Big ol' Holiday Weekend (Part 3)

   Monday was Canberra Day so Anthea didn't have to work.  We drove down to Tidbinbilla, a nature preserve, for a walk in the bush. http://www.tidbinbilla.com.au/
   We arrived just in time for a guided walk so we slipped into line and went looking for koalas.  Within Tidbinbilla there is a large enclosure (many hectares) that is designed to keep invasive predators such as foxes and cats out.  One of the species that doesn't probably need protection from those predators is Koalas, but they have several living there.  Tidbinbilla suffered a tragic bushfire several years ago and all but one of the koalas in this region were killed, so there is an effort to re-introduce them to the area by bringing them into the enclosure.  The ranger explained that this was a very hands-off process.  They introduce a koala into a smaller enclosure within the sanctuary to make sure they can handle the local diet, and once they are acclimatized, they are released into the sanctuary.  There is no fancy tracking or study or husbandry after release, they just head into the forest and are occasionally seen by visitors like us.
   When we arrived there was a newcomer who was being acclimatized, so we were able to see a koala right off the bat.  We also saw one that was free within the sanctuary (not a guaranteed experience), but the lighting was bad so you get to see the new guy instead of the old resident.

Tidbinbilla's new koala

   As we headed off down the trail we saw movement in the brush near a creek and our ranger told us it was a swamp wallaby.  Later in the day we also saw a rock wallaby, but I didn't get a photo.

Swamp wallaby

   After all the work Anthea has done to dispell the "everything in Australia is dangerous" myth, we were given a tour through this beautiful sanctuary by a ranger who was a bit nervous about the ants at our feet (he called them "Jumpers" and they did).  Wherever he stopped, he looked down to make sure an attack was not imminent.  He explained that he'd found himself under attack on more than one occasion while trying to give a nature talk, and that it was hard to concentrate on the subject of koalas when there were 30 angry insects trying eagerly to sting you into submission.  I don't want to paint the wrong picture of the man - He was not trembling and sweating over the ants, he was just careful to look twice.  Still, It's good to know I'm not the only skeerdy-cat in the woods.

   After our guided sanctuary walk we went off to explore other parts of Tidbinbilla and as if the two new (to me) species of wallaby weren't enough I even got my first sight of wild emus.

Two of the three emus

   I also managed to get closer than ever to kangaroos...

Mom and Joey

   Big and little alike...

Joey

   Lots of kangaroos...

What a mob

   So many kangaroos...

 Even more

   And on the walk back out we naturally had a close encounter with a dreaded Brown Snake.  I got this picture and we stopped at the ranger station on the way out so we could get a positive I.D.  We were told that snake identification in Tidbinbilla is quite easy because there are only two species:  The Brown Snake and the Red-Bellied Black Snake (both are venomous, but neither is aggressive).

 Brown Snake

   After our day of back-woods fun we headed off to Canberra where we were treated to a free outdoor Jimmy Barnes concert (http://www.jimmybarnes.com/) and then the Canberra Day fireworks.

Happy Canberra Day