Day 4 - The Wildlife Sanctuary

Today we traveled to the Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary in the Yarra Valley. It took about an hour to get there but at least we had nice buses and I was able to see some more of the city on our way. The sanctuary itself was excellent - it featured a good number of walk in exhibits so you could get up close and personal with the wildlife. This meaning you could walk into the Kangaroo exhibit and they would hop past you (or over you). The only real downfall of the day is that it rained the whole time. Boo. I refused to let this minor setback phase me though and proceeded to make sure I made every exhibit and enclosure possible. I had a lot of fun fighting to keep my camera dry and trying to adjust for over-exposure since it was so overcast. Many of the normal students gave up and hid in either the gift shop (tuck shop?) or the platypus house, I made friends with the reptile keeper and he gave me advice on which field guides I should purchase (of course the book store was out- drat!). My favorites (besides the snakes) were all the colorful birds flitting about that I was constantly trying to take pictures of - why can't they hold still!!! We had a BBQ in the sanctuary before heading out to our next activity. On the way back to Queen's we stopped at the Dominique Portet Winery (which was run by a French family) for a wine tasting and tour. The wine was tasty but I opted to hold off on buying any for now. After the winery we headed back to Queen's College for coffee parties (little social gatherings in the group leader's rooms where we can ask questions or just mingle - we rotate groups everyday to optimize meeting new people potential) and dinner (fish and chips - yum!). The group leader's organized a pub crawl (bar tour) of four of the local city bars, they spiced things up by giving us white t-shirts so we could write on each other with colored sharpies. The pubs were interesting to say the least but I must say I don't think I'll be going out very often because a pint of the cheapest beer was $7, and cocktails were $16. I managed to only spend $18 the whole evening, but other students spent over $60 (eek). I think I would rather spend my money on traveling to exotic places with cool wildlife instead. View some cool wildlife below.

PS - if anyone has any questions about something in my ramblings please feel free to post as a comment!

A black winged stilt














No idea what this spoonbill guy is - couldn't find his sign - looks cool though UPDATE: Royal Spoonbill (breeding)



















Lyre Bird!! According to the sign it is their mating season, he was singing a fantastic series of calls and noises (Lyre birds combine mimicery, song, and dance to attract a mate)















Bearded Dragon/lizard




















Me and the python at the reptile show, you can see my new friend's arm off to my left. Anybody who has lizard tattoos on his calves is ok in my book :)


This is the Australia Robin (or something like that) alas - I need fieldguide!!! UPDATE: Eastern Yellow Robin


UPDATE: Australian Pelican

Wallaby , I apologize fo the lack of mammal/typical Australia animal pics, since it was pouring they were all hiding/sleeping and I didn't even get to see half of them.

Cool looking duck being chased by that crazy blue moor henish creature UPDATE: Australian Wood Duck


Parrot UPATE: Crimson Rosella




The Dusky Moorhen - i looked it up





Parrot UPDATE: Galah
Parrot with fruit who hit me in the head when he flew away UPDATE: Swift Parrot (90% sure)





Koala - they were all making this pose, apparently they dont like rain



The Winery