Stripes & Spots–Photo Practice at Melbourne Zoo

Zebras

Booking in advance one takes a chance on the weather at this time of year, in that it could turn out to be an awful cold and miserable day.

But we struck it lucky last Wednesday, it being a particularly mild winter’s day with ample sunshine. Perfect for a visit to Melbourne Zoo, where I have not been for over 20 years or so.

Though public admittance was restricted due to the covid19 pandemic to 2500 people, there were quite a few persons in attendance mostly parents with children.  I hate to think how many bodies would have been there on a normal day, so am thankful that numbers were limited as it was easy to snap unencumbered photos of the exhibits.

Upon arrival we headed off to the right, hoping it would lead us to the big cats who according to map were over there somewhere.

On the way we came across the comical meerkats, wonderfully photogenic beasts.

 
Meerkat on guard duty

Another meerkat on watch

From there it was onward to the giant tortoise, a peculiar sculpture indicating it was nearby.

Tortoise sculpture

Giant tortoise photographed through glass

We passed the Japanese garden…

Japanese Garden

…then headed back towards the centre pathway and came across the beautiful  old 19th century carousel, which was not operating, due to covid restrictions no doubt…

Old carousel

Carousel detail

…and the Peter Pan statue, an Australian version commissioned in 1926, created by Paul Montford.

 
Peter Pan statue

Peter Pan statue (detail)

On the way to the snow leopards we passed the pelicans and penguins…

Pelican

Penguins

…and eventually came to the Snow Leopard enclosure.

Mother leopard was sunning herself high up on the other side of the enclosure and the cubs were hidden, though when we returned a bit later one cub was visible, unfortunately slightly obscured by mother leopard’s  leg.

Snow Leopard cub

The Coatis and Tasmanian Devils were not visible, so we moved on to the lions, of which there were two males, gnawing on a snack of bones.

Lion

Lion close up

Close to the lions were the African wild dogs.

African wild dogs

Moving on, the peccaries and tapir were nowhere in sight, but we soon came to the giraffes and zebras and baboons.

Two zebras side by side – stripes in tandem

Giraffes – mother and foal

Long neck

Giraffe and zebra

Giraffe head shot

Baboons enjoying the sunshine

Walking back down the left side of the zoo, we ambled through the great flight aviary where a variety of water birds were on display.

Some kind of ibis?

Some kind of curlew?

more birds

Black cockatoo

Black Swan

Duck

The cassowary was in an enclosure by itself. Strange to see one up close and note how like a dinosaur it is.

Cassowary

Next up was the elephants and the tiger.

Elephant herd

More elephants

Another elephant

Tiger

Tiger again

and again (after all it’s not every day you can photograph tigers)

We’d been at the zoo for over three hours by this time so there were only  a few more sections to visit – the monkeys and primates.

Unfortunately the gorillas were too far away to get good shots and my monkey photos were not a success except for this spider monkey.

Spider monkey

The zoo charmers turned out to be the Lemurs who seemed almost tame, unenclosed, and sitting on perches close to the public walkway.

Lounging lemur

Lemur – such a long handsome tail

Lemur in an aura of afternoon sunlight

We were somewhat footsore by the end, but it had been an interesting outing and we even ran into an old acquaintance in Arch, who has been a zookeeper at Melbourne Zoo since 1988. Keeping to the regulatory social distancing we reminisced about old times when we were part of a social group that gathered at the Dan O’Connell Hotel in Carlton back in the 1970s and ‘80s.

And it was a pleasant change to take photos of beasts other than race horses.

Goodbye Old House

Northcote House

Today is the last day I will spend in the current residence as we are moving house tomorrow to the house in Ivanhoe.

After almost 31 years I am sad to be leaving, as I’ve always regarded the area as one of the best spots in Melbourne’s inner north suburbs.

It has certainly changed over the 30 or so years we’ve been resident.

Back in the 1980s it was a predominantly working class suburb with every second house owned by people of Greek, Italian, Macedonian, or Croatian heritage.

These days it’s very much professional couples who have taken over. There are doctors, lawyers and such occupying half the houses in the street. There are remnants of the old residents still here, the Crone across the road for instance.  We’ve never actually known her name, but she has provided us heaps of inadvertent amusement over the years with her busy bodying and nosiness and crazy obsessions with leaves and gutters. She’s always out in the street peering over fences and into parked cars.  On the original Google Earth map, there she was standing outside her house.

When we first moved in, back in October 1986 we had two cats and a dog. I can’t show photos of them as the old snaps are packed away, but the said animals were a black male cat called The Bear, a long haired black and white female cat called Maggie and my elderly Springer Spaniel dog, Arabel.

Arabel died in 1987 after swallowing a bone. We rushed her to Animal Urgent but they were unable to save her. She had been my constant companion for 14 years.

The Bear was very attached to Arabel having known her since he was a kitten, so missed her when she was gone. He died in January 1991 of kidney failure at the age of 10. Maggie survived for another five years before disappearing one night, never to be seen again. We’d found her as a kitten in a pub, to whence she had followed some patrons. We adopted her on the spot and she was a delightful cat who got on with other cats and dogs.

We replaced The Bear with Oscar, a beautiful Siamese cross who looked Burmese.  He was very sick as a kitten, suffering from Cat Flu from the day we acquired him. We nursed him back to health and he survived for 13 years before dying of a cancerous growth in his throat. He was a great cat, always a gentleman and very affectionate. 

Lizzie the Abyssinian took the place of Maggie and she and Oscar were great friends, curling up together and eating off the same plate.  She died of old age in 2012 at the grand cat age of 16 and I still feel sad when I come across a photo of her.

Oscar’s replacement was Willy whose recent death we still mourn.

And now of course we have Bingo and Talya, the last in a long line of cats who have cohabited this place over  30 + years.

So there are a lot animal memories we’re leaving behind as well as personal history.

With Spring imminent there are several things I shall miss when we move, such as the blooming of the lilac, the bush grown from a suckling from a lilac tree that grew in the backyard of a previous address. It took twenty years to produce flowers.

The sweet smell of the honeysuckle vine that grows in a fragrant ball on the pergola over the back decking. It’s a survivor as well – has always been there.

The purple irises which have been blooming every spring since we moved in…

…and the elegant Dutch irises – more recently planted.

Finally the Bella Donna lilies, which have bloomed every summer since we’ve lived here, always a surprise when they snake up from the ground and produce a gaudy display of lipstick pink lilies.

I’ll also miss the local birds – the game little blackbirds, the raucus wattle birds, lorikeets  and magpies, the tribe of local ravens, the tiny silver eyes and sundry other avian visitors.

No doubt there will be similar species out in Ivanhoe. In fact I spotted  a raven when were out there on Monday checking out the place in a final inspection.

The house in Ivanhoe hasn’t much of a garden just a vast expanse of lawn in the back. At least it may be possum free; native animals I will not miss at all no matter how cute they are. They are responsible for tree murder at the current address and are busy trying to kill more.

Hopefully the cats will settle in easily. They’re apprehensive at all the packing activity and no doubt will be alarmed when the moving van turns up. Talya should be OK, but we intend to lock Bingo out of harms way while its happening. And we’ll keep them both confined indoors for several days at the new place.

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Alexander Palm in flower with lorikeets

An explanation is needed methinks.

The Alexander Palm pictured above grows at the back of the rear garden. B acquired it many years ago and it sat in a pot for at least five years before he planted it in its present situation. It grew, and grew, and grew like Jack’s beanstalk, and now towers over the back laneway.

Earlier this year it flowered for the first time, and it attracted swarms of bees initially, then the lorikeets arrived en masse.

It appears as if it will flower again next year as it has pods of some sort, which may very well be flower buds.

On the subject of plants, a strange plant self seeded in a pot and started growing. B thought it could be a sort of weed, but a few months ago, when on his daily walk he chanced upon some parkland gardeners with an identical plant. They told him it was a Kangaroo Apple.

He planted it next to the fence, and it too grew with incredible speed. From a small shrub it grew to a large bush in the space of a few weeks.

It started flowering recently –  in vibrant purple clusters.

Kangaroo Apple flower

The fruit of the Kangaroo Apple is poisonous apparently. The possums are not in the least attracted to it, which is a blessing; after all they have succeeded  in killing three plum trees and greatly limiting the fruiting of the loquat and fig trees.