A few days ago we had to drive up to the Byfield State School so my sisters could do the nation-wide student testing. While they were doing tests, dad and I read the overview of the Federal Budget in the gardens just opposite, which are part of the Byfield general store. I also took some photos.
A really pretty flower in the gardens. I think I’ve finally cracked taking photos of flowers. I’d say the basic rules would be: Put the foreground in focus and make the background blurry, get real close in on the flower and try to shoot in sunlight!
On the way back from Byfield we also dropped in at Red Rock State Forest, which we’ve camped at before. It is known for being infested with mozzies, but because of the cool weather there weren’t too many around. The creek there is really pretty, although the rangers have fenced it all off because of crocodile sightings.
The next stop before home was Cooberrie Park, which is a wildlife sanctuary (a bit like Australia Zoo on the Sunshine Coast – Bindy and Terri have actually visited Cooberrie Park BTW) so that my sisters could get some rats from the owners. They will breed them and then give Cooberrie Park some of the babies. Anyway on the way out we nearly walked past a Tawny Frog-Mouth Owl, which was just sitting on the railing.
It didn’t fly away when we approached, and a staff member said that we could pat it! I think it had been hand-reared since baby-hood. Patting the owl was like patting any bird, except if you touched the Owl’s beak it would open up it’s mouth (which is really wide and yellow inside) and gives you a very gentle bite.
Patting the Tawny Frog-Mouth owl. It has really cute little feathers sticking up from it’s head as you can see.
This time looking very alert. Maybe it had just seen the rats 
.
