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| Yesterday, friend and landlord Terry took this photo of a seal lounging on Sisters Beach. |
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| Great shot of the seal checking you out Terry! |
Yesterday afternoon, Terry emailed these two seal photos he’d taken on a visit to Sister’s Beach, a distance from Penguin. I misunderstood him and thought he’d seen the seal at Three Sisters Reserve, a short distance from our vacation home.
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A baby emu.
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Later in the day, we jumped in the car to drive to the area I thought he’d seen the seal, hardly expecting to see it. We assumed that most likely as the tide had gone out, so had the seal. By the time we arrived, it was high tide and our hopes were dashed. No seal. Today, I discovered that it was Sisters Beach, not Three Sisters. We’d gone to the wrong beach.
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| The cockatoo, commonly seen in the wild. In Trinity Beach in 2015, we saw them everywhere in large flocks. |
Instead, we still revel in Terry’s photos presenting them for our animal lovers out there in cyberspace. Speaking of our readers, two things transpired on our site yesterday; one, for the first time ever, Australia topped the list of countries over the usual number one spot being held by the US over other worldwide readers; two, we almost topped our highest 24 hour readership.
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| This colorful pheasant refused to turn its head for the photo. Finally, I gave up trying. |
Thanks to all of our Australian readers for visiting us here! We so appreciate your participation! We aren’t able to determine where in Australia they’re reading, only that they enter through somewhere in the continent, including Tasmania and other islands. Your enthusiasm means the world to us!
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| Black swan. |
As for today’s bird photos, we apologize for the less-than-perfect shots. It was a sunny day and I had trouble focusing in the bright sun with our limited equipment. Also, the majority of the birds were enclosed in fine mesh fencing making it extremely difficult to get the kind of shots we’d have preferred.
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| These birds appeared similar to the Helmeted Guinea Fowls were similar to those in our yard in South Africa. |
While researching seals on the beach in Tasmania, I stumbled across this adorable seal story in a Tasmanian media source published this past July. For the full story, please click here.
For the story:
‘Sammy’ the seal found in Devonport cemetery toilet block relocated closer to the ocean
Photo: Sammy was locked in the toilet block before relocation. (Supplied: Devonport Council) (Not our photo).The male Australian fur seal was found asleep in a cubicle in the female toilets at the Mersey Vale Lawn Cemetery in Devonport on Tuesday.
The council’s Karina Moore said she initially thought it was a joke when a council works crew emailed her about the seal they dubbed “Sammy”.
She said the unusual animal encounter had attracted a lot of attention on the council’s Facebook page.
“It’s been one of those positive stories that we’ve had a lot of fun with, but we know that that animal’s been really safe and looked after by everybody,” she said.
Wildlife biologist Rachel Alderman said Parks and Wildlife officers sedated the seal in the toilet block while they prepared to move it.
“The officers were able to shut the door to the cubicle and keep it contained, which reduced potential issues for the seal and people, so you couldn’t have asked for a better result, really,” she said, “We try to intervene as little as possible, but obviously, in this case, the seal posed a potential risk to itself to get back to the water. It was possibly going to have to cross a road or encounter all sorts of other objects, and also human safety is a concern as well.”
She said the seal probably swam up nearby Horsehead Creek, and it was not unusual for seals to make their way into cities and towns in Tasmania.
“They’re a really abundant species all around Tasmania, particularly in the Bass Strait, and we’ve had them turn up in Cataract Gorge, paddocks, people’s backyards, and now we can add a toilet block in a cemetery to the list.”
The seal was released at a nearby beach.”
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| Australian Magpie |
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| Wish we could have taken a better photo of this colorful bird. |
Photo from one year ago today, January 9, 2016:
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| We attended the nightly show with Jane and Rob, our new Aussie friends, whom we’d met aboard Celebrity Solstice. The prior day the ship had docked in Tasmania. For more details, please click here. |