After a Saturday of heavy spring rains, Sunday dawned sunny and warm. We assumed that mountain biking would be unfair to the soggy trails, hence headed over to Daisy Hills sans bikes, intending to do some trampling around the walking trails there. The Paperbark Trail was, as usual, gorgeous, especially after the rain.

After that we ambled over to the Koala Centre. On the way we found the day’s first surprise: A Noisy Miner nest, fairly close to the park, clearly with eggs in them — the mother wouldn’t leave the nest for more than a couple of minutes.

Then, an extremely photogenic young kookaburra sat just outside the Koala Centre, totally ignoring the people standing around it and pointing cameras.

Unusually, the Koala Centre was full of visitors, many with small children. I suppose even the koalas couldn’t sleep through that, hence the unusual activity:

We slowly moved back into the direction of our car, via some crows that were arguing loudly about a scrap of food.

Then, on the edge of the picnic area, a kangaroo! More to the point, a kangaroo with a joey in its pouch! This is the first time we’ve seen one since Lysterfield Lake Park in Melbourne four years ago. I’ve got dozens of shots; here are a couple:

The mother was clearly teaching youngster how to find food: 1) Approach picnic area; 2) If there are humans, look pathetically hungry; 3) if humans are off elsewhere for a moment, steal all the food. Question. What does one do if there is only a single human there, and he’s asleep? Unfortunately I didn’t get the shot when the boy woke up with a start, staring directly at the kangaroo. It’s hard to say who got the bigger shock. It was hilarious to watch from a distance. This was the initial scene.

Bonus pictures of kangaroo and kookaburra on my Google+ page. If you would like a Google+ invite, just grab one from the links on the right!