Sometimes there is an unexpected moment with a wild animal that makes for a special encounter, even with a very common animal. I was fortunate to have such a moment with a female Eastern Grey Kangaroo at Aranda Bushland Nature Reserve one Sunday in October 2021. I was walking through some light scrub heading towards a dam when a kangaroo bounded along from the opposite direction. I stopped when I noticed the movement but the kangaroo was still moving, abruptly halting her progress just five metres from me. She stood up on her hind legs, taken aback a little by this human unexpectedly in front of her. She stared at me, possibly considering what I was doing. While she was looking at me I raised my camera carefully to take some photos. I was too close for my lens to get her whole body so I focused on her head. The sun was almost directly behind my shoulder, nicely lighting her eyes. After a few seconds of this meeting she shifted weight, jumping off around me into the scrub that I had just come from. I really enjoyed the brief encounter during a visit when it was a challenge to find many animals. Despite the difficulty in finding animals it was nice to be out and I hope that you enjoy the photographs below.
This spring seemed to have been very wet in Canberra, with plenty of rain falling, indeed it was the wettest November for 100 years in some parts of New South Wales. At Aranda there was water lying on the sodden ground not able to penetrate because there was already too much water. After so much dry weather leading up to the December 2019 fires it was strange to now think that there was too much rain but that was how it felt. Some of the tracks through the scrub in the reserve were like shallow streams and approaching a dam, the ground was inundated but above the surface of the dam. I ended up visiting the reserve twice, separated by several weeks and on the second visit the official trail through the reserve was cut by a stream that was taking the the overflow from the dam. There was no course for the stream, it made its own way through thick grass, with the water being at least a metre wide and 15cm deep.
Shrub reflecting in one of the ponds at Aranda
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 100, 100mm, f/10 and 1/125 SEC])
On my first visit, I walked for a bit before I found any subject to photograph. I thought that the wet ground may have caused a lot of vegetation to grow making it harder for ground foraging animals while the excessive water everywhere restricted the movement of some invertebrates that did not fly. There were the usual species of small birds but they had a lot of cover so I found it hard to take a decent photograph of them.
My encounter with the Eastern Grey Kangaroo (Macropus giganteus) that I described at the top of the post happened just as I was feeling a little frustrated at not finding any subjects. There was a second kangaroo with the first but she was slightly hidden behind a small plant whereas the one I photographed, with a different angle shown below, was in a clear view. I was wondering why these kangaroos had decided to hop into the scrub, I was half expecting to meet a dog walker or see a dog off the leash but there seemed to be no reason. Like me, maybe they were just trying to find somewhere dry. I know that these kangaroos are extremely common but I still get a thrill to see this iconic Australian animal freely moving so close to the capital and I love photographing them, I try to capture something different every time.
The lush vegetation resulting from the rain will probably lead to larger numbers of kangaroos around Canberra that will not be welcomed by some and may also lead to some hard times for the animals when the current La Niña passes to be replaced by a dryer El Niño. Hopefully, the water will stick around long enough for a gradual change assisting a natural balance to be maintained.
Eastern Grey Kangaroo female head portrait
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 125, 400mm, f/8.0 and 1/400 SEC])
After my wonderful encounter with the kangaroos I kept walking to where the large dam was. I was hoping that I would see some birdlife there. I should have realised that with so much water around the dam was not the source of hydration that it normally was for animals so there was no need for animals to concentrate around it. At least there were two male Australian Wood Ducks (Chenonetta jubata)on the pond, both with very obvious breeding manes but no females. There were plenty of potential breeding trees around but no ducklings either. Maybe the thick ground cover had made it hard for the ducklings to reach the pond or had hidden some predators, although there had been a 1080 poison campaign underway at the time of my visit.
Australian Wood Duck male with breeding mane
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 400, 400mm, f/8.0 and 1/600 SEC])
There was also a pair of Grey Teals (Anas gracilis) on the pond. It was harder to tell if they were a breeding pair because both sexes looked the same. Teals will eat both plants and small animals, using a variety of methods including surface feeding, upending their body to put their heads underwater and feeding from the water on the surrounding land.
Grey Teal pair on a dam
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 400, 400mm, f/8.0 and 1/800 SEC])
A pair of Pacific Black Ducks (Anas superciliosa) were also out on the pond that morning, although initially they were closer to the large, thick reeds and only later did they move out into the wider pond. They were probably aware of my presence, even though I was sitting quietly by that time, because they stayed at the opposite end of the pond to me. I felt that I had my full quota of duck species that morning, with three of them on a smallish pond.
Pacific Black Duck pair
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 250, 400mm, f/8.0 and 1/400 SEC])
While I was watching the ducks I was drawn to the pointed remnant of a dead, grey tree-trunk at the opposite end of the pond reaching skyward, a mouth-like hole at the top, seemingly screaming at its inability to move. Light reflections from the pond rippled across the cracked, dry sides of the tree. Maybe the tree died from too much water or maybe its demise was more ironic in that it died from a lack of water before the pond was made. However, now the tree stood as a silent story that would not be told but added an extra element to that small pond.
Dead tree in the pond
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 200, 100mm, f/8.0 and 1/500 SEC])
While I was at the pond, I took a few moments to sit there and contemplate the peacefulness while I waited to see what other animals would come past. I saw a kangaroo with a joey. A bit later, I heard the unmistakable call of a Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita) flying in from the east of the reserve. The white plumage of the flying bird stood out clearly against the dark green of the north-west slope of Black Mountain, which was still in shadow from the rising sun. The bird flew in low over the pond and continued on, past the reserve. In the photo the bird was looking up at something, but I have no idea what it was looking at. Maybe even birds get distracted by day-dreaming.
Sulohur-crested Cockatoo flying over the pond
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 400, 400mm, f/8.0 and 1/400 SEC])
After a little while of enjoying the placid calm of the small pond I started walking back to the car through the sodden trail. I did not get too far before I noticed a small Acacia Leaf Beetle (Dicranosterna immaculata) on a wattle bush. I only had my Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens with me, which was a bit of overkill for such a small insect but I loved the glossy colours on the back of this tiny beetle so I had to try for some shots. The little black and brown beetle had its head buried in the stem of the verdantly growing wattle and was not bothered even when I slightly twisted the plant around to get a better look at the its colours. I allowed the plant to return to its natural condition calmly so as not to disturb the tiny creature probably having a good feed on the plant.
Acacia Leaf Beetle on a wattle near the pond
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 100, 400mm, f/10 and 1/400 SEC] four shot focus stack)
There was a good lot of low shrubbery and bushes between the dam and the carpark that was good habit for small birds, especially Superb Fairy-wrens (Malurus cyaneus). On my first visit I was able to photograph a male among the branches and on the second visit I photographed a female. The rasping call of these birds is common walking past that type of vegetation but the birds tend to move through the foliage quickly looking for food. The male was looking particularly handsome in his breeding blue, which often disappears out of breeding season but some males that have been breeding for a while maintain it year round. The females have a more sensible subdued brown, which experts theorise is to keep them camouflaged while the gaudy, blue male attracts predators. The duller plumage of the female will help conceal her and the nest, which she will build and then incubate the eggs in.
Superb Fairy-wren male in a shrub
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 200, 400mm, f/8.0 and 1/400 SEC])
Superb Fairy-wren female
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 640, 400mm, f/8.0 and 1/400 SEC])
Towards the end of my first visit a pair of Gang-gang Cockatoos (Callocephalon fimbriatum) flew in a southerly direction over the reserve. They started calling from a way off, giving me warning of their approach but they did not fly too close to me. They continued on towards the close-by Lake Burley Griffin.
Gang-gang Cockatoo male flying over Aranda
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 400, 400mm, f/8.0 and 1/800 SEC])
The second visit was on a day that was much wetter than the first and was more overcast. Again, I had trouble finding any subjects, in fact it was harder than the first visit. When I was about to hop into my car a male Australian Magpie (Cracticus tibicen) started to prowl the grassy area opposite from me looking for food, probably to feed a young bird somewhere because the food it found it flew off with rather than eat it immediately. At one stage it turned to look at me, as only a magpie can, with its orange eyes against its black face giving it a somewhat menacing look. These birds may be voted as Australia’s favourite bird at times but they can have a sinister appearance, which is amplified when they are swooping us bike riders.
Australian Magpie checking me out
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 640, 400mm, f/8.0 and 1/400 SEC])
As an indication of how much water there was on my second visit the photograph shows a normally completely dry bit of ground that was not a creek. This new water feature was near a dam but it does not form part of the dam and indeed the water was oozing from the ground around the dam, not flowing over from the dam There was so much water around that this cockroach nymph had either been driven to high ground or had managed to catch that leaf while it was being washed away. The cockroach seemed to be trying to understand how it could move from where it was but the leaf was surrounded by water. Normally, I could have simply walked passed that leaf on dry ground but that day, I had no chance of crossing that impromptu stream so I turned around to cut my visit short.
Cockroach stranded on a frond in the middle of a rain-generated stream
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 640, 400mm, f/8.0 and 1/400 SEC])
Because my second visit had not been too successful at Aranda I called into Scrivener Dam on the way hone because I noticed the while bodies of Silver Gulls (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae) whirling in the air above the foaming water pouring down from the dam outlet. The birds were circling around in a chaotic dance of gulls, with some of them occasionally landing on the churned up water or poking a possible bit of food on the surface. Other birds were lining a low wall while others continued to circle, all the time, the calls of these renowned scavengers echoed off the cold concrete of the dam wall. I tracked one bird with my camera, snapping several shots of the bright white bird while the dam wall remained in the shadows. I really liked the contrast of the white of the bird against the dark shadow of the dam. Some people may see these birds as annoying pests when they swarm onto a dropped bit of food but in my mind these are amazingly versatile birds that have found a niche with humans but can still survive on what nature provides.
Silver Gull flying over a flooded Molonglo River with the shallow of Scrivener Dam behind it
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 100, 400mm, f/8.0 and 1/800 SEC])
Aranda had not been as full with photographic subjects as I had hoped but I still enjoyed both visits. The reserve was not large and was at the join of some major roads in Canberra but it still provided a home to some wonderful wildlife. It was also interesting seeing how the bountiful rain changed the vegetation and ground texture, making it boggier than I had ever known it. I was also happy with the encounter I experienced with the kangaroo. I liked the resulting photograph but I don’t think that I stressed the animal because she controlled the encounter and I remained still. It was just another wonderful memory I have from my regular wanderings around Canberra’s lovely nature reserves.
Thanks for reading this post and thanks also for looking at my photos. I hope you come back again to read more about some of the wonderful natural things that the Australian Capital Territory has on offer. All the best until the next post.