Oz: Weird Animal Encounters, Part 3

Kookaburra at a more comfortable distance from our campsite.Leeuwin Natl Park, Boranup campsite, Western Australia.

Leeuwin Natl Park, Boranup campsite, Western Australia. 

There I was, spreading out all our victuals for dinner prep, when suddenly “WWWHHHHRRRrrr.” 

Something about the size of a child’s football – I wasn’t quite sure what – missiled past my face and perched on the picnic table only about a foot from my face, but just out of my range of clear vision. Before I could make out what it was, Wayne started laughing his ass off.

Still startled, I turned. My eyes focussed… on a plump kookaburra staring impertinently back at me, and eyeing the pork chops I’d planned to cook for supper.

While I wasn’t sure if raw pork was a possible kookaburra delicacy but I wasn’t about to share our dinner makings.

“Gahhhhh!” I squawked, waving my hands menacingly between it and our pork chops. The kookaburra took the hint, hopping onto a nearby tree to continue its shrewd observation. It remained unperturbed while I walked back to our Land Cruiser, grabbed my camera and clicked off a few shots of it. I’m sure Wayne wished he’d had a camera to capture my startled expression; the kookaburra smirking nearby.

Our visitor was later joined by another kookaburra, their telltale laughter (click here to download a 5.5 MB file of their "song") echoing through the campsite (click here for the classic Ozzie song about kookaburra), while we ate our supper in otherwise relative peace as no bird got remotely that close again.

Of our Ozzie weird animal close encounters – our first with a LARGE spider (click here for that), our second with mouse starting in at us from our windshield (click here for that) – this third encounter was the funniest and least harmful to any of us.

What next? Australia’s great outdoors -- expect the unexpected!

Kookaburra calling cards, left on our picnic table… for the next unwary camper. Leeuwin Natl Park, Boranup campsite, Western Australia.

Location Location

This post is a recent flashback to our March 18, 2017 stop at Leeuwin Natl Park, Boranup campsite, Western Australia, between Pemberton and Bunbury, before we got to Perth.

Up Next

We are currently at Tom Price, at the entrance to Karijini National Park. After Karijini, we’ll head to Broome as we continue our clockwise tour of Australia’s ocean of land.