During my recovery from a massive heart attack in 2007, I rediscovered photography. On this blog I will be posting photos of wildlife I have taken in our front yard and elsewhere on the Gold Coast, and which also feature on my Wildlife in Nerang Facebook page and will also be highlighting how some of these photos are being used in a range of items such as T-shirts, caps, mugs, wall clocks, etc. to promote the rich collection of wildlife in our area. http://www.zazzle.com/wildlife_in_oz
The opportunities of capturing photos of wildlife where we live in the Gold Coast hinterland are unlimited, it truly is a photographer's paradise and if you haven't ventured off the usual tourist track of Surfers Paradise and the beaches of the coastline or the fine dining and coffee houses of Broadbeach, do yourself a favour and hop in your car and take a trip out west, to the other side of the M1 motorway, and visit Mt Tamborine or Natural Bridge or O'Reillys and take your camera with you or you will miss out on some spectacular scenery including wildlife found only in the region.
We live in Nerang, and in a previous post I listed 30+ examples of wildlife we get at our place. Here is another, and another.
Juvenile Male King Parrot
Galah (rose breasted/roseate cockatoo)
We even get hot air balloons flying over our place at different times during the year like this one introducing this spectacular region to visitors to our part of the world.
A couple of years ago I created a Facebook page called Wildlife in Nerang where I post photos and comment on issues that deal with wildlife where we live in the Gold Coast hinterland.
If you get a chance drop by and check out some of the photos, I am willing to bet there are some animals you have never seen before where you live.
Over the years I have made a number of videos and put them on You Tube to share with others. Here is a clip of me playing with Honky, a western corella, taken in September, 2009.
Honky started visiting us out of the blue in late 2007 not long after my heart attack and until 2012 she was a daily visitor, usually twice a day - she would turn up for a play and if you look through the video clips you will just how playful she was in a number of clips I have posted of her.
In late 2012, we noticed she had become 'friendly' with a short bill corella and we assumed they had paired up and at the same time her visits diminished. Then there was a period where we didn't see her for months and then out of the blue she would turn up again for a play but the visits were not as long and not as often.
Not long after this she turned up with a couple of young corellas and we assumed that these were hers as she was protective of them and wouldn't leave them on their own and would now stay in the trees when she visited with them. At the time of my posting this, we haven't seen her for a couple of months but this being the nesting season probably means she is on a nest and will possibly turn up to visit again down the track.
I should add that her coming into our lives when she did was very significant and Honky played a major part in my rehab after my heart attack in July, 2007. There is a lot to be said about animal therapy and it is not to be underestimated.
This second video of me playing with Honky was taken in August, 2009 and was one of the first videos we made of Honky.
On my You Tube channel there are many more videos of some of the wildlife visitors we have had and continue to have visit us. You can see more of these videos using this link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE4154214D8ABDDC1
Since virtually the first day we moved up here in February 2003, we have had wild kookaburras visiting us. Over the years they have brought their young and like many other wild bird visitors we get, these young are taught the basics of living on their own and becoming independent before being told by their parents to move on and find their own piece of territory to settle down in.
I took this photo one morning in May, 2011 in our front yard and still today it is one of my favourites.
Over the past few years I have created items based on photos of some of our wildlife visitors like this coffee mug:
There can be nothing more rewarding than to have wildlife trust you enough to come up to you looking for a feed. We have been looking after birds for quite a few years and over time my wife has rescued many birds, most of which once rehabbed were released back to nature.
Unfortunately, not all birds can be released for whatever reason so either these were passed on to other carers to be looked after on a full time basis or we adopted them ourselves. As well as this, we have adopted birds passed on to us that have come from an abusive environment and Fred, a female galah, is one example. In fact, she is the first bird we adopted way back in August 2004, just over ten years ago. Here's photo of Fred I took in June:
I took this photo with one hand whilst Fred was inside her aviary.
It's Spring and the bottlebrush is about and with that come eastern rosellas like this fellow who dropped by for a visit and munch a few days ago. Wild birds being what they are will not stop doing what they are doing so sometimes you can not always get the perfect, crisp, sharp photo. Nonetheless, we are happy enough to have a variety of wildlife stop by and visit us - some on a daily and sometimes more than once a day basis and others come by when they feel like it and the right bush is blossoming.
