We woke up early to refill the bird feeder, not really knowing what to expect. To our delight, we were greeted by two hungry but shy lorikeets. Too bad they wouldn’t let me get closer to them for a good picture!
Dennis made Nespresso with his artistic latte art before we headed to an IGA supermarket nearby for some food. Sue had prepared some amazing bacon and sausages in the refrigerator but we needed more hehe. It’s barbeque time!
Sue had recommended us to do the Illawong walk so we decided to give it a try that afternoon. It was my first bushwalk so I was a little anxious when Sue told us that it was snake season during that period. I remembered her saying ‘Lucky for us though, as all we have here are brown snakes and they want nothing but to get out of your way’. But isn’t brown snake poisonous?! Looks like there aren’t any brown snakes here in the Bower afterall! Rather, there’s only the red bellied black snakes here, which are the timid non-poisonous ones. Thanks to Mark for reaching out to clarify this. So I was extremely cautious not to step on any ‘sticks’. Fortunately we didn’t bump into any. (or maybe we did but just didn’t notice hahaha!) We were lucky enough to spot three echidnas in action and caught a glimpse of a wallaby hopping away.
One thing you would not want to miss when you are on the Illawong walk is the magnificent sea eagle nest! It’s so huge! Keep an eye out once you past the ‘leaning tree’ (shown above) and look up at the eucalyptus canopy on your right. Thanks to Mark & Sue for this tip!
I then found a stick to impersonate Gandalf hehe.
Oh this handsome horse!!! He kept running towards me, across the water and followed me the best he can! What I don’t understand is why hehehe. He was so cute!
After the walk, we chillax-ed out on our deck, refilled the bird feeder, and waited for our colourful friends to come by for a snack. A magpie came spying on us, disinterested in the seeds that we have. As we lay on the deckchair, a kookaburra came swooping and perched on the deck, with a worm in its beak. It didn’t seem to mind our presence at all, rather, t just stood there and posed for our camera. And gobbled down the worm all of a sudden. We didn’t know that kookaburra is carnivorous so we tried feeding it the seeds, and got rejected big time.
A pair of rosellas king parrots (oops, looks like we got our bird names mixed up!) came after seeing the kookaburra being generously offered heaps of food. The lady king parrot is the one in green (in the pictures below), while the male is one in red with the lime green stripe.
They approached cautiously at first, but eventually gave in to the temptation of sunflower seeds. Sue had warned us about the green bird’s biting habit if you try to hand-feed her so I stayed away from her and tried to hand-feed the red one instead. It wasn’t easy as the red one was more cautious and tend to fly away if you get too close. Just be gentle and slowly gain his trust. Don’t try to pat him immediately as you will scare her off. The green biting one was easier to approach; all she wanted was more food. Some lorikeets came by the bird feeder too. We tried to get closer but they were just too shy.
Will you just look at her?? She finished eating from Dennis’s hand and then just casually moved forward and stood in Dennis’s palm while munching from the plate. Dennis was really worried that she might poo in his palm LOL!
They flew away after they have had enough. Byebye birdies! Other than the King Parrots and Lorikeets, there should also be resident Crimson Rosellas (ones with red and blue feathers) here, but unfortunately we didn’t catch sight of them this visit.
Time for dinner! The kitchen was very well-equipped so it wasn’t a hassle at all.
That’s not a boogeyman. It’s just me trying to spot some animals at 9pm. Not much luck with that though.
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