Visit to Potoroo Palace

With my sister-in-law over for a visit it was only natural to visit a wildlife park so that she 

might become accustomed to some of Australia's wondrous animals up close and personal.

One such park is located a little south of us that fits the bill quite well - The Potoroo Palace.

With resident Kangaroos and Emu to be fed, as well as Native snakes, Echidna and a wide 

variety of native birds it is a most pleasurable diversion even for those accustomed to seeing 

these animals in the wild on a regular basis.

Below are a few shots.

Despite my familiarity with these creatures  I was happy to have 

the surprise of photographing my first white Echidna

I Include a link to their website HERE should you wish to visit this small though interesting wildlife park.

Kickboxing Kangaroos

Today I was lucky enough to see a sparring match between two kangaroos.

The video below captured most of the action and you should pay attention

to the first 4 to 10 seconds where an interaction between one of the opponents

and another kangaroo seem to spark the action that follows.

This video is available in higher resolution HERE

Many wallabies and kangaroo have been present in our area 

of late with this afternoons gathering one of the largest with

over 15 kangaroos present in the mob.

Drought breaking rains for NSW

The storms across NSW last week were spectacular to say the least.
With Bermagui getting around 200mm in 24 hours, it wasn't the heaviest of the falls.
It was enough though to free blocked estuary systems to the ocean and flush them out.

The following video is of the storm on Fri morning 05.02.10 around 5am, with footage of a few kangaroos playing in the rain and the Cuttagee system breaking to the ocean later that day.




The baragoot system broke on its own that night, with Wallaga lake needing a large excavator to help it along the next day as water levels rose nearly 2 meters.
Local council took the initiative to see all lake and river systems in need got a digging out at the entry point to the ocean as massive rainfall fueled the flows in areas stagnant from drought.
This is how things looked across NSW at around 7am Friday 05.02.10 thanks to the BOM sat image.



Following the rain, with a little help, Wallaga Lake was on the run.



This was Baragoot,


..and Cuttagee.



All areas did well from the rain, allowing clearing of the stagnant waters and facilitating movement of marine creatures to and from the ocean and these estuary systems.
Hopefully the prawning will be better next year. :)