys in them to declare the impact they have on the local ecosystem and surprisingly instead of being declared invasives they suppousidly are filling in a new open niche without impacting other urban animals. Their diet consists of the largely uncontested foodsource of hard nuts, which only squirrels compete with them on, but are so abundant that both species can coexist without a problem. So if your ever in the rhineland for that peak zoo trip im recommending dont be surprised when you see lots of green jewels loudly squaking in the sky
Okay what?!? Why is your camera being experimented on??.
Im a chemestry student and during covid we had to wear plastic gloves. The problem with plastic gloves is that you do not notice small amounts of acids on them, so everytime i used my phone to for example calculate something and i still had a bit of acid on them i kinda messed up my screens a little. Its mostly nothing really, all still works great, just my cam is now pretty pretty bad so welp that sucks, but it really isnt the end of the world
Give yourself as much time as you possibly can. I have a caravan and I go on extensive trips now and then and I still haven't seen everything. It's pretty Common for people to do a year long driving map where they camp and explore the countryWell the group travel I have seen which interests me the most is around 28 days. Off course there is also a day of traveling back and forth. I just want to see as much as nature and wildlife as possible. I start in Sydney, from there Blue mountains, bathurst, Abercrombie, Canberra, Beechworth, Melbourne(Gonna do a Phillip Island boat trip there for sure!), Great Ocean Road, Warrnambool, Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve, Robe, Adelaide(1 free day in Adelaide as well), Barossa Valley, Quorn, Flinders Ranges national park, Port Augusta, Coober Pedy, Kings Canyon, Uluru(off course xD) Alice Springs, flight to Darwin, from Darwin, Kakadu national park, Litchfield national park, flight to Cairns, Cape Tribulation, 2 free days in Cairns(1 of which I'm gonna try and plan a snorkeling trip to the Great Barrier reef) and perhaps I wanna try and visit Atherton Tablelands. I think pretty solid
It's a 28 day long trip, minus traveling means 26 days. I can't drive so I am kinda bound
but thanks for the advice! I'm also not a city person, so I'm gonna try and see as much nature as possible IF I'm able and gonna do this trip Perfect for this:
Dreams About Zoos/Animals
I had a dream last night that involved a zoo. That’s what inspired me to make this thread. Have any of you had any weird dreams involving zoos or animals? If you have, feel free to share. Here’s my dream for last night: I was in some kind of indoor section of a zoo or aquarium or something...
oh yeah, I forgot that thread existedPerfect for this:
Dreams About Zoos/Animals
I had a dream last night that involved a zoo. That’s what inspired me to make this thread. Have any of you had any weird dreams involving zoos or animals? If you have, feel free to share. Here’s my dream for last night: I was in some kind of indoor section of a zoo or aquarium or something...forums.frontier.co.uk
Just got back from that trip, it was pretty great for what it was! Cruising definitely isn't for me, too much time on a crowded seagoing hotel and too little exploring for my liking, but I'm happy to have the experience regardless and accomplished my unambitious wildlife watching goals for the trip. I didn't see much while in Vanuatu and thus the majority of my wildlife encounters took place in New Caledonia, both in the capital city of Noumea and the smaller island of Lifou.
Noumea was our first stop on the cruise, and was also the early highpoint of wildlife watching for the trip. New Caledonia is quite notable for its high abundance of sea snakes and sea kraits and so I was pretty keen to see my first marine snake on this trip, and had heard that Baie de Citrons (Lemon Bay) in the south of Noumea was practically swarming with turtle-headed sea snakes (with occasional sightings of olive-headed sea snakes and blue-lipped sea kraits). Naturally, that's where I beelined to upon arriving in the city. Snorkelling out into the deeper part of the bay, I had a pleasant surprise when my first marine reptile encounter turned out to be not with a snake, but my first ever wild sea turtle! I knew there was a possibility of seeing them here, but never expected it. Only about ten minutes after I managed to find a turtle-headed sea snake, which, given it seemed to be mostly unbothered by my presence, I followed for a good while as it searched for fish eggs (their exclusive diet) amongst the coral. My first sea turtle and first sea snake on the same dive, how good!
I only have an older, cheaper camera that I am able to take underwater shots with, so my reptile photography while snorkelling in Noumea was more subpar than usual. Thankfully, I got to see another three green sea turtles from the surface of the water just while on the jetty at Lifou! I had a quick snorkel here too to poke around the cliffs for sea kraits (either blue-lipped or New Caledonian), but unfortunately no luck this time.
Lifou was also the best stop for birding on the trip, and I saw the majority of the 14 lifer bird species there. The vegetation on Lifou is extremely dense in most places, which makes seeing most birds quite difficult (damn you large Lifou white-eye, teasing me with their calls while never revealing themselves), but with a bit of patience many small birds emerged from the understory to flutter about in open clearings. Below are three typical Melanesian species - the long-tailed triller, cardinal myzomela and dark-brown honeyeater, as well as the striated starling, which is endemic to New Caledonia.
On our slow journey back to Australia, our ship was often accompanied by red-footed boobies, which gave some spectacular views as they soared through the air right at eye level before diving into the sea after shoals of fish.
Birds:
1. Wedge-tailed Shearwater
2. Great Crested Tern
3. Indian Mynah
4. House Sparrow
5. Silver Gull
6. Dark-brown Honeyeater
7. Satin Swiftlet
8. Rock Dove
9. Red-vented Bulbul
10. Spotted Dove
11. Common Waxbill
12. Coconut Lorikeet
13. Silvereye
14. Small Lifou White-eye
15. Cardinal Myzomela
16. Long-tailed Triller
17. South Melanesian C*ckooshrike (cmon frontier)
18. Striated Starling
19. Sacred Kingfisher
20. White-bellied Woodswallow
21. Melanesian Flycatcher
22. Pacific Swallow
23. Red-footed Booby
Reptiles:
1. Green Sea Turtle
2. Turtle-headed Sea Snake
3. Strand Litter Skink
= lifer, the usual
1. Wedge-tailed Shearwater
2. Great Crested Tern
3. Indian Mynah
4. House Sparrow
5. Silver Gull
6. Dark-brown Honeyeater
7. Satin Swiftlet
8. Rock Dove
9. Red-vented Bulbul
10. Spotted Dove
11. Common Waxbill
12. Coconut Lorikeet
13. Silvereye
14. Small Lifou White-eye
15. Cardinal Myzomela
16. Long-tailed Triller
17. South Melanesian C*ckooshrike
(cmon frontier)18. Striated Starling
19. Sacred Kingfisher
20. White-bellied Woodswallow
21. Melanesian Flycatcher
22. Pacific Swallow
23. Red-footed Booby
Reptiles:
1. Green Sea Turtle
2. Turtle-headed Sea Snake
3. Strand Litter Skink
= lifer, the usualAfter docking in Brisbane, back in Australia, I had quite a bit of time on my hands before my flight back home that evening, and so I went exploring a bit. As expected, eastern water dragons were everywhere, with tame individuals like this big fella providing particularly good photo opportunities.
I spent a lot of my time in Brisbane at the Queensland Museum, mostly nerding out over at the new Dinosaurs Unearthed gallery. However, I also stumbled across these familiar characters whilst in the Discovery Centre - from what I can recall, this is my first time seeing giant burrowing cockroaches in real life! Another species ticked off the PZ list (and also the only one from Australia I hadn't seen yet).
Really beautiful turtles!! Most green turtles I've seen were darker, I don't if because they were captive or because they were from the Atlantic.Just got back from that trip, it was pretty great for what it was! Cruising definitely isn't for me, too much time on a crowded seagoing hotel and too little exploring for my liking, but I'm happy to have the experience regardless and accomplished my unambitious wildlife watching goals for the trip. I didn't see much while in Vanuatu and thus the majority of my wildlife encounters took place in New Caledonia, both in the capital city of Noumea and the smaller island of Lifou.
Noumea was our first stop on the cruise, and was also the early highpoint of wildlife watching for the trip. New Caledonia is quite notable for its high abundance of sea snakes and sea kraits and so I was pretty keen to see my first marine snake on this trip, and had heard that Baie de Citrons (Lemon Bay) in the south of Noumea was practically swarming with turtle-headed sea snakes (with occasional sightings of olive-headed sea snakes and blue-lipped sea kraits). Naturally, that's where I beelined to upon arriving in the city. Snorkelling out into the deeper part of the bay, I had a pleasant surprise when my first marine reptile encounter turned out to be not with a snake, but my first ever wild sea turtle! I knew there was a possibility of seeing them here, but never expected it. Only about ten minutes after I managed to find a turtle-headed sea snake, which, given it seemed to be mostly unbothered by my presence, I followed for a good while as it searched for fish eggs (their exclusive diet) amongst the coral. My first sea turtle and first sea snake on the same dive, how good!
I only have an older, cheaper camera that I am able to take underwater shots with, so my reptile photography while snorkelling in Noumea was more subpar than usual. Thankfully, I got to see another three green sea turtles from the surface of the water just while on the jetty at Lifou! I had a quick snorkel here too to poke around the cliffs for sea kraits (either blue-lipped or New Caledonian), but unfortunately no luck this time.
Lifou was also the best stop for birding on the trip, and I saw the majority of the 14 lifer bird species there. The vegetation on Lifou is extremely dense in most places, which makes seeing most birds quite difficult (damn you large Lifou white-eye, teasing me with their calls while never revealing themselves), but with a bit of patience many small birds emerged from the understory to flutter about in open clearings. Below are three typical Melanesian species - the long-tailed triller, cardinal myzomela and dark-brown honeyeater, as well as the striated starling, which is endemic to New Caledonia.
On our slow journey back to Australia, our ship was often accompanied by red-footed boobies, which gave some spectacular views as they soared through the air right at eye level before diving into the sea after shoals of fish.
Birds:
1. Wedge-tailed Shearwater
2. Great Crested Tern
3. Indian Mynah
4. House Sparrow
5. Silver Gull
6. Dark-brown Honeyeater
7. Satin Swiftlet
8. Rock Dove
9. Red-vented Bulbul
10. Spotted Dove
11. Common Waxbill
12. Coconut Lorikeet
13. Silvereye
14. Small Lifou White-eye
15. Cardinal Myzomela
16. Long-tailed Triller
17. South Melanesian C*ckooshrike
18. Striated Starling
19. Sacred Kingfisher
20. White-bellied Woodswallow
21. Melanesian Flycatcher
22. Pacific Swallow
23. Red-footed Booby
Reptiles:
1. Green Sea Turtle
2. Turtle-headed Sea Snake
3. Strand Litter Skink
After docking in Brisbane, back in Australia, I had quite a bit of time on my hands before my flight back home that evening, and so I went exploring a bit. As expected, eastern water dragons were everywhere, with tame individuals like this big fella providing particularly good photo opportunities.
I spent a lot of my time in Brisbane at the Queensland Museum, mostly nerding out over at the new Dinosaurs Unearthed gallery. However, I also stumbled across these familiar characters whilst in the Discovery Centre - from what I can recall, this is my first time seeing giant burrowing cockroaches in real life! Another species ticked off the PZ list (and also the only one from Australia I hadn't seen yet).
If I were in New Caledonia I would be tempted to go looking for a kagu or a giant gecko, but I see the better choice is some sea snake sightseeing.
