Critters

Rock Walabies near Alice Springs.. 

As I was driving back from Makaranka yesterday, about an hour south of Katherine (don’t ask), I noticed a lot more dead wallabies, swelling up on the hot bitumen highway, than I normally do.  I am usually in the East Kimberley region of WA, and not in the Northern Territory, but still, the landscape is very similar and they are not that far apart: an invisible political border and a ridiculous 1 ½ hour time difference being the greatest means of separation.

I even watched as a Dingo dragged one of the little fellows off the highway in front of me.  I was too slow to get a picture for ya, sorry.  I have a few of the one in Balgo that used to sleep on the picnic table outside the shop.  I think he wandered in with the ‘wild’ camel.

Dingo’s are wild dogs, but they have been in Australia so long that they are considered native at this point, and a breed of their own.

We have Kangaroos in the Kimberleys too, but they must be further south, I have never seen one around here: not even a dead one.  The wallabies I see, waiting on the roadside to jump out in front of your car, are smaller.. waist or chest high.

We have sand goannas… I have seen a few of those on the road and managed to miss them.  They are not as big or as brightly colored as the iguanas we saw in Mexico.  They have a sign here.. rather cute: We Like Our Lizards Frilled, Not Grilled…  the frilled lizard I grilled on the road wasn’t so lucky, sorry.  They sit on the road with their heads held high.. if a car is coming in the other lane, well.. there are a few bodies on the road. 

Vas and I watched a water monitor, another sort of thick, brown bodied lizard, scurry away from us as we hiked down to the waterfall at the Grotto, just down the highway here. 

Blue tongue lizards are found ‘out bush’.  I saw a few of them along the Tanami highway through central NT and into the WA with their heads stuck in a beer or coke can during the dry season: trying to get a drink.  Every time we saw a moving can we would stop and rescue the poor buggers. Vas and I were heading to Balgo to work there.  That is almost 800 kilometers along a dirt road, we were bound to see something!?

Green Tree Frog hiding on my toilet...   

Green Tree Frogs are everywhere, found mainly the bathroom of the ‘bush’ motels and camp grounds.  I never saw one on a tree, but I did  make a pet of one in Areyonga.. what the heck.  I tried to flush it down the toilet a few times as it scared the heck out of me everytime I sat down at the same time it tried to escape.  But it always came back, and besides, they are sort of cute.

And of course, the snakes.  Billy Crossfield is still scared of snakes.. “I can’t come see you in Oz.. don’t they have.. snakes?!”  You hear lots of stories but they aren’t that common.  There are the Brown King Snakes, but they are big, which makes you notice when they are around.  There was that little yellow thing that jumped out at me when I was on my bike down the road here.. scared me, but missed my leg and bit the bike.  Too bad for him. 

I also had a run in with a Python. OK.. I never actually saw him, but they closed the bathrooms at the Mornington Island Airport while they tried to get the bugger out of the rafters… and I had to ‘go’.. that’s sort of a run in.. isn’t it?

What they have a lot of around here are birds. There are Silver Crested and Black Cockatoos, which are glorious and plentiful, but not as plentiful as the Pink Galah, which are everywhere, flying in huge flocks and they are NOISY! 

We have Brolgas in the water by the park here in town, along with Herons, Egrets and Magpie Geese. 

There were lots of Kookaburras in Melbourne when I visited Vas’s daughter, but I haven’t heard them here, although people say they are around.  I can't imagine them staying quiet.

I know we have Spinifex pigeons: I call them Fool Hens as they remind me of the bird that attacked my car on the Dor Road in the South Country in B.C. This mama bird had a whack of babies with her and was afraid I was going to run them all over..  she attacked my tires and it was all I could do NOT to run her over.  Silly bird..

The spinifex pigeons appear just as smart: hanging around, acting goofy and doing their best here in Kununurra.

But who am I to judge.  I mean, it seems the wallabies aren't doing so well, crossing over invisible lines and changing time zones.  I haven't seen any dead pigeons on the road.  Who decides what's smart and what's not.. sure isn't me.

So for now, I'm back with the rest of the fools: hangin around, acting goofy and doing my best here in Kununurra.