I had to laugh at the domestic cat entry with so many unique animal sightingsI came back from this trip a week earlier than expected, but that was only because it'd been so successful that I'd seen basically everything I wanted to see much quicker than I expected! It was a mainly mammal-focused trip to the east coast of Australia, mostly in New South Wales but also the Australian Capital Territory and extreme south-east Queensland. Over the course of the trip I passed through habitats as varied as semi-arid woodlands and chenopod plains to subtropical rainforests and subalpine woodlands. A rough map of the route I took (generated very professionally using Google Maps) is below:
Across the 3 weeks and many long nights spotlighting I amassed a total mammal count of 40 species, 18 of which I had never seen in the wild before (indicated by a tick next to their name below):
Some particular highlights included:
- Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) - Jun 11
- European Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus)
- Rakali (Hydromys chrysogaster)
- Eastern Grey Kangaroo (Macropus giganteus)
- Domestic Cat (Felis catus) - Jun 12
- Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus)
- Red-necked Wallaby (Notamacropus rufogriseus)
- Common Ringtail Possum (Pseudocheirus peregrinus)
- Common Brushtail Possum (Trichosurus vulpecula)
- Krefft’s Glider (Petaurus notatus)
- Black Rat (Rattus rattus)
- Common Wombat (Vombatus ursinus) - Jun 13
- Pig (Sus scrofa)
- Swamp Wallaby (Wallabia bicolor)
- Common Wallaroo (Osphranter robustus)
- Red Kangaroo (Osphranter rufus) - Jun 15
- Domestic Goat (Capra hircus)
- Broad-toed Feathertail Glider (Acrobates frontalis)
- Spotted-tailed Quoll (Dasyurus maculatus)
- Jun 16
- Bush Rat (Rattus fuscipes)
- Australian Swamp Rat (Rattus lutreolus) - Jun 17
- Red-necked Pademelon (Thylogale thetis)
- Dingo (Canis lupus)
- Southern Long-nosed Bandicoot (Perameles nasuta)
- White-striped Freetail Bat (Austronomus australis)
- Brown Antechinus (Antechinus stuartii)
- Short-eared Brushtail Possum (Trichosurus caninus)
- Fawn-footed Melomys (Melomys cervinipes)
- Sugar Glider (Petaurus breviceps)
- Red-legged Pademelon (Thylogale stigmatica)
- Whiptail Wallaby (Notamacropus parryi)
- Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby (Petrogale penicillata)
- Parma Wallaby (Notamacropus parma)
- Southern Greater Glider (Petauroides volans)
- Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae)
- Grey-headed Flying-fox (Pteropus poliocephalus)
- European Brown Hare (Lepus europaeus)
- Yellow-bellied Glider (Petaurus australis)
- House Mouse (Mus musculus) - July 1
- Western Grey Kangaroo (Macropus fuliginosus)
I could go on and on but I'd probably break everyone's computers with the amount of images they'd need to load.
- Seeing four different quolls, covered more in depth in this thread
- Watching a platypus in close quarters near Canberra for over 20 minutes, with it even swimming right under my feet beneath a boardwalk
- Increasing the number of glider species on my life list from 0 to 5, including everything from the smallest gliding mammal (feathertail glider) to the largest gliding marsupial (greater glider). The feathertail glider was also a completely unexpected encounter, I never dreamed of spotting something so small
- Watching over a dozen humpback whales moving up the coast on their annual migration from a lighthouse in Myall Lakes National Park
- Seeing the threatened brush-tailed rock-wallaby from a spectacular lookout point in Guy Fawkes River National Park
- Noisy nights in the subtropical rainforests of Lamington National Park, probably the richest spotlighting nights I've ever done. Short-eared brushtail possum, sugar glider, long-nosed bandicoot, brown antechinus, bush rat and fawn-footed melomys were all common and easily seen
- Coming across an elusive parma wallaby on my very first night drive in Barrington Tops National Park, a species that often takes long nights of dedicated searching to find. They were even thought to be extinct in their native range until the late 60s
- Having several close encounters with dingoes, particularly around campgrounds. This one at Lamington is tucking into a hearty meal of cardboard
While focused on mammals, I also had four target bird species - the powerful owl, greater sooty owl, and both species of lyrebird (superb and Albert's). Thankfully I managed to tick off all of these target species, as well as about 120 other species of bird.
IRL Wildlife Encounters
- Thread starter Markiz
- Start date
Where'd you see the rakali it the only one you named I haven't seen before and ifind them really cool for what they are.I came back from this trip a week earlier than expected, but that was only because it'd been so successful that I'd seen basically everything I wanted to see much quicker than I expected! It was a mainly mammal-focused trip to the east coast of Australia, mostly in New South Wales but also the Australian Capital Territory and extreme south-east Queensland. Over the course of the trip I passed through habitats as varied as semi-arid woodlands and chenopod plains to subtropical rainforests and subalpine woodlands. A rough map of the route I took (generated very professionally using Google Maps) is below:
Across the 3 weeks and many long nights spotlighting I amassed a total mammal count of 40 species, 18 of which I had never seen in the wild before (indicated by a tick next to their name below):
Some particular highlights included:
- Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) - Jun 11
- European Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus)
- Rakali (Hydromys chrysogaster)
- Eastern Grey Kangaroo (Macropus giganteus)
- Domestic Cat (Felis catus) - Jun 12
- Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus)
- Red-necked Wallaby (Notamacropus rufogriseus)
- Common Ringtail Possum (Pseudocheirus peregrinus)
- Common Brushtail Possum (Trichosurus vulpecula)
- Krefft’s Glider (Petaurus notatus)
- Black Rat (Rattus rattus)
- Common Wombat (Vombatus ursinus) - Jun 13
- Pig (Sus scrofa)
- Swamp Wallaby (Wallabia bicolor)
- Common Wallaroo (Osphranter robustus)
- Red Kangaroo (Osphranter rufus) - Jun 15
- Domestic Goat (Capra hircus)
- Broad-toed Feathertail Glider (Acrobates frontalis)
- Spotted-tailed Quoll (Dasyurus maculatus)
- Bush Rat (Rattus fuscipes)
- Australian Swamp Rat (Rattus lutreolus) - Jun 17
- Red-necked Pademelon (Thylogale thetis)
- Dingo (Canis lupus)
- Southern Long-nosed Bandicoot (Perameles nasuta)
- White-striped Freetail Bat (Austronomus australis)
- Brown Antechinus (Antechinus stuartii)
- Short-eared Brushtail Possum (Trichosurus caninus)
- Fawn-footed Melomys (Melomys cervinipes)
- Sugar Glider (Petaurus breviceps)
- Red-legged Pademelon (Thylogale stigmatica)
- Whiptail Wallaby (Notamacropus parryi)
- Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby (Petrogale penicillata)
- Parma Wallaby (Notamacropus parma)
- Southern Greater Glider (Petauroides volans)
- Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae)
- Grey-headed Flying-fox (Pteropus poliocephalus)
- European Brown Hare (Lepus europaeus)
- Yellow-bellied Glider (Petaurus australis)
- House Mouse (Mus musculus) - July 1
- Western Grey Kangaroo (Macropus fuliginosus)
I could go on and on but I'd probably break everyone's computers with the amount of images they'd need to load.
- Seeing four different quolls, covered more in depth in this thread
- Watching a platypus in close quarters near Canberra for over 20 minutes, with it even swimming right under my feet beneath a boardwalk
- Increasing the number of glider species on my life list from 0 to 5, including everything from the smallest gliding mammal (feathertail glider) to the largest gliding marsupial (greater glider). The feathertail glider was also a completely unexpected encounter, I never dreamed of spotting something so small
- Watching over a dozen humpback whales moving up the coast on their annual migration from a lighthouse in Myall Lakes National Park
- Seeing the threatened brush-tailed rock-wallaby from a spectacular lookout point in Guy Fawkes River National Park
- Noisy nights in the subtropical rainforests of Lamington National Park, probably the richest spotlighting nights I've ever done. Short-eared brushtail possum, sugar glider, long-nosed bandicoot, brown antechinus, bush rat and fawn-footed melomys were all common and easily seen
- Coming across an elusive parma wallaby on my very first night drive in Barrington Tops National Park, a species that often takes long nights of dedicated searching to find. They were even thought to be extinct in their native range until the late 60s
- Having several close encounters with dingoes, particularly around campgrounds. This one at Lamington is tucking into a hearty meal of cardboard
While focused on mammals, I also had four target bird species - the powerful owl, greater sooty owl, and both species of lyrebird (superb and Albert's). Thankfully I managed to tick off all of these target species, as well as about 120 other species of bird.
Only rakali I saw on this trip was on the very first night at the Edward River Bridge Campground (central NSW just above the Victorian border), which was basically my only stop in between Adelaide and the east coast. The individual there lived in the river right in front of my campsite and I saw it swimming about several times:
Not a particularly exotic species for me given they're quite common in the river near my house (one of the only native mammals that still lives here in the city) but they're still one of my favourite local animals.
Hello, I know I’m fairly late but hopefully people see this lol
I live in a coastal town in Massachusetts, so we don‘t get that much wildlife. However, I have had one particula encounter.
I was at my (much younger) cousin’s birthday party at a horse riding place. I was walking around taking pictures of birds. (that’s where my chipping sparrow pfp comes from lol) It had started raining and the camera battery died, so I walked back to put it in the car. As I turned around, I saw a white-tailed deer doe in the cranberry bog about 30-40 feet out. I sprinted back to the little party place to get my phone to take a picture, and when I got back, I saw its ionic white tail go up and it pranced off into the bushes. I got closer to see what scared it and then I saw it.
Two huge coyotes, maybe 59 feet away, chasing the deer.
Now just a quick fact time, the eastern coyote subspecies is not purely coyote. They are also a mix of wolf and domestic dog. (Look up eastern coyote on Wikipedia)
So these coyotes were trotting toward the deer, which was now in the woods, and one looked up at me. Thankful they chose not to engage and kept running.
That was my only ever really scary animal encounter. I have had some with deer and raccoons before but nothing like coyotes.
here is a picture I took.
I live in a coastal town in Massachusetts, so we don‘t get that much wildlife. However, I have had one particula encounter.
I was at my (much younger) cousin’s birthday party at a horse riding place. I was walking around taking pictures of birds. (that’s where my chipping sparrow pfp comes from lol) It had started raining and the camera battery died, so I walked back to put it in the car. As I turned around, I saw a white-tailed deer doe in the cranberry bog about 30-40 feet out. I sprinted back to the little party place to get my phone to take a picture, and when I got back, I saw its ionic white tail go up and it pranced off into the bushes. I got closer to see what scared it and then I saw it.
Two huge coyotes, maybe 59 feet away, chasing the deer.
Now just a quick fact time, the eastern coyote subspecies is not purely coyote. They are also a mix of wolf and domestic dog. (Look up eastern coyote on Wikipedia)
So these coyotes were trotting toward the deer, which was now in the woods, and one looked up at me. Thankful they chose not to engage and kept running.
That was my only ever really scary animal encounter. I have had some with deer and raccoons before but nothing like coyotes.
here is a picture I took.
Attachments
I saw a mother white-tailed deer and her fawn in my backyard this morning!
A roadtrip to see a zoo and some dino bones was last place i would expect to see a great variety of wildlife but my week long roadtrip from new jersey to ohio netted a whole load of new species for me. I would of thought my much longer trips around the southern states would be more successful but it turned out seeing alligators was more than enough reasons for me to not leave the car too far 
I dont actually recall seeing that much wildlife in the south but it has been like half a decade by now surely, my memory might be a little rusty.
Rather than alligators, snakes, spiders and every other reason i dont need anyone to convince me to get on the next flight to australia , i figured a northern usa trip was a much safer excursion. A combination of rural and urban settings allowed to see to a wide variety of animals i dont really ever see back home. Being a bird watcher, i tried to fit as many chances to see birds in a non birding trip.
All the animals spotted
Starting off with a planet zoo species, the diamondback terrapin. I would say this was the only wildlife focused day of the trip where i visited a wildlife refuge on the atlantic coast of new jersey. Visiting here for chances of seeing egrets, osprey and shorebirds, i was lucky in seeing this little fella mostly hiding in the grass on the side of the refuge road.
Osprey were seen on these artifical nests around the refuge, across the body of water was very suprising. The sprawling Atlantic city was in plain view and provided a unique backdrop to such a wildlife setting.
Another favourite of mine would be the great egret
Moving onto wildlife seen throughout the trip that were just seen by suprise. The bird that was seen virtually everywhere and kind of stalking me was the turkey vulture. A rather common bird of prey by the looks of it, i managed to find one really close up - an abandoned barn was full of them next to an airbnb i was staying at. Signs were posted on the barn to keep out to no suprise.
Another suprise was seeing black vultures in the same barn.
A more cheerful looking bird and one i was really wanting to see was the iconic northern cardinal. Seen multiple times throughout the trip, i managed to finally get pictures of one in columbus near the zoo.
Outside birds quite a few different mammals and insects were also seen mostly in the farmland areas of pennsylvania around the city of lancaster. Quickly avoiding to be that tourist taking pics of the amish, i settled on farmland areas to see rural life and the many examples of domestic and wild animals found throughout. One key example is what i thought was a beaver at first, nope this was a groundhog. Shamefully took me a while to figure this one out.
Another animal seen in rural areas was the eastern cottontail rabbit. Often seen in gardens munching on one too many plants.
And lastly we have another planet zoo animal , the monarch butterfly
I dont actually recall seeing that much wildlife in the south but it has been like half a decade by now surely, my memory might be a little rusty.Rather than alligators, snakes, spiders and every other reason i dont need anyone to convince me to get on the next flight to australia , i figured a northern usa trip was a much safer excursion. A combination of rural and urban settings allowed to see to a wide variety of animals i dont really ever see back home. Being a bird watcher, i tried to fit as many chances to see birds in a non birding trip.
All the animals spotted
- Mammals:
- Eastern Cottontail Rabbit
- White Tailed Deer
- Eastern Chipmunk
- Groundhog
- Domestic Cat - yes actually , 4 farm cats hunting mice. Its not like im making seeing cats a meme or anything
- Insects:
- Pennsylvania Firefly
- Monarch Butterfly
- Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly
- Black Swallowtail Butterfly
- Reptiles:
- Diamondback Terrapin
Birds:
- Turkey Vulture
- Osprey
- Black Vulture
- Red Tailed Hawk
- Canada Goose
- Mute Swan
- Great Blue Heron
- Great Egret
- Snowy Egret
- American Crow
- Eastern Bluebird
- American Robin
- European Starling
- House Sparrow
- Mourning Dove
- Brown Thrasher
- Common Grackle
- Brown Headed Cowbird
- Mallard Duck
- American Goldfinch
- Red Winged Blackbird
- Northern Cardinal
- Barn Swallow
- Purple Martin
- Laughing Gull
- Long billed Dowitcher
- Short Billed Dowitcher
- Great Black Backed gull
- Double Crested Cormant
- Common Tern
- Least Tern
- Sanderling
- Dunlin
- Sandpiper
- Black Skimmer
Starting off with a planet zoo species, the diamondback terrapin. I would say this was the only wildlife focused day of the trip where i visited a wildlife refuge on the atlantic coast of new jersey. Visiting here for chances of seeing egrets, osprey and shorebirds, i was lucky in seeing this little fella mostly hiding in the grass on the side of the refuge road.
Osprey were seen on these artifical nests around the refuge, across the body of water was very suprising. The sprawling Atlantic city was in plain view and provided a unique backdrop to such a wildlife setting.
Another favourite of mine would be the great egret
Moving onto wildlife seen throughout the trip that were just seen by suprise. The bird that was seen virtually everywhere and kind of stalking me was the turkey vulture. A rather common bird of prey by the looks of it, i managed to find one really close up - an abandoned barn was full of them next to an airbnb i was staying at. Signs were posted on the barn to keep out to no suprise.
Another suprise was seeing black vultures in the same barn.
A more cheerful looking bird and one i was really wanting to see was the iconic northern cardinal. Seen multiple times throughout the trip, i managed to finally get pictures of one in columbus near the zoo.
Outside birds quite a few different mammals and insects were also seen mostly in the farmland areas of pennsylvania around the city of lancaster. Quickly avoiding to be that tourist taking pics of the amish, i settled on farmland areas to see rural life and the many examples of domestic and wild animals found throughout. One key example is what i thought was a beaver at first, nope this was a groundhog. Shamefully took me a while to figure this one out.
Another animal seen in rural areas was the eastern cottontail rabbit. Often seen in gardens munching on one too many plants.
And lastly we have another planet zoo animal , the monarch butterfly
it worked!
Yeah it works
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Wow, you are litterally in a different country every week man. Your life seems so interesting.
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This is so cute!!
kidner jumpscare
Late last week I spent three nights up in the Flinders Ranges, mainly to get out of the city one last time before my next uni semester began (had my first day today) and also to try and get a better look at a chuditch/western quoll. After being extinct in the state for over 100 years, they were reintroduced into Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park in 2014 (where invasive species have been intensely managed since the 1990s under the Bounceback program) and have since proliferated, so much so that quolls from the Flinders population have since been used to establish a second South Australian population in Vulkathunha–Gammon Ranges National Park. I saw a chuditch in the wild here for the first time last year, but basically all I saw of it was a barely identifiable blur flying across the road at supersonic speed, hardly a very satisfying sighting.
I managed to come across another quoll on the second night of this trip while driving through a gorge - unfortunately I never managed to get a picture, but I did get a much better view than my first sighting, so I was pretty chuffed with that! Apart from that there wasn't too much about - seeing my first echidnas for the year was cool as always, as were the yellow-footed rock-wallabies (which appear to be more common than ever), but otherwise a lot of the wildlife seemed to be hiding from the cooler weather. I plan to return again later in the year, maybe several times, both to try and finally get a picture of a wild chuditch and to see what the reptile life is like in the park when it gets warmer (I always seem to visit when it's winter lol).
Anyway, here's some emu vistas, a wedge-tailed eagle, a rock wallaby and a species list:
Mammals:
- Short-beaked Echidna
- Chuditch
- Common Brushtail Possum
- Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby
- Western Grey Kangaroo
- Common Wallaroo
- Red Kangaroo
- European Rabbit
- Domestic Cat
- Emu
- Pacific Black Duck
- Silver Gull
- Black-fronted Dotterel
- White-faced Heron
- Rock Dove
- Spotted Dove
- Peaceful Dove
- Crested Pigeon
- Laughing Kookaburra
- Southern Boobook
- Black-shouldered Kite
- Wedge-tailed Eagle
- Black Kite
- Tawny Frogmouth
- Australian Owlet-nightjar
- Nankeen Kestrel
- Brown Falcon
- Galah
- Little Corella
- Purple-crowned Lorikeet
- Australian Ringneck
- Mulga Parrot
- Purple-backed Fairywren
- White-winged Fairywren
- Red Wattlebird
- Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater
- Noisy Miner
- Yellow-throated Miner
- Singing Honeyeater
- White-plumed Honeyeater
- Striated Pardalote
- Willie Wagtail
- Weebill
- Red-capped Robin
- Black-faced Woodswallow
- Grey Butcherbird
- Australian Magpie
- Little Raven
- Australian Raven
- Tree Martin
- Magpie-lark
- Common Blackbird
- Common Starling
- House Sparrow
- Australasian Pipit
That demon wallaby is staring into my soul
kidner jumpscare
Late last week I spent three nights up in the Flinders Ranges, mainly to get out of the city one last time before my next uni semester began (had my first day today) and also to try and get a better look at a chuditch/western quoll. After being extinct in the state for over 100 years, they were reintroduced into Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park in 2014 (where invasive species have been intensely managed since the 1990s under the Bounceback program) and have since proliferated, so much so that quolls from the Flinders population have since been used to establish a second South Australian population in Vulkathunha–Gammon Ranges National Park. I saw a chuditch in the wild here for the first time last year, but basically all I saw of it was a barely identifiable blur flying across the road at supersonic speed, hardly a very satisfying sighting.
I managed to come across another quoll on the second night of this trip while driving through a gorge - unfortunately I never managed to get a picture, but I did get a much better view than my first sighting, so I was pretty chuffed with that! Apart from that there wasn't too much about - seeing my first echidnas for the year was cool as always, as were the yellow-footed rock-wallabies (which appear to be more common than ever), but otherwise a lot of the wildlife seemed to be hiding from the cooler weather. I plan to return again later in the year, maybe several times, both to try and finally get a picture of a wild chuditch and to see what the reptile life is like in the park when it gets warmer (I always seem to visit when it's winter lol).
Anyway, here's some emu vistas, a wedge-tailed eagle, a rock wallaby and a species list:
Mammals:
Birds:
- Short-beaked Echidna
- Chuditch
- Common Brushtail Possum
- Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby
- Western Grey Kangaroo
- Common Wallaroo
- Red Kangaroo
- European Rabbit
- Domestic Cat
- Emu
- Pacific Black Duck
- Silver Gull
- Black-fronted Dotterel
- White-faced Heron
- Rock Dove
- Spotted Dove
- Peaceful Dove
- Crested Pigeon
- Laughing Kookaburra
- Southern Boobook
- Black-shouldered Kite
- Wedge-tailed Eagle
- Black Kite
- Tawny Frogmouth
- Australian Owlet-nightjar
- Nankeen Kestrel
- Brown Falcon
- Galah
- Little Corella
- Purple-crowned Lorikeet
- Australian Ringneck
- Mulga Parrot
- Purple-backed Fairywren
- White-winged Fairywren
- Red Wattlebird
- Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater
- Noisy Miner
- Yellow-throated Miner
- Singing Honeyeater
- White-plumed Honeyeater
- Striated Pardalote
- Willie Wagtail
- Weebill
- Red-capped Robin
- Black-faced Woodswallow
- Grey Butcherbird
- Australian Magpie
- Little Raven
- Australian Raven
- Tree Martin
- Magpie-lark
- Common Blackbird
- Common Starling
- House Sparrow
- Australasian Pipit
Saw this one today, I never saw one before, I'm very excited 
Northern Lapwing (GER: Kibitz)
I work as a surveyor for the city and we also do building zones, among other things. This bird is one of the species that we protect within our construction measures. But I've never seen one. I thought I didn't see correctly, he was just sitting on the bike path that I always take when I cycle home. Crazy.
Northern Lapwing (GER: Kibitz)
I work as a surveyor for the city and we also do building zones, among other things. This bird is one of the species that we protect within our construction measures. But I've never seen one. I thought I didn't see correctly, he was just sitting on the bike path that I always take when I cycle home. Crazy.
Where was that at?
Kakadu park Australia. I'm camping here, and when I'm done I'll post all the animal ebcounters together.