The unexpected mob

via Daily Prompt: Haul

My work in regional areas is always busy.  My appointments run back to back, sometimes with barely 15 minutes for lunch.  So my reasoning is simple.  There is no better reason than this, than to have a bit of fun wherever I am.

The draw card at Narrogin is Foxes Lair.  I go there usually in the mornings.  I love the sounds of the bush as it awakes.  The larger birds – the large Carnaby Black Cockatoos, the Australian ringnecks, the kookaburras, the crows that sounds like they are hurt (aww, awww, awwwww), the pink and grey galahs create a cacophony before the tweets of the smaller birds are heard.  I love them all.

Autumn has arrived in Narrogin sooner than in the city.  There’s fog in the air at night and early morning, with just a hint of chill.  It is also the perfect time to eat breakfast in the reserve with just the birds in the canopy for company.  So I bought myself a coffee and a freshly baked danish and treaded my car through the narrow bush track in semi-darkness and waited for light.

At dawn I realised there were no flowers left in Foxes Lair, so there were no birds, but, the bees were humming up a storm among the prickly dryandra.  Disappointed, I was ready to haul my heavy heart into the car and return home.  My heart skipped a beat.

I know this reserve well now having visited it dozens of times.  I know a novel shape when I see one.  Was that a tree stump?  No!  It can’t be!

Not far away from my car, was a Western Grey kangaroo and joey.  Aren’t they perfect in the bush!

These looked different to the ones in Esperance.

The eyes, large and luminous.

Was that curiosity or a ‘don’t mess with me’ look?  This one was huge, the stance looked threatening.

With another joey, much paler than the other one, they were eight in the mob.  They stared at me in silence.  Oh!  I wished my heart didn’t beat so loud!

For me, there’s nothing more beautiful than seeing kangaroos in the bush where they belong.  Their behaviour is different to the ones who are familiar with humans.  The wild kangaroos are shy and elusive.  I know they are here in the reserve but rarely see them, so this was a special treat.

I drove out of the Lair, and headed home.  My smile stretched from ear to ear.

The circumstances in my life have been a gift.  I received it, not knowing what was within it when I did.  Looking at these pictures, perhaps what was within, was being child like, and the ability to delight in the world around me.

Until next time

As always

a dawn bird