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Lockdown Backyard

Eleanor Cheng and Philipp Glanz

On most weekends, my girlfriend and I will usually go into The Royal Botanic Garden for a walk as this is one of the closest parks to where we live. During the lockdown in 2020 and 2021, not only was this our almost daily exercise
walk, but this was also the highlight and one of the activities that made us feel like we weren’t too restricted compared to people living in other areas. We feel so lucky to have one of the most beautiful gardens as our backyard.

What made 2020 and 2021 even more special was, as this was what we cherished so much weekly, it made us notice so many more animals living in the gardens than we would have previously noticed. Looking up and around us really showed us how many different species of animals the gardens housed.

The photos (@philipps.world.of.photography and @australian_cockatoos) shown are a few of the highlights from our walks. The usual suspects are of course the water dragons, the ducks (and their chicks), sulphur-crested cockatoos, rainbow lorikeets, magpies, butcherbirds, white ibis, miner, and other interesting wildlike like possums, mice, eels…

...and some of the more special species we’ve seen include the Powerful Owl, Tawny Frogmouth, Black Cockatoo, and Spangled Drongos (firstly wrongly mistakenly with a blackbird).

Recently, we discovered some turtles, and also the famous seals at the Sydney Opera House came back as they opened up the public area around the Opera House after the lockdown.

Finally, sometimes it is a small treat to find a combination of great wildlife and flowers or scenery in and around the garden and to interact with the wildlife (if they want).