mer. mer. merrrrrrrrr!

The title of this blog is the sound we wake up to, eat breakfast to, walk to class to, make our dinner to, sit outside and tan to, and what do you know... it’s also what we fall asleep to. That sound, my friends, is the most irritating bird call you will ever hear.

Have a listen to the video and you'll see what I mean!

Actually, every bird we have seen in Australia so far has had some kind of annoying sound. By annoying sound I don’t mean a cute little “chirp chirp chirp”....

The “mer mer merrrr” sound is the call of the common black bird which also enjoys rummaging through garbage like our racoons do back home. Other birds we’ve seen (and clearly heard) include the cockatoo with its deafening squawk, the kookaburra with its monkey-like chuckle, the currawong which sounds like someone trying to sing while gargling mouthwash and a bunch of others including magpies, gulls and ibis’ that chirp and chirp and chirp and... you get the point.



The Kookaburra!



The Cockatoo!

That is just in introduction to all the interesting wildlife we have seen here in Australia so far. The wild animals in Canberra are pretty amazing! Even though at times they can be irritating, it is awesome to see so many new creatures we never knew existed.

Yes, we’ve heard about the typical Australian animals like the koala, the wombat and the playtapus. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen any of these in the wild yet. We did however (after many days hunting for them) see some kangaroos! They are actually everywhere, usually around dusk in the fields and just the other night, two kangaroos hoped by our residence window.



Giant spider - kind unknown - found pretty much
everywhere around Sydney and Canberra



When it comes to insects, we have seen a few interesting ones so far—none of which have been the scary spiders I spent most of my pre-departure time thoroughly researching of course. These interesting critters include the cicada, a really ugly bug that continually makes that “hydro wire noise” on really hot days, giant black ants, praying mantises, grasshoppers and CRICKETS which are everywhere and are all you hear at night. As you may have guessed, we have also seen our fair share of spiders, most of which I have no idea what kind they are but some are really, I mean REALLY big and gross! Snakes on the other hand, (which are apparently very popular around here) we have not run across—thank god. We’ll see if that changes after all of our hiking field trips with Amanda Evans, our design professor here at UC.

The wildlife in Canberra is pretty awesome. But after our trip to Sydney for the weekend, we can now add a few more critters to the list...

FRUIT BATS. I have one word to descri....actually I have two words to describe these creatures: HUGE and ADORABLE! These cute bats have a wingspan of around two and a half feet and look like mini flying foxes. At night, they fly around everywhere which make an interesting backdrop in the night sky and never swoop down like bats back in Canada usually do. During the day they can be found sleeping in trees which are completely filled with them!

An Ibis!

The Ibis is another interesting bird that is very common in Sydney. They almost co-exist with pigeons and seagulls that flock to where people are eating or garbage is found. We also saw the webs of the infamous Sydney funnel web spider but were both too chicken to coax him out of his shelter. You see, the funnel web is one of the most deadly spiders found in southern Australia and has been known to kill its victims within 15 minutes to an hour! Now, they have anti-venoms to avoid death but it’s bite is extremely painful and that was something I was definitely no willing to take on. Can you tell I’ve been doing my research?

Anyways, that’s all for interesting wildlife we’ve seen in Aussie Land so far, Laura will tell you all about our awesome day at the zoo next! So, if you feel a little jumpy after this blog I apologize!

Cheers for now,

Mandy.