24 August to 24 September 2021, Canberra, ACT

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Currently we are in lockdown in Canberra with small levels of COVID at large while Victoria and NSW are also in lockdown with much larger COVID levels.   Hospitals and ambulance services in NSW and Victoria are already over capacity.  Current caseload indicates this will get worse and opening up prematurely for political reasons rather than health advice will not help.   Levels are much higher in NSW and Victoria probably due to flouting of the restrictions there including demonstrations and football final celebrations.  We are in this situation primarily due to the failure of the Federal Government to obtain timely vaccination supplies, set up quarantine centres and financially support the more vulnerable in the population (whereas large businesses are not required to repay hundreds of millions of dollars of excess payments).   Also because the NSW failed to lock down at the first Deltas case and instead waited 10 days.

The one hopeful factor is that vaccination is rapidly increasing.  Fully vaccinated people can still get COVID but they are less infectious, far less likely to have to go to hospital and then less likely to get long COVID.  In the ACT as of yesterday, we have 89.2% receiving the first dose and 60.9% fully vaccinated.

So in the meanwhile, as I said, we are in lockdown.  We mainly stay at home and currently we can leave to exercise for two hours a day in our local area.  This is slowly easing starting from the end of the week.  I am lucky to live at the edge of a nature reserve so I have been going out and photographing on many days.  Here are a selection of wildlife images from that.

I will continue making such posts midweek during lockdown though it may not be every week.

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Eastern grey kangaroos.

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Grey fantail.

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Eastern grey kangaroo.

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Eastern grey kangaroos.

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Australian Magpie.

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Eastern grey kangaroo.

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Sulphur-crested Cockatoos.

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Little Corella (rare in Canberra).

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Common Bronzewing (though not common for me).

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Female Blue Wren.

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Pied Currawang.

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Chough.

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Australian Wood Ducks

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An Australian Wood Duck performing for me.

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Kookaburras.

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Crimson Rosellas.

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Australian Wood Ducks.

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Cunningham’s Skinks.

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Galah.

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Peewee or Magpie-Lark.

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Eastern Rosellas courting…

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Galahs pairing up…

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This post is the first of a short series of images from Lockdown in Canberra.  The next one is here, two posts on.  They are interspersed with Uzbek monochrome posts.