Spring & Summer Wildlife & Wildflowers in Australia

Springtime brings a whole new burst of colour to our National Parks, parks and gardens and home gardens, with wildflowers and tree blossoms bursting out in colourful flowers and heady scents. It also brings out the wildlife on the hunt for food, sometimes with spring babies in tow.

For such hardy trees I’m often surprised at the finely delicate flowers that burst into bloom on Eucalypts (gum trees). Sometimes the flowers are so subtle that you don’t notice them at first but they bring the wild birds and bees around. There are many great honeys you can buy which have been flavoured by various gum blossoms, delicious.

Wildlife is on the move too, kangaroos and emus can be seen in protected areas as well as rural areas and plenty of lizards are out and about sunning themselves. Unfortunately this means there are quite a few on roads at the moment so it pays to keep your eyes open and avoid them if at all possible. Recently I’ve spotted blue tongue lizards and sleepy or stumpy tail lizards. In fact we have a resident blue tongue lizard living in our yard at home, his rustling in the dry leaves always keeps us alert but so far it’s only been him.

Something no one is ever too keen to see but must be aware of in Australia are snakes, which are absolutely out now too. You have to assume if you’re near long grass and scrub, whether it’s in the bush or suburbia, there could be snakes. Even at the beach you’re not safe, recently on a morning walk we noticed a small brown snake retreating quickly from a sandy path to the beach.  There are warnings around where you should pay extra attention but it’s always still an unsettling occurrence.

It’s definitely the time of year to be alert and always keep your pets on leash when walking them too. The joys of summer in Australia! In the words of poet Dorothea Mackellar, ‘Her beauty and her terror, the wide brown land for me’.

Enjoy

Glenys

15 thoughts on “Spring & Summer Wildlife & Wildflowers in Australia”

  2. Wonderful post and pics Glenys. I love blue tongues but I must admit I have to doubly check when I see the head that’s it’s nothing more sinister! Like the tiger snake I saw recently. 😮

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  3. The only good thing is they really don’t want to interact with us, I have a mortal fear of eastern browns and they are everywhere where I live.
    I noticed a snake warning sign at the beach recently, right at the shower, warning that the snakes are there for the fresh water. Sharks in the surf, snakes on the sand, sometimes living here really is an adventure. Lovey photos, especially lovely seeing the young emus.

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    1. I know we must be mad right? I don’t know how many times I scare myself silly when a bird rustles around in bushes. 🤦🏼‍♀️ I think the “scared weird little guys” nailed it with their comedy song- “come to Australia you might accidentally get killed” 🤣

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      2. Yep and bloody everywhere! Size doesn’t matter either, sometimes the smaller they are the more potent the venom. Luckily they really do prefer not to interact with humans so I’ve only ever seen a couple in the wild in my lifetime but I don’t want to think about how many saw me that I didn’t know about. 😱

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