One morning, almost two hours after sunrise, the native birds visiting our garden were making a massive din; squawking and calling. There were Sulphur-crested Cockatoos, Noisy Miners and probably some others as well. The noise drew my attention because it sounded alarmed, something was worrying all these birds. I assumed the it was someone’s cat, or, more exotically, a feral fox that had come into the yard. Cautiously, I went outside where I was surprised, and very much delighted, to see a Common Brushtail Possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) standing up in our back garden. These are nocturnal animals so not what I was expecting during the day. It stayed standing on its haunches for a while, meaning that I had enough time to grab my camera from inside the house. The possum remained upright for a little while when I returned. Its focus was fixed across the garden in the direction of a large iron bark, like it was not interested in me. I was captivated by the possum so I never examined what it was looking at. Then, it suddenly darted across, to where it was looking, causing the birds to make even more noise. The possum ran about two meters up the iron bark before effortlessly jumping onto the top of the wooden slat fence between us and our neighbour. The possum ran along the top of that narrow fence towards the rear of the garden, where I lost sight of it behind the garden shed. The cockatoos perched on the power line continued to observe it for a few seconds more, calling loudly among themselves while looking downwards to where the possum must have been dashing. Possums and cockatoos compete for tree hollows so I could understand why those two species did not get on.
My encounter with that possum was one of the random shots I took in June. That month marked the true start of winter in Canberra. While Canberra does not receive snow in winter, the temperature does sink to below zero in the mornings, making it harder to find animal subjects for photography. Therefore this post is light-on for animals and filled more with some nature-themed random photographs from several locations. I hope that you like the photographs below.
More of this story is on my blog at https://bit.ly/3hfEJBh
Common Brushtail Possum standing in our garden one morning
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 2000, 400mm, f/6.3 and 1/320 SEC])
Sulphur-crested Cockatoos on a power line behind our house
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 100, 200mm, f/8.0 and 1/640 SEC])
Immature huntsman spider hiding in the leaf litter of our garden
(Canon EOS 6D Mk II with a Canon EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM [ISO 100, 100mm, f/10 and 1/180 SEC] with Canon 430EX III-RT flash)
Fog on the Queanbeyan River
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 250, 100mm, f/8.0 and 1/100 SEC])
Sunlight hitting a leaf
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 320, 400mm, f/8.0 and 1/400 SEC])
Spider webs cover an old cicada shell on a tree
(Canon EOS 6D Mk II with a Canon EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM [ISO 100, 100mm, f/8.0 and 1/180 SEC] with Canon 430EX III-RT flash)
Borer trails on the exposed trunk of a tree
(Canon EOS 6D Mk II with a Canon EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM [ISO 100, 100mm, f/9.0 and 1/200 SEC])
Sun lighting the back of a worse-for-wear leaf
(Canon EOS 6D Mk II with a Canon EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM [ISO 320, 100mm, f/9.0 and 1/100 SEC])
Scale insects on a eucalyptus branch
(Canon EOS 6D Mk II with a Canon EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM [ISO 400, 100mm, f/7.1 and 1/640 SEC])
Stump of a sawn-off branch
(Canon EOS 6D Mk II with a Canon EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM [ISO 100, 100mm, f/7.1 and 1/80 SEC])
