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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Azzy" data-source="post: 1893439" data-attributes="member: 83206">Thanks guys <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> There's plenty more where they came from <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" />Yesterday, there was a brief ray of sunshine in the afternoon so I convinced myself to get out the house and very lazily drove around to the creek in the center of town to shoot the ducks and resident dusky moorhens. I'd only taken a couple of photos of ducks in sunlight when a splash in front of me caught me attention. I thought perhaps I'd spooked a darter. I conveniently forgot the change the settings on my camera for the shadow that the section of water was in and followed the trail of bubbles until a healthy looking native water rat Hydromys chrysogaster, popped his head above water. I snapped one photo, the sound of the lens spooked it again and he was gone. Lost track of it after that so I only ended up with one poorly exposed photo. Still, then sun on other parts provided for some decent shots of the pacific blacks (or at least hybrids, it's can be so hard to tell). For those who are curious, water rats are just under twice the size of black or brown rats, so a decent size <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" />I then took some shots of a pair of galahs up a red gum, the female is on the right. Some of the shots were better lit, but most of them were showing the females rude bits <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite7" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":p" /> Came across 3 bunches of sawfly larva in a young eucalypt. Some sort of Perga sp. I hung around a bit, hoping to see the water rat again for some better photo ops, but no such luck, I'll have to try again another day <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" />...continued next post.</blockquote>

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