February 5 – Warrnambool and Nature Walks at Tower Hill

First stop today is Tower Hill…the crater of a dormant volcano and a great wildlife refuge.  We hadn’t made it out of the picnic area when we saw two koala’s napping in a tree.  How special.

We took a walk around one of the lakes in the crater…

and saw two more koala’s in a tree.  We also saw some emus across the lake.

Just as we returned from our hike the emus came out to wander the lawns near the visitor’s center (think they were looking for handouts). 

We saw a black-winged stilt,

a silvereye (there is a small ring of white feathers around the eye, giving the bird its name)

and an unidentified bird (part of the fun of taking photos of birds is trying to figure out later what type they are…this one eluded us.  .

We also saw a number of black swans and cygnets near the shore of one of the lakes…

and what looked to be female blue-billed ducks.

After making reservations for the evening nature walk we headed back to town.  First stop was the Blue Hole, a lovely beachy area on the estuary of the Hopkins River.

While there Mary got a photo of another mystery bird...

and New Holland Honeyeater.

We then went back to the hotel, dropped off the car and walked down to the Merri Marine Sanctuary. 

We saw lots of gulls from a distance but didn't see any Little Penguins.  These endangered penguins are only about 13 inches tall and are the smallest species of penguins.  The colony was almost wiped out by dogs, foxes and cats until someone got the idea of training maremmas dogs to protect them during breeding season.  Since introducing the protective dogs the colony has grown from about 10 penguins to 180.

We later had a good walk around town.

There was a lot of art, particularly murals, to be seen.

We stopped  at the top of a hill to see the Lady Bay Low Lighthouse with great views of the ocean beyond.

That evening we went back out to Tower Hill for our nature walk.  In the parking lot we saw a Splendid Fairy Wren…

and later an Australian Magpie.

As we waited for the guide to come the kangaroos started coming out…in droves.  

Including mothers with joeys in their pouches...

and a large joey that nursed.

And then the emus came out. 

The guide told us about the kangaroos and emus and then did a demonstration of aboriginal spear throwing and boomerang throwing.  She was great.  The rest of us not so much.

The walk also included a talk about aboriginal culture and history.  They now believe that aboriginal people arrived in Australia as much as 120,000 years ago.

Mary modeled a cape made of possum skins.  It was very soft and warm.

Once it was quite dark we headed out through the trails to try to find koalas.  She used a large flashlight with a red light (so it wouldn’t blind the animals) and it didn’t take her long to find the first one. 

We way the tale of a wallaby (he was hiding well in the brush) and some eastern grey kangaroos, much smaller than the red kangaroos.

All in all it was an excellent walk.