I was feeding the ponies this morning and saw that the cup gums were flowering so walked across the paddocks to get some of the flowers and some of the seed heads. I was so busy looking at the tree I didnt notice the two kangaroos who were underneath until they stood up and looked at me, by then I was about 6 feet away from them. The younger one then took fright and hopped off while the older doe still stood looking at me until I spoke to her and then off she went.
Unfortunatly they are becoming a dreadful pest as we are not allowed to cull them and there are far too many of them. We have provided good food and good water and as they have a joey at foot, one in the pouch and another in utero waiting to form if one of the others die it means an awful lot of kangaroos, and down here we dont have the droughts and very dry weather of the inland which causes natural deaths. A large problem and to be quite honest they are eating more grass here than the cows, and then we keep on growing more grass and so it goes on.They can move around, our cows cant. They are more and more a problem on the roads too, and make an awful mess of your car when you hit one.
I do like to see them but I also worry about our livelehood.
Enough of my tirade!
I love the cup gums, they have one of the largest flowers of our local eucalypts.
3 comments:
Lovely flower Penny and so interesting to see-so different from we have and you have given us such a nice view of it.
As I was reading about the kangaroos I was thinking how neat it was to see them so close but as you got into the problems-how bad for you.
Your flowers and foliage there are so different than we have here in the U.S. and I love the way you drew this one. Such interesting things in your own back yard... especially the kangaroos! :-) I can see how they could be a problem, though.
E. cosmophylla - exquisite.
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