We have had many tree-kangaroo sightings lately. The older female, in particular, has been around the cabin and house for many hours, preventing me from attending to entropy-fighting indoor chores 🙂
How is one to concentrate on cleaning the cabin, when she is bending a shrub to the ground near the birdbath, trying to balance on small branches, while reaching out for the fresh shoots at the tips?
Here she is just outside our office, while a visiting friend is editing her photographs taken the previous day:
She gave us ample opportunities to watch her feeding in very low shrubs just meters away. Not sure, whether she noticed us and chose to ignore us (she should be used to us by now, after sharing her territory with us for many years), or whether she is not the brightest of forest dwellers.
She has been feeding constantly for many hours, even forgoing her usual siesta. Our assumption is, that she is eating for two now, as we observed her cleaning her pouch in December, and an older male tree-roo was here, too.
The honey-eaters were quite acrobatic, too, on their wildly swinging feeder!
As if that wasn’t enough entertainment, an immature Victoria’s Riflebird started displaying above the tree-roo:
The riflebirds have been making themselves scarce lately, probably knowing that they are not looking their best while they are moulting. Nevertheless, one adult male briefly hopped onto the display perch near the cabin:
While the female tree-kangaroo was happily feeding almost at ground level, two weeks ago the male climbed to dizzying heights in a big Rose Gum, feasting for hours on a Silkpod Vine, which probably has never encountered a tree-kangaroo in its life before.
