Aussie Wildlife

I'm staying in Hornsby, which is about 30 minutes north of Sydney.  I'm really glad I decided to live outside the city.  I've seen a lot of birds and other wildlife that I wouldn't see in the city.

Here's Wally.  He's a wallaby who lives in the backyard.  Actually, we think there are a few of them that come around.  You can here them bouncing around, usually around dawn.  Wally likes fruit.  He was eating a plum when I took this picture.

This little guy is a brushtailed possum.  The people I am staying with (Elke & Nick) have a possum house in the yard, so he lives in there and typically comes out only when it's dark.  He jumps from his house up onto the roof, and from the roof down onto the deck to look for food.  We fed him a plum and some carrots.  We didn't want to turn on the light and scare him away, so we used a flashlight so I could get a picture.  They said on the nights they don't leave food out, they can hear him scratching on the glass door on the deck.

This is a sulfur-crested cockatoo.  These things are everywhere here.  They are really loud.  They like to hang out in this enormous tree in the backyard and fight and scream, especially in the morning...lovely way to wake up!  They make a huge mess, so Elke only puts bird seed out during the day.  They can make the yellow feathers stand up, which I often see when they fly or land.

And here we have the rainbow lorikeets (thanks Trudy!).  There are a lot of these as well, though they are much quieter than the cockatoos.  These two are always together.  I love watching them, their colors are really vibrant and pretty.