Saturday, December 24, 2005

Twelve Days of an Aussie X-mas

Here's our version of the 12 days of Christmas, Aussie style (plus explanations; could be sung along to the popular Christmas carol, but that is not encouraged!)

Twelve Roaches Scurrying

Regular readers of our blog know that this needs no further description. Note that when the temperature exceeds 40 C, the little buggers start to FLY!

Eleven Lorikeets Singing

Very pretty, very colorful little, very loud birds that awake at first light (5:30am!)

Ten Roos a Jumping

The Roos actually hop.

Nine Wombats Scratching

Wombats are famous for sleeping on their backs and scratching. Since they are nocturnal, the only thing you ever really get to see them do during the day is scratch. (Wombats, by the way, are the closest living relative to the koala.)

Eight Bowlers Bowling

We had to get a cricket reference in here somehow.

Seven Black Swans a Swimmin'

There are many swans in Sydney, and they are all black. They live in Centennial Park were Nick plays baseball.

Six Koalas Sleeping

Now that I have pet a koala (at the very cool Featherdale Wildlife Park), I can claim that I am a koala expert. Koalas sleep up to 18 hours a day, and spend the other 6 hours eating Eucalyptus. Koalas are soft and cuddly, and we're figuring out how to kit out the bathroom to make it hospitable to a little marsupial. The koala is not endangered, so it is ok to pet, right?

Five Golden Chips


Mmm... even after the chip moratorium, we still occasionally enjoy a fried potato.

Four Kookaburras

The kookaburra sounds surprising like a monkey, they eat fish and have been known to steal food off the BBQs.

Three Echidnas Sniffing

My favorite animal, the echidna sniffs out ants and grubs and slurps them up.

Two Fruit Bats

The bats are very happy this time of year -- lots of bugs and lots of fruit.

One Tawny Frogmouth in a Eucalyptus Tree

The Tawny Frogmouth is my new favorite bird. They blend into the environment, looking a lot like a tree branch. They're very cute and very soft, and we got to hold one at the Wildlife Park.

We hope you all have a Merry X-mas and Happy New Year!

posted by Peggy C. at 7:12 PM