Healesville Animal Sanctuary

I went with a couple of friends to Healesville Sanctuary on Tuesday. Though we only began our journey from the Surrey Hills, we only arrived there an hour and a half later.

The kids there were noticeably excited before the Birds of Prey show.

Its held in a large open air arena where folks can see the birds swooping from the air onto the middle of the stage. It's a pretty neat thing, I must say.

Here's a large bird cracking open an "emu egg" with a small rock. Unfortunately, there's nothing inside so it's waiting for the trainer to throw a piece of meat at him as a reward.

The sparrow hawk is one of the smaller predatory birds, but its very agile when its in flight.

The wedge tailed eagle is one of Australia's largest birds of prey and one of the largest eagles in the world.

A close up of the eagle's head.

This is Kevin, the long billed Corella, and he can ''talk". Quite entertaining, I must say.

Chimping after the bird show.

We saw some koalas too, but unfortunately they were pretty much asleep.

Koalas live relatively simple lives, as you can see here.

Australia's most famous animal is also unfortunately a pest to farmers. It also tastes better than beef, I must say.

The Healesville Animal Health Center is also better equipped than a hospital in most third world countries!

The roof's distinctive shape helps to channel hot air outwards, hence the interior of the building remains relatively cool.

The Australian Emu.

The reptile section can be a bit boring at times.

In the semi-enclosed bird sections, the birds really can't stop moving around. It took some time before I finally could nail a shot of this small critter.

The Australian Echidna is a distinctively Australian animal, yet its unusual because this mammal lays eggs. This fellow was hiding in between the branches, so it was tough to nail a shot of its activities.

A brown dove.

This bird looks like it has a perpetual red hairdo.

Another birdie walking on the ground.

It took a lot of swearing and getting lost to reach back to the city, but fortunately, we got home anyway

Hope you've enjoyed this series. Have any of you been to Healesville Sanctuary too?

Cheers.