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The Freaky Animal vote

August 16, 2010 / 21 Comments

I am ploughing through the ‘contenders’ for my 2011 calendar – and doing what I find the biggest challenge of all: MAKING DECISIONS.  I’m so hopeless in this department.

My dear sweet readers have been wonderfully helpful in doing the job for me so far – I can see a couple of clear favourites in the mustering photos and the roads-and-views photos.  Isn’t blogging the most wonderful medium? (IS blogging a medium?  Or a tool within the medium of the internet?  Who knows?  Whatever the correct term, it’s fabulously helpful!)

Today we address the curly question of creatures.  More specificially, those creatures native to Australia that I have managed to capture (with ‘varying degrees of technical success’) with my battered old Nikon.

emu_0074e
This was one of the shots used in the 2010 calendar… I love this shot!  But I have taken many more wildlife snaps since then – shall we re-aquaint ourselves?

-*-*-*-*-

First-up, the quintessential Aussie mammal, the kangaroo.

roos_0318 e
lazyroos

This was taken in February this year, after some amazing summer rain.  Hence the intense green lush grass and the contented grazers.  While roos are often not particularly ‘safe’ in rural Australia (especially when they hit plague proportions) our house paddock is always a ‘no shoot’ zone.  We have a couple of ‘families’ of roos and wallabies who know this, and happily loll about in the grass watching us drive by.  The thing that appeals to me about this photo is the ‘I’m watching you but I’m not worried’ ears – and of course I love that green.  (The same bit of paddock is very brown and crackly at the moment!)

liz_0297 1elizard

Taken the same day as the roo photo above!  This shot is one of Mr Incredible’s favourites – we was standing on a bridge looking down at the floodwaters in the river when we spotted this guy (I think it’s a young bearded dragon) taking shelter.  These guys are pretty quick and often hard to capture on film (on pixel?).  He was gone a second later, finding a less exposed safe place.

goanna_1050 egoanna 1

A serious Aussie lizard – the goanna.  Or sand monitor, to be pedantic.  This dude was crossing the road as I drove into town one day (post here for this whole series of goanna shots). I stopped to allow him to wander across and marvelled at how well he blended with the bitumen.  And LOOK at those claws…

skink_0114 elizard lick

A shingleback lizard in action – this shot was taken at a local show at which Dash spent the majority of his time gazing in rapt delight at Australian reptiles.  That’s his finger the lizard is licking.  I have looked up the species (The Shingleback Blue Tongue Skink) and they are quite fascinating – a monogomous lizard!

emu_0006emu run

A more recent image – the technical failings of this shot still make me cringe but so many of you loved it (I think I chose the right one from this post?).  But an emu in full flight on a dirt road – well it just SCREAMS Australia, no?

kook_0135 ekookaburra

And finally, a photo I have never posted.  Sorry about that – I actually have a gazillion shots a bit like this (where I have taken it, it’s probably worth sharing, but I never quite ‘get to it’).  It’s a kookaburra sitting on the house fence at my brother’s place.  Kookaburras are the most AMAZING birds of prey (second only to wedge-tail eagles which were featured in the previous calendar). They are only small but fearless and strong, often taking on (and eating) our infamous venomous snakes.  I love the weathered white fence and the big blue gum trees blurred in the background too.

So please, make your choices (pick the two photos you like most) and then leave me a comment to tell me WHY you chose the images you did. (Don’t forget all comments are entries into the print giveaway at the end of this polling process.)

Which FREAKY OZ Animal is calendar-worthy?

  • Kookaburra (32%, 33 Votes)
  • Lizard on Rock (20%, 21 Votes)
  • Lazy Roos (18%, 19 Votes)
  • Emu run (18%, 19 Votes)
  • Goanna 1 (8%, 8 Votes)
  • Lizard lick (4%, 4 Votes)

Total Voters: 60

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21 Comments

  • Kelly
    August 16, 2010 at 10:52 am Reply

    Okay….I went with Lizard on a Rock because I love the composition of the photo and the brilliance of the greens. (kind of like the red shirts in your mustering photos. I know I keep harping on that one)

    My second choice was kookaburra. Partly because I haven’t seen that shot before and love it, also because I like seeing something else represented besides roos, emus and goannas (not that there’s anything wrong with them…and you could still have a roo in that shot with the red shirts!).
    Kelly´s last blog post ..Favorite Five – Songs

  • Tracey
    August 16, 2010 at 11:00 am Reply

    I really do like that lizard on the rock. (It’s the colours, as Kelly says, but also it reminds me of the ones we see when we go canyoning.). It was a toss up with the kooka or the emu, but I loved those emu shots you took. (Dammit, got that John Williamson song in my head now!) Again, my votes are based purely on what I’d love hanging on my wall with your 2011 calendar!!
    Tracey´s last blog post ..Karma

  • Tami Weingartner
    August 16, 2010 at 12:51 pm Reply

    I’d trade them all tomorrow for a simple bush retreat
    where the kookaburras call.

    Give me a home among the gum trees,
    with lots of plum trees, a sheep or two, a ka-kangaroo.
    A clothes line out the back, verandah out the front,
    and an old rocking chair.

    Thanks to John Williamson I know what the call sounds like…..

    First picture I’ve seen of one though.

    Thanks!
    Tami Weingartner´s last blog post ..Heaven Is A Bass Pond

  • Leenie
    August 16, 2010 at 1:44 pm Reply

    Impossible choices. I would love to have ANY of them on my wall for a whole month. The bright lizard photo is wonderful, but I’m going for the roos and the emu just because I know the story behind the emu run and the roos are so happy and relaxed and Australian.
    Leenie´s last blog post ..LOOKIT!

    • Bush Babe
      August 16, 2010 at 6:32 pm Reply

      Comment away now – there is no real connection between the vote and the comment/entry in the print giveaway. Go back and comment now in each post – I am keeping them all ‘live’ til I finish the selection process…
      🙂
      BB

  • debby
    August 16, 2010 at 8:43 pm Reply

    I actually agree w/ TLee. Crop the kookaburra and the jogging emu (the little puff of dust makes me laugh for some reason…it gives you an idea of how fast he’s moving). That being said, I voted for the roo and the emu, although I’m a fan of anything that eats snakes (Sis boom bah, rah, rah, rah, goooooooooo Kookaburra!)
    debby´s last blog post ..Susans Video

  • Tara
    August 16, 2010 at 11:42 pm Reply

    I’m a sucker for bird-on-a-fence photos! The Kookaburra also look so like our Brown-hooded kingfishers 🙂
    And the lizard on the rock. Because of the composition. I love it!

    And I totally missed the give-away…silly me!

    AND (sorry last one) did I miss the weather post??
    Tara´s last blog post ..A Good Day Shopping 35-365

  • Nancy in Iowa
    August 17, 2010 at 2:07 am Reply

    Another hard decision! I don’t recall seeing a photo of a Kookaburra, and they’ve fascinated me since I learned the song in my childhood. Think of all the Yankee kids singing away about a Kookaburra sitting in an old gum tree with no clue what either a Kookaburra or a gum tree is!!! So, yes, I had to pick that one. I picked the lizard tongue because I love how Dash thrives on all animal experiences, and because I house sat for a friend a few years ago who had all sorts of creatures I had to care for, including a pair of Prehensile Tailed Skinks…loved those lizards! They climbed up to my head. Wish you’d been around to photograph proof of my efforts!

  • Patches
    August 17, 2010 at 4:15 am Reply

    Oh goodness…Must say I’m not sad to see the lizard lick is coming in with the least amount of votes. It does give me a case of the creepy crawlies. The Kookaburra pic is fabulous, what a cool little creature! And I’ve loved that emu shot since you first posted it!

  • Sal
    August 17, 2010 at 6:10 pm Reply

    Well this vote required the “help” of my 3yo son and 22mth old daughter. The lizard on the rock was my sons pick “…my favourite Mum” and the Kookaburra was my little girls – might have been helped by said sons kookaburra singing at the same time however! They would both be my pick too. I LOVE the lizard on the rock photo becuase of the greens, the reflections and shadows AND the water. Love water and love animals – and together…couldn’t get any better! Well, have to satisfy my childs needs to look at that lizard again Mum…. Thanks BB!!

  • Gem
    August 19, 2010 at 12:38 pm Reply

    Love the Kookaburra!!! Love seeing your wildlife shots – we are inundated with wildlife at the moment – hence no blogging for me! But I always make time to read you and
    P Dub while I am feeding wombats bottles!!!
    Gem´s last blog post ..Babies

  • Tabby Cat
    August 20, 2010 at 11:13 am Reply

    Such a hard choice…but had to go with the roos peaking up from the grass, not something we see very often here in Brooklyn 😉 and the emu run..well…first off, i’m a sucker for red-dirt roads, second, I read that blog and felt like I was right there in the car with you watching him (her?!)so… 🙂

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