The golden brushtail possum is actually just a color variation of the common brushtail possum. They are quite rare to see in the wild and exist only in Tasmania and south of Sydney on the mainland. I was able to photograph this one at the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary, which rescues orphaned and injured animals with the aim of getting them back into the wild. Bonorong is also one of the many sanctuaries doing its best to save the Tasmanian devil from extinction. The golden brushtail is not an albino, but instead, gets its white coloration from a genetic mutation.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 20mm) ISO 1600, f/2.8 at 1/1600th of a second

I think this might be my favorite photo of the Tasmanian trip. I had my camera down on the ground and my flash on a tripod off to the right, about equal distance from me and the devil. Because I was on the ground and the background was a good distance behind the devil, I was able to illuminate just the face and nothing else. A well placed bush, also helped cut the light from hitting anything in the background. There were a couple of faint highlights back there on the resulting image, but I was able to hide them with a vignette and a tone curve. The Tasmanian devil has the strongest bite compared to body size of any animal. Those considerable teeth are built for crushing bone. This young guy was actually just having a good yawn while waiting patiently for an older devil to abandon a wallaby kill.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 800, f/8 at 1/250th of a second, Nikon SB-900 flash

When I first visited Australia ten years ago, the one thing that really stuck with me was how many amazing birds there were to photograph. I had to work a bit harder in Tasmania, but there was still such a great variety of feathered creatures to capture. This is a flame robin, a very small, but very striking bird. I saw about five of them in my fifteen days, but this was the closest I was able to get. As an added bonus, it just so happened to have a grub in its beak.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/2500th of a second

Weird title, I know, but that’s what it looks like this young forester kangaroo is doing. The rainbow is actually a lens flare, courtesy of aiming my camera into the sun. It was early morning on Maria Island and I was just heading home for breakfast when I saw a group of forester (aka eastern grey) kangaroos going about their kangaroo business, backlit by the rising sun.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/5 at 1/4000th of a second

I wasn’t sure which of these shots I liked best, so I figured I’d post the sequence. This is a Cape Barren Goose, native to southern Australia, including Tasmania. They were all over Maria Island, although as I mentioned last week when I posted the Tasmanian devil, they may not be there for long. The geese nest in open grassland, making their chicks easy prey. Many of them have taken to spending more time on the beach to get away from the devils. Some conservationists aren’t happy about the introduction of the devils to Maria Island because they weren’t there originally, but neither were the geese. They were introduced in 1968. Maria Island aside, the Cape Barren Goose is doing quite well in the rest of its limited range throughout southern Australia. They are very large and attractive geese that rarely swim, although they are capable of drinking saltwater.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 35mm) ISO 800, f/2.8 at 1/500th, 1/640th and 1/640th of a second, respectively

The common brushtail possum lives up to its name. I saw a lot of them — both in Tasmania and on my previous trip to Australia ten years ago. The Tasmanian version of the common brushtail, however, has a much different look than the ones I saw on the mainland. They are much more chocolate/brown in color, as opposed to silver/grey. And they tend to spend more time on the ground, rather than in trees. This guy, however, was nestled into a nice flowering pine, as if sitting on his throne, and waving to me as I took his picture. Like most of the wildlife in Tasmania, the common brushtail is strictly nocturnal — nowhere to be seen during the day, but once the sun went down, everywhere.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 3200, f/8 at 1/200th of a second

I’ve photographed echidnas before (on my previous trip to Australia back in 2006). Even so, they were at the top of my list to get photos of on this most recent trip to Tasmania. For an animal that seems to aimlessly wander around, and rarely picks its head up from the ground, they somehow still manage to pack a ton of personality into their little spiked bodies. They are monotremes — along with the platypus — the only egg laying mammals left on earth. This echidna gave me a rare treat by lifting his/her head up, allowing me to get a shot of the open eyes. The echidnas on Tasmania are the same species as the ones on mainland Australia, but they have less spikes and are furrier of face.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 220mm) ISO 200, f/5.6 at 1/15th of a second

Off the southern tip of Tasmania’s Bruny Island (or as the locals call it, the Bottom End) there are several rocky islands inhabited by colonies of both Australian and New Zealand fur seals. The two species are very similar, although the New Zealand fur seals tend to be a bit smaller and darker. The sea was very rough on the day that I visited and we weren’t able to maneuver the boat very close, but it was the perfect distance to capture landscape shots of the crashing waves below the colony.
Nikon D800 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 70mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/6400th of a second

Tasmania, like most of Australia, is a great birding spot. There are twelve endemic species on the island (meaning found only in Tasmania). All of them have never been recorded on the mainland. I was able to get decent looks at eight of the twelve. This is the only parrot that makes the list — the green rosella (although the endangered orange-bellied parrot and the swift parrot are known as breeding endemics — they breed only in Tasmania but migrate to the mainland outside of breeding season). Rosellas are beautiful birds, and in addition to the green rosella, there are five other species found throughout Australia and the surrounding islands (on a previous trip, I managed to photograph the crimson and the eastern rosella). The green rosella is the largest of the six species. They are actually a bit more on the yellow side, with blues, reds and greens mixed in. They typically feed on the ground and primarily eat seeds, berries, nuts, flowers and fruit, as well as the occasional insect. This guy was munching on a purple thistle weed and didn’t seem to mind all the prickers — at least not at the time.
Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 400, f/4 at 1/1250th of a second