The traveling Najade is traveling - What, Again?

[Najade]

Australia Walkabout Wildlife Park
I entered AWWP shortly before 10am and got a map, schedule and quick explanation from the woman at the counter and then made my way to the meet the mob feeding of the free ranging Parma Wallabies, Red-necked Pademelons, Wallaroos, Kangaroos and Emus. First target checked and best opportunity to see them. After that I had a bit of a look around for myself. There's two enclosures to the left of the entrance hut next to the feeding area holding Koalas and Eastern Blue-tongues respectively. Back inside the hut there were a couple of reptile enclosures as well as the Sugar Glider exhibit dotted about the gift shop. The rest of the enclosures can all be seen in a loop to the right (map) and then there's a large bushwalk area that I got shown during the Bush Tucker tour. I attended a couple of the other "daily activities" and got to pet a Koala and Echidna (could have petted both Wombat species too, but didn't go to those). The Dingo encounter was more of a talk and the Quoll feeding meant some good daylight views of the species, same with the flying-fox encounter. For around 2pm I had booked a speed date ($35), which is basically a fast private encounter with an animal of your choosing. I of course chose the Pygmy-possum. This is the only way to see the species during a normal visit (same with Bilby back then) though I'm told that there's some encounters happening during their nocturnal tours. The speed date was a bit too speedy for my taste as I felt like by the time I got to look at, hold the animal and take some pictures, when I didn't have to divert my attention to the keeper's explanations, it was already over again. I thought about doing another speed date with the Bandicoots but decided to save the money which I regret a little now.
Overall I had a very good time and would recommend a visit, especially if you're after encounters of the closer kind or photography opportunities.

The one complaint I had was that their website was a bit too busy.

Gallery

Species list

Animals checked off my list:
Eastern Pygmy-possum
Red-necked Pademelon

Animals not seen:
Long-nosed Bandicoot
Greater Bilby

 

[Najade]

Could tell me something more about the new tiger "exhibit"? I skipped it when I was in Taronga. When I passed by, some woman was shouting some like "last plane to Asia departs now!". I was in Taronga for a zoo visit, not for a fun park visit, so I decided not to go. However, it meant I didn't see any tiger in Australia (no show in Perth and in both enclosures in Melbourne) and still wonder what "Tiger Trek" actually is.

To get to the exhibit you have to go through a fake airplane ride, though there's no seats and no 4D moving around bits, so basically you just stand around and watch a movie that tells you you're going to Indonesia (and that's about the only message in there). Then you exit to the exhibit which is nice enough I guess but surrounded with "themed" decorations and a hut where kids can play some sort of computer game I think. As an idea it's already stupid but it's also just badly executed.

 

[AWP]

To get to the exhibit you have to go through a fake airplane ride, though there's no seats and no 4D moving around bits, so basically you just stand around and watch a movie that tells you you're going to Indonesia (and that's about the only message in there). Then you exit to the exhibit which is nice enough I guess but surrounded with "themed" decorations and a hut where kids can play some sort of computer game I think. As an idea it's already stupid but it's also just badly executed.

Okay, I didn't miss anything. I have seen plenty of Sumatran tigers elsewhere, so no regrets not seeing the Taronga ones.

 

[Najade]

Australia Walkabout Wildlife Park
I entered AWWP shortly before 10am and got a map, schedule and quick explanation from the woman at the counter and then made my way to the meet the mob feeding of the free ranging Parma Wallabies, Red-necked Pademelons, Wallaroos, Kangaroos and Emus. First target checked and best opportunity to see them. After that I had a bit of a look around for myself. There's two enclosures to the left of the entrance hut next to the feeding area holding Koalas and Eastern Blue-tongues respectively. Back inside the hut there were a couple of reptile enclosures as well as the Sugar Glider exhibit dotted about the gift shop. The rest of the enclosures can all be seen in a loop to the right (map) and then there's a large bushwalk area that I got shown during the Bush Tucker tour. I attended a couple of the other "daily activities" and got to pet a Koala and Echidna (could have petted both Wombat species too, but didn't go to those). The Dingo encounter was more of a talk and the Quoll feeding meant some good daylight views of the species, same with the flying-fox encounter. For around 2pm I had booked a speed date ($35), which is basically a fast private encounter with an animal of your choosing. I of course chose the Pygmy-possum. This is the only way to see the species during a normal visit (same with Bilby back then) though I'm told that there's some encounters happening during their nocturnal tours. The speed date was a bit too speedy for my taste as I felt like by the time I got to look at, hold the animal and take some pictures, when I didn't have to divert my attention to the keeper's explanations, it was already over again. I thought about doing another speed date with the Bandicoots but decided to save the money which I regret a little now.
Overall I had a very good time and would recommend a visit, especially if you're after encounters of the closer kind or photography opportunities.

The one complaint I had was that their website was a bit too busy.

Gallery

Species list

Animals checked off my list:
Eastern Pygmy-possum
Red-necked Pademelon

Animals not seen:
Long-nosed Bandicoot
Greater Bilby

Animals seen (wild):
Eastern Water Skink (Eulamprus quoyii)
Eastern Long-necked Turtle (Chelodina longicollis)

 

[Chlidonias]

Could tell me something more about the new tiger "exhibit"? I skipped it when I was in Taronga. When I passed by, some woman was shouting some like "last plane to Asia departs now!". I was in Taronga for a zoo visit, not for a fun park visit, so I decided not to go. However, it meant I didn't see any tiger in Australia (no show in Perth and in both enclosures in Melbourne) and still wonder what "Tiger Trek" actually is.

See this thread for some explanations, links to videos (if they still play), and a little review: Taronga Zoo - Tiger Trek (starting from post #15).

 

[Najade]

Featherdale Wildlife Park
To hopefully finish this thread before I'm going back on the road in two weeks and since I can't talk about all the cool stuff that happened here, I'll just refer you to the species list and say that if you're at all interested in Australian birds this is the place to go.
Definitely recommend!

Gallery

Species list

Animals checked off my list:
bunch of birds

Animals not seen:
Northern Nail-tail Wallaby

I ended the day watching the new Star Wars movie (which was crap as expected) in a drive-in cinema not too far from the Wildlife Park.

 

[Najade]

Australian Museum
I wanted to come back to this one because when I did my last Sydney museum day a couple of years ago I came here last after visiting a bunch of crappy museums and so didn't have enough time back then. This is pretty much the only museum in town worth going to. There's a couple of live-exhibits but nothing special species-wise. There should be pictures of every exhibit in the galleries.

Gallery

 

[DavidBrown]

How goes the quest to see a marsupial mole?

 

[Monty]

How goes the quest to see a marsupial mole?

I dont think there is anything harder to spot. I went to Uluru in July and an Aboriginal bloke doing a tour said he had seen one once after rain and another that had been hit by a car. We stopped in at a station and the owner was telling me there had been a group there searching for them and they never saw one. Apparently the habitat is perfect for them on the station and the experts were sure they would be there.

 

[Najade]

Yeah, that one seems pretty impossible. Even the professionals only seem to see them by chance if at all.

 

[Chlidonias]

My supposition on Marsupial Moles is that, given that they don't form actual burrow networks or any other permanent living places and being marsupials would likely have fairly short lifespans, they are probably pretty common otherwise they would never be able to find one another for breeding. All you'd need to do would be to go and lie in the desert in one place for a while and eventually one would swim past.

 

[Najade]

Swim past without you noticing probably.

I’ll be in the desert for a bit soon so we can test that theory of yours.^^

 

[Najade]

Australian Ornithological Services
Because at the time there was no other way to see a Plains-wanderer (probably still isn't) I contacted Phil Maher in Deniliquin, NSW for a spotlighting tour. And since he isn't the cheapest guide ($480 for just the evening bit) I had to wait to join in with someone else to split costs.
We did start at 4pm (barely made it there in time) so had some time to look for other birds while it was still light. This was my first serious guided birding tour and the first bird we got shown was a Painted Honeyeater
Some other nice additions were Superb Parrot, Owlet-nightjar in a nest box, Mistletoebird with nest, etc
We went to three or four different places before it started to rain and we took a bit of a break while we waited for sundown. Phil told us that the wanderers are active day and night but less flighty during the night (less predators), which is the reason for looking for them after dark. We found five driving around the fields (not sure anymore if it was 3 males and 2 females or the other way round) with one pair in courtship display. We also saw a couple Little Buttonquails, a Stubble Quial, Pipits, Larks and Lapwings. On the mammal front we got all three of the big roos and a couple Fat-tailed Dunnarts. We ended the night pretty late (past 3am).
Very good start to my Australian birding career

Gallery

Animals seen:
Fat-tailed Dunnart
Red Kangaroo
Eastern Grey Kangaroo
Western Grey Kangaroo
House Mouse
European Rabbit
Red Fox

Eastern Hooded Scaly-foot

Growling Grass Frog

Emu
Pacific Black Duck
Gray Teal
Stubble Quail
White-faced Heron
White-necked Heron
Australian White Ibis
Royal Spoonbill
Yellow-billed Spoonbill
Black-shouldered Kite
Wedge-tailed Eagle
Nankeen Kestrel
Brown Falcon
Eastern Barn Owl
Southern Boobook
Black-tailed Native-hen
Pied Stilt
Banded Lapwing
Red-kneed Dotterel
Plains-wanderer
Little Button-quail
Sharp-tailed Sandpiper
Common Greenshank
Galah
Superb Parrot
Crested Pigeon
Australian Owlet-nightjar
Horsfield's Bronze Cuckoo
Superb Fairy-wren
White-winged Fairy-wren
Painted Honeyeater
Singing Honeyeater
Striped Honeyeater
White-fronted Chat
Masked Woodswallow
White-browed Woodswallow
Mistletoebird
Willy Wagtail
Horsfield's Bushlark
Brown Songlark
Australasian Pipit
Little Raven

 

[Monty]

Australian Ornithological Services
Because at the time there was no other way to see a Plains-wanderer (probably still isn't) I contacted Phil Maher in Deniliquin, NSW for a spotlighting tour. And since he isn't the cheapest guide ($480 for just the evening bit) I had to wait to join in with someone else to split costs.
We did start at 4pm (barely made it there in time) so had some time to look for other birds while it was still light. This was my first serious guided birding tour and the first bird we got shown was a Painted Honeyeater
Some other nice additions were Superb Parrot, Owlet-nightjar in a nest box, Mistletoebird with nest, etc
We went to three or four different places before it started to rain and we took a bit of a break while we waited for sundown. Phil told us that the wanderers are active day and night but less flighty during the night (less predators), which is the reason for looking for them after dark. We found five driving around the fields (not sure anymore if it was 3 males and 2 females or the other way round) with one pair in courtship display. We also saw a couple Little Buttonquails, a Stubble Quial, Pipits, Larks and Lapwings. On the mammal front we got all three of the big roos and a couple Fat-tailed Dunnarts. We ended the night pretty late (past 3am).
Very good start to my Australian birding career

Did you have to travel far from Deni on the plains wanderer spotting trip.

 

[Monty]

I know a bloke who does a lot of spotlighting around Hilston who saw one while spotlighting. He had no idea what it was so picked it up and took a few pictures. Then it just wandered off. They can be very quiet in the spotlight.

 

[MattyP]

Yeah, that one seems pretty impossible. Even the professionals only seem to see them by chance if at all.

I wonder if anyone is doing research on them. It would be worthwhile to train a detector dog to find them. Much easier than searching for visual clues.

 

[Najade]

Werribee Open Range Zoo
I went to this zoo with three kids, that I was looking after at the time. We started on the left side where they keep the native fauna. There's a small nocturnal house with Growling Grass Frog (didn't show), Squirrel Glider, Frogmouth, EB Bandicoot (didn't show), Fat-tailed Dunnart and some stick-insects. Outside has an area for some roos, Koalas and an aviary for Orange-bellied Parrot.
The zoo had just gotten into the breeding programme for Plains-wanderers but they were of course off-show though half the keepers had them on their uniforms...
After a bit of time on the playground we made our way past the Gorillas, Meerkats etc to the safari bus tours, which were nice enough but it being Australia not that exciting species-wise.
After that we left early because the kids were misbehaving and so I didn't get to see the last bits of the park.
Probably the least interesting zoo in the wider Melbourne area.

Gallery

Animals checked off my list:
-

 

[Najade]

Melbourne Museum
Came here again on one of my free days to see what the situation with Mitchell's Hopping-mice was, but they were of course off-show and I wasn't aloud to see them. Other than that the visit was enjoyable and it was nice to have more time than on my last visit.
Especially interesting for people who are into inverts.

Species list

Gallery

Animals checked off my list:
-

Animals not seen:
Mitchell's Hopping-mouse

 

[Astrobird]

Werribee Open Range Zoo
I went to this zoo

Were the Nyala on display? And if so, have the Waterbuck been moved off show? I drove past the zoo on the freeway recently and could see what looked like Waterbuck and Addax in an off show paddock.