I had a visitor!
A touch of Australiana!
To say 'it's been quite hot' at the moment in Australia is something of an understatement! The heat led to me having a rather interesting visitor.
On Boxing Day (Day after Christmas) I get called out into my backyard with a 'come and look who's here!' I wasn't thinking koala when I went outside! It was just ambling across the back lawn, I ran inside to get my phone to take its picture. It went down the side of my house and then couldn't get out so came back again with me poised with the phone!
Still following it at this point, thinking it would leave the way it came and be gone.
But it went up to where there's a large old shady tree and just stopped, as it was hot I thought to go and get it a tub of water.
Sniffing out the water, poor thing it was very thirsty but as I didn't put much water in the tub, it put its paw in and knocked it over, but still drank what hadn't spilled out. I was quite wary of getting too close and koalas can get quite aggressive, they have huge claws which can cause a fair amount of damage! I refilled the tub with a watering can and the koala drank from the stream of water from the can! It spent a lot of time drinking!
To cool down it then put its paw in the water, the next day I saw that one of the 'fingers' on the paw had a cut so maybe it was soothing it.
The other paw went in and the koala's head went down and it started to sleep. (Koalas are nocturnal, so they sleep during the day) I did try to take a picture of its head down and sleeping but I woke it up each time I approached! Afterwards I thought I should have had a long lens camera out, I'm not much of a wildlife photographer! It snoozed the day away.
By late afternoon the sun was lower in the sky, there was direct sunlight coming onto it so the koala moved to a shadier spot still under the tree but protected by some shrubs. I moved the water tub closer as well.
I went out again around 7.30pm and was sad to see that it had gone, I thought I would have a koala in residence!
Went out the next morning and no koala, looked again just after 10am (which is the time it had appeared the previous day) and it was back!!
Not quite so thirsty but still hot, so both paws in tub and it snoozed the day away with its head between its paws!
Later on it went onto the tree, it didn't like the tree that much as it's not an Australian native and the bark is quite smooth and solid so the koala couldn't really dig its claws into it.
Sadly it went that evening and hasn't been back, the weather cooled but when it heated up I was hopeful, but no koala.
It's not that unusual for koalas to come into suburbia in Adelaide, the koala population in South Australia is quite healthy, they're not endangered here. The Adelaide hills has large colonies of them and they have been known to come wandering down from the hills during hot weather searching for water. I live in the foothills and there's a creek with large eucalyptus trees across the road so the koala could have easily come down along the creek, crossed the road and came into my backyard, not sure why it chose mine, but happy it did!
A touch of Australiana!
To say 'it's been quite hot' at the moment in Australia is something of an understatement! The heat led to me having a rather interesting visitor.
On Boxing Day (Day after Christmas) I get called out into my backyard with a 'come and look who's here!' I wasn't thinking koala when I went outside! It was just ambling across the back lawn, I ran inside to get my phone to take its picture. It went down the side of my house and then couldn't get out so came back again with me poised with the phone!
Still following it at this point, thinking it would leave the way it came and be gone.
But it went up to where there's a large old shady tree and just stopped, as it was hot I thought to go and get it a tub of water.
Sniffing out the water, poor thing it was very thirsty but as I didn't put much water in the tub, it put its paw in and knocked it over, but still drank what hadn't spilled out. I was quite wary of getting too close and koalas can get quite aggressive, they have huge claws which can cause a fair amount of damage! I refilled the tub with a watering can and the koala drank from the stream of water from the can! It spent a lot of time drinking!
To cool down it then put its paw in the water, the next day I saw that one of the 'fingers' on the paw had a cut so maybe it was soothing it.
The other paw went in and the koala's head went down and it started to sleep. (Koalas are nocturnal, so they sleep during the day) I did try to take a picture of its head down and sleeping but I woke it up each time I approached! Afterwards I thought I should have had a long lens camera out, I'm not much of a wildlife photographer! It snoozed the day away.
By late afternoon the sun was lower in the sky, there was direct sunlight coming onto it so the koala moved to a shadier spot still under the tree but protected by some shrubs. I moved the water tub closer as well.
I went out again around 7.30pm and was sad to see that it had gone, I thought I would have a koala in residence!
Went out the next morning and no koala, looked again just after 10am (which is the time it had appeared the previous day) and it was back!!
Later on it went onto the tree, it didn't like the tree that much as it's not an Australian native and the bark is quite smooth and solid so the koala couldn't really dig its claws into it.
Sadly it went that evening and hasn't been back, the weather cooled but when it heated up I was hopeful, but no koala.
It's not that unusual for koalas to come into suburbia in Adelaide, the koala population in South Australia is quite healthy, they're not endangered here. The Adelaide hills has large colonies of them and they have been known to come wandering down from the hills during hot weather searching for water. I live in the foothills and there's a creek with large eucalyptus trees across the road so the koala could have easily come down along the creek, crossed the road and came into my backyard, not sure why it chose mine, but happy it did!
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