EVEN MORE PLATYPUS...

It was very entertaining watching these two platypus navigate the small cascade. The first and larger animal is a female (bald spot on the tail). When the two come together in the last 3 videos (sorry about that, file was too large to put up as one video here for some reason), they disappeared for about 20 minutes before coming back down.  Probably a tunnel under there where they were exploring or probably mating. The water was so clear that week we could watch them swimming underwater quite easily.

So fast I almost lost sight of her then I thought she'd disappeared under that rock...

This time I was ready for her to swim back out...

Sorry about the audible gasp and loud commentary... pretty exciting.

And they continue...

They came out around 20 mins later...

Such clear water...

 

IF IT MOVES SHOOT IT...

I thought I'd post a few videos of some of the wildlife I see nearly every day. Often I take a video because it's too hard to get a still due to the amount of foliage or the swiftness of the subject or I think others might be interested in hearing what bird it is they hear but don't see. The behaviour of the creature is also of interest.

Here, two spotted doves were canoodling but I thought it interesting that the ?female? was clearly irritated towards the end.

This is a rakali, or water rat, Australia's answer to the otter. Fascinating to watch but so quick any still photography I've tried has been blurry.

Two new nestling willie wagtails visible for a short time when the parents changed over. Just hope this pair do better than the last few attempts at raising a family, due to weather or predation.

I heard this guy, male leaden flycatcher, long before I spotted him and then, too late, realised there was a female just above him which I missed.

Two fledging welcome swallows wait for their parent to literally drop their food into their mouths. I had to slow down part of it because the parent is so fast. A few days later, I saw the 'drop and swallow' being done on the wing. The parent does a fly past and the fledglings fly up to meet them where the food is exchanged. I haven't managed a video of that yet unfortunately.

Eastern whipbirds are so frustrating. They can be in a shrub right beside you but you can't see them to photograph. They love the gloom of the undergrowth so I took a video of this one foraging instead.

Azure kingfishers are so quick when they dive for their food, I'm in awe of people who publish photographs of them. I've taken lots of them sitting, watching and have managed a few videos of the dive. This one shows the freshwater prawn it caught too. 

Always a thrill to see platypus reacting with others as they're normally a solo animal. I've posted videos of them interacting with cormorants previously but here is part of the mating ritual. Normally the male will grasp the female's tail and it's a bit of a chase before the actual mating happens but here he's missed the tail and has her rear foot.

A neighbour alerted me to a large python in her yard so out I went with my camera to capture the action. I was pretty close to it and fascinating to watch it move.

I'd heard this bird for a couple of years before I actually saw one so videoed it so others would know what they hear.

RAINBOW, DRAGONS AND FROGS AT COOROY...

I visited Noosa Botanic Gardens again for the first time in 6 months since retiring. I was absolutely thrilled to spot a bird I'd never seen before and managed to get a few snaps of it.  Mind you, birds I haven't seen before would number in the millions and a few fairly clear snaps from the 40 or so I took is probably nothing to brag about but I couldn't wait to get home and find out what bird it was.  Meet one of the Rainbow Pittas...

"Are you lookin' at me?" it seems to be saying...

 I used a bit of patience and then stalked it around a dry creek bed as it hopped around, carefully avoiding crunching on leaves and twigs, so as not to startle it.  Low light in the forest area meant I got lots of blurred shots and perfect shots of where it had been a split second before. It was very interested in fallen quandongs but normally feeds on insects. Maybe there was some hiding in the fruit.

 This shot shows the chestnut stripes on its head nicely and what looks like a bit of weed clinging there as well.

"Are you still here?"

I took the hint and moved on to the pond... 

... where it was apparently dragonfly time.  I'd never thought about what dragonflies (or damselflies) ate and hadn't even noticed that this one was chowing down on something when I took the shot. The bug it's eating is more colourful than it is.

 This one (no more than 4cm long) is a male dragonfly I gather after watching the large numbers of them mating. Of course they could be damselflies. After reading up on them, I am confused as these look like damselflies with the closed wings.

The males all had the bright blue bottoms and they grab the females by the back of the head to start the process. 

It's up to her to curl her tail around to find the penis. A very complicated mating dance and I've since read somewhere that the females will often pretend to be dead to avoid having to mate.  I'm sure we can human females can relate to that! 

I only found two tiny, wee frogs at the pond and this be them. They sat very still and were not frightened off by my lens shoved in their faces.

Hopefully, I won't leave it so long to return.