Australian Animals - Wild & Free - not in zoos

then one came out from the foliage and climbed up onto a dead branch

Parent waiting in the backdrop

Local Bushturkey. There was one at my front door last week and the Uber Driver delivering our dinner thought it might be a pet. They're quite large compared to say a chicken. My cats were in fear of it.

Large Garden Orb Weaving Spider that I had to relocate before spraying a European Wasp Nest that was beneath her web.

These Emu are everywhere when you get away from the city. This one lives on a property between Bathurst and Sofala with at least two or possibly three others. I usually see them down near a watering hole close to the road.

A Juvenile Male Harlequin Bug over an old gravestone A bird shot past me as I was taking this picture and all the bugs (these insects are "true bugs") on this tree took on a defensive posture. I snatched my camera from the leaf and ran. If you've been sprayed by stinkbug before you'll understand this.

A healthy male Eastern Water Dragon that lives under a log. He suns himself on top of the log whenever the weather is good.

Colorful male Rainbow Lorikeet feeding from nectar in a native tree.

I was curious to see how close I could get to a pelican before it either flew away or turned on me.

A completely different Male Eastern Water Dragon who took a stand against me when I arrived in a park to meet my wife. She had been feeding the lizard the only thing she had on hand - which was bread. The lizard charged me to scare me away. But when he saw us talking to each other he relaxed and lay down next to me to take in the sun with his arms/legs laid out in a way that showed he was comfortable with us there. My wife is in the blurry bokeh on the right.

A male Rainbow Lorikeet in the Banana tree at my parents house.

One of the local Ibis birds at Parramatta park (which, to my surprise, now has World Heritage Status). Colloquially named "The Bin Chicken" due to their ability to survive in an urban and city environment by employing their long curved beaks to pull food from trashcans, these birds are normally skittish.

Fruit Bat (Grey Headed Flying Fox) drinking water at Parramatta river. This one comes from a colony of 1.3 million. They have a 3.5 foot wing span and fly over my house each night to get to the orchards in the mountains.

A Shingleback Lizard that I rescued from a pit dig by a Gold Prospectors in the 1800s. He would have died if we'd left it in the hole. I gave him some water, took a few pictures and left him in a safer spot.

Praying Mantis at Sunrise - at the Bellbird Lookout at Kurrajong. Mantis was about 4 inches long or shorter.

Local native 'Noisy Miner' Bird in a Jacaranda tree at the end of my street.

The sharp tail spine of a Blind Snake. They use it to anchor themselves so birds can't pull them out of a hole or a crevice.

Local Wallaby. There's a very serious drought here at the moment and these things are just about everywhere looking for food.

A large and healthy common Eastern Water Skink with a great little lookout hole in a stone wall at the Mount Tomah gardens in the Sydney Blue Mountains.

A 6ft long Lace Monitor (common Goanna) at the end of my street. I had caught a slightly smaller one a month earlier and the experience left me with a healthy respect for these powerful reptiles. The muscular tail serrations can cut ...and when lashing out it can take out an eye. The claws are like an eagle's talons and the mouth contains a weak venom in the saliva, horrible bacteria and long, recurved, serrated teeth that can slice through just about anything. It took two people to unhook the smaller one from my arm and hand and everyone ended up bleeding just to get it off me. i wasn't going to mess with a larger one.

A pod of Humpback Whales off the coast at Terrigal. Photographed from the balcony at my parent's house.

Some sort of Water Fowl at Parramatta Park.

An extremely healthy male Eastern Water Dragon at the Lake Parramatta reserve

Water Bug on the surface of the water in an outside watering hole.

A juvenile Orb Weaver between two blades of grass at night in my backyard.

I have absolutely no idea what this critter is. But I only saw it because I noticed two extremely tiny red mites on its back. It is very nicely camouflaged on a gum tree at the local park.

Local Grey Headed Flying Foxes (Fruit Bats) from the Parramatta colony.

Ogre-faced Web Casting Spider in a potplant outside my kitchen window at night.

This is a Perons Tree Frog that I rescued from a busy road durng a rainstorm last year. It now lives nearby and visits my illuminated doorbell at night to catch bugs. He was at my doorstep the other night when I checked for a parcel so i took his picture.

A tiny Mountain Dragon that interfered with an archeological dig this year.

Some sort of jumping spider in my mother's garden.

The Sulfur Crested Cockatoo is almost a pest around here. I took a picture of my neighbor's house and he had over 30 on the front lawn.

An Australia Wedgetailed Eagle at almost 2000mm (taken with two double-stacked extenders on a long lens). I saw another being harassed by a Noisy Miner Bird last week out at Eagle Beagle (NSW). The region of Eagle Beagle was named after someone's beagle was carried off by one of these enormous birds of prey. They're about 3 times the mass of an American Bald Headed Eagle.

A species of Jumper Ant (Bull Ant) that I haven't seen before - this one was photographed at St Ives, NSW. These types of ants rate No3 - just under stingrays, stone-fish and box jellyfish - for pain and were described by one of our leading venom toxicology specialists as "like being stung by 200 bees at once". I tend to agree. I've been stung three times by variants of this ant (including the Jack Jumper) and the pain is unusually profound. My kidneys ached for hours afterward. They can jump up to 5 inches at a time and are attracted to movement. Just horrible. I really hate these ants.

Corellas arguing in a tree at Parramatta Park Reserve.

A "Blue Button" Hydrozoa (a jellyfish-type of creature) washed up on the beach near Norah Head Lighthouse (NSW)

The deadly Blue Ringed Octopus. Not the best picture but they only grow to 4 inches and this one was under water at the time. I found four of them feeding in the same rockpool at low tide. I used to keep them in a salt water aquarium but there's a couple of risks associated with keeping them (plus they only live for a few months). Will try to photograph some at Narabeen (NSW) again in November. Despite only growing to the size of your thumb, these octopus carry enough venom to kill 26 adults within 20 minutes.

A deadly Sydney Funnel Web Spider I stopped to photograph on the outer suburbs of Sydney (NSW). After some lobbying and exchanges between professional toxicologists, I managed to convince the Guinness Book of Records to place this spider at the number One position for the title of World's Deadliest Spider due to deaths from their previous placeholder (Brazilian Wandering Spider) as being unconfirmed and more likely to be an allergic reaction. The Funnel Web Spider's venom has evolved to kill invertebrates and (curiously) primates. There's a tree-dwelling coastal species that is up to 20 times more toxic. I'll be out catching them again either tomorrow or possibly next week. This one is a juvenile.