The Story Bridge in Blue & Purple

12/07/201518/09/2016 Norma MartiriAustralia, australian, Australian landmark, bridge, Brisbane, Brisbane River, cityscape, landmark, nightscape, Story Bridge23 Comments

Last week was the 75th Anniversary of the Story Bridge here in Brisbane. The bridge was lit up for the celebrations and the multi-coloured sequence came on every 30 minutes and lasted for 5 minutes each time. It was difficult to capture the scrolling lights so I hung around for an hour and a half on a cold windy night trying to capture it. That gave me three attempts and unfortunately I wasn’t successful in capturing it because of the scrolling/moving lights. In the end I frantically flicked it over to auto and managed to capture it in the very last photo I took before it stopped again. Disappointing but the ones without the scrolling lights turned out pretty good. After all this is one of my favourite subjects.

Koala

02/12/201409/02/2015 Norma Martirianimal, Australia, australian, australian native, koala, lone pine sanctuary12 Comments

A few more photos from my morning at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Unfortunately koala numbers are dwindling due to “progress”, bush fires, disease and road kill. It’s a sad situation for these beautiful creatures. Please donate to The Australian Koala Foundation if you would like to help.

Koala Facts: Koalas typically inhabit open eucalypt woodlands, and the leaves of these trees make up most of their diet. Because this eucalypt diet has limited nutritional and caloric content, koalas are largely sedentary and sleep for up to 20 hours a day. They are asocial animals, and bonding exists only between mothers and dependent offspring. Adult males communicate with loud bellows that intimidate rivals and attract mates. Males mark their presence with secretions from scent glands located on their chests. Being marsupials, koalas give birth to underdeveloped young that crawl into their mothers’ pouches, where they stay for the first six to seven months of their life. These young koalas are known as joeys, and are fully weaned at around a year. Koalas have few natural predators and parasites but are threatened by various pathogens, like Chlamydiaceae bacteria and the koala retrovirus, as well as by bushfires and droughts.