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June 12th was our last morning in Australia. Waking up early that day, I was already satisfied in the wildlife we'd seen, and the photos I'd gotten. Koala! Kangaroo! Cassowary! Parrots galore! With a LOOOOONNNG set of flights ahead, I debated sleeping in with the family, or getting up early and going birding. Given I may never again set foot in Australia, I decided yes, I needed to go out.
I'm SO glad I made that choice. I had such an incredibly fun morning birding in Centennial Park in Sydney. There were probably a dozen bird species that I hadn't seen or photographed on the trip, until that morning. But my favorite wild critter from the morning flew, but didn't have feathers! Centennial Park is home to a roost of HUNDREDS of giant fruit bats. Grey-headed Flying Fox, and I think there are also a Black Flying Fox (although I only saw the former). We'd seen giant fruit bats up in the Port Douglas and Cairns area, but only single bats as they flew in for the night. We never saw one roosting.
Centennial Park though not only had hundreds but they were in plain sight. In fact, you couldn't HELP but notice them, not only for the visual impact they made, but because of the audio impact. They were LOUD! Who knew!?!? We don't have a lot of experience with gigantic fruit bats here in South Dakota!
Most were hanging upside down and hunkered in for some sleep. However there were quite a few that (surprisingly to me) were moving around and interacting, including some taking flight and moving between perches. All were roosting rather high up, so it was a challenge to get photos from an angle that wasn't so steep.
You'll also notice that some of the bats below are, um....quite decidedly, um....male. As in CLEARLY male. Again, for someone who doesn't deal with giant fruit bats too often, who knew? :-)
Click here to return to home page for Australia trip photos
Click on photos below for a higher-resolution view
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Please mail any comments/suggestions/additional links for this page to: Terry L. Sohl