Flying Foxes

I was living in Sydney for a while already, maybe a year or so. I had a catch-up over the phone with a friend from abroad who was studying Biology at the time. He was very excited about me being in Australia, for this country is an amazing place to experience nature and to study it too.

And then he asked me if I had seen the flying foxes at night in the city. I hadn’t noticed them really, even I think I do pay attention to animals in general.

After that talk, I started to see them everywhere. After the sun starts to go down, if you look into the sky, you got some chances to see them roaming the sky looking for food, or doing whatever flying foxes do.

They are quite unique creatures, and they inhabit the city in the most casual way. They don’t stay in hiding in the middle of big parks. They are everywhere, and the only thing we need to do is, at the right time, to look up to admire them.

One of the best places to see flying foxes is Centennial Park. When the sun sets thousands of them wake up from their long sleep during the day to fly to the city together. They put on quite a show. Last week while bike riding from work I stopped to take a picture of them - they’re a great reason to leave work on time.

I think they are somehow a reminder for me, of the beautiful things that are in front of our eyes, and sometimes we don’t see.