Echidna

I'm not sure if this echidna lives somewhere in our garden or just passes through occasionally (or even if it's ever the same one!) but this is the first time I have seen it this season. So even though I had been out chasing bees around pink flowers (geraniums), I thought the echidna probably should take precedence over the bees for today. Here it is walking along my car port wall, which is where I nearly always seem to see it.

There are a couple of (I thought better) photos in my blipfolio (here and here), but this one shows it's big sharp feet nicely (for digging out ants and digging itself a hole to hide in).

The echidna is no relation to ant eaters or hedgehogs, but is a monotreme - one of only two egg laying mammals (the other being it's relative the platypus). They also have pouches, like marsupials, but sensibly the baby (puggle) moves out of the pouch when it starts to get spines!

Check out the spines!