Category: Insects
Flies do what flies do
Sunshine’s Macro Monday #18
I was going around the garden filling the various bird baths and I spotted these flies doing what flies do. I like how the male was checking me out while he was “occupied” and the female was nonplussed either way.
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Waiting
The Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #72: Waiting
What was that that flashed past the kitchen window? A flash of white. Quick………grab the camera and outside into the garden.
Yes……it’s a Caper White Butterfly coming to feed on the Pentas flowers.
Get set……..focus…….wait for that butterfly in flight photo opportunity…..wait and wait
It’s a flutter of wings……….will she fly this time…….or just reposition to get more nectar 
Don’t get distracted……….ohhh look……..a dragonfly
Oh bugger…….she’s off this bunch of flowers…….where will she settle next?
Look…….over there……quick get focused as she is fluttering her wings again….maybe this time she will fly
Hurrah…….success…..it did take a bit of time waiting
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The Architect
The Ragtag Daily Prompt Thursday: Architect
This world has many examples of great architecture designed by some of the most inventive and clever people. But not all of the best architects are people! Come and meet one such architect. One who builds from an aged design that has stood the test of time. A place to raise a family. A place that, unlike some of mankinds, is eco-friendly, is made from all natural materials gathered without the use of hands and transported by mouth. Combined with a bit of “spit” and placed in an exacting way to create a tiny wonder.
Who could create a structure like this?
Look here she comes now, placing her mud in just the right place
Making sure it is in place and secure
Then inspect the interior smoothing out an lumps or bumps
Isn’t she one of the best architects?
The Australian Hornet is one of the group known as potter wasps. They are a solitary insect and feed on flower nectar – pollinator – and hunt caterpillars – good for your garden – which quite often end up in the mud house for their larvae to feed on once they hatch. The caterpillars and other grubs are not killed but are comatose and the Hornets larvae consume them live.
They rarely attack people and are not aggressive just big and scary until you get to know them.
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Wordless Wednesday 13 November
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A bit of yellow
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Yellow
Lemon Migrant Butterfly always a treat to see
An Australian Native flower that grows on my place. I know I shouldn’t be slack and tell you it’s name
So lovely but is a quick spreading introduced weed in Australia – Singapore Daisy
Another unknown name for an Australian Native plant that is on my place possibly a variety of Guinea flower
The Grevillea Yamba Sunshine
Yellow-faced Honeyeaters love Grevilleas as well as Bottlebrush flowers
Couldn’t do a yellow post without a Yellow Robin popping in
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This is October 2019
Oh my aren’t I tardy with the October wrap up? Lots of things have been happening – see some of the posts over the past week. I shan’t dwell on the most horrible situation I find myself in right now. I guess you have seen all about the fires in Australia, The north coast of NSW is where I live and the fires have been burning since early October.
I can’t really think straight as I haven’t slept well for a while now. Luckily and the end of October to early November my bestie and I had a brief holiday in Tasmania. I hadn’t been before so it was all new. Breathing air that wasn’t smoke laden was a blessing as was cool temperatures and even a bit of rain. That will be a post of its own later when I get around to it.
OK there isn’t all that many photos compared to previous “This is” posts but still grab a snack and a drink of your choice so you can stroll through my world in October.
I haven’t posted many photos of the Red-necked Wallabies that hang around my garden for a while. This little Joey has fun speeding around.
His Mum was keeping watch. Check out those lovely lashes.
I was out on a walk with my bestie and a friend when we came across some Eastern Grey Kangaroos resting in the shade. There was a female, a Joey and a male. When the male stood up we stopped and waited to see what they would do. Thankfully they group hopped over the fence in one bound and into the next paddock. When he stood up to his full height, he was about 2 meters tall. Look at those chest and arm muscles!! 
I may be in drought but every evening the frogs start up, not as many as usual. I love these tiny Eastern Dwarf Tree Frogs. Here he is again in a previous post that has the call as well.
Meet Bob, one of the funniest fish I have ever seen. He would swim away and then appear from the side of the tank, look at you and swim away. The Seahorse World where he lives is at Beauty Point in Tasmania.
A regular sight around the north coast are Black-shouldered Kites hovering over a field waiting for snack to make a move then drop like a stone.
Here is one some of the European readers will know. The European Goldfinch was introduced into SE Australia and Tasmania in the 1850’s.
A Forest Kingfisher waits patiently on the power lines in the late afternoon for his meal to move in the paddock below.
The little hanging pot bird bath is too small for the King Parrot but its good for drinking. The Hippeastrums will come later.
One very unseasonably hot day, the temperature reached 38C IN SPRING!!! Here is a young King Parrot and a Spangled Drongo discussing the day, “hot enough for ya”
Down at the waterhole on 3rd after a good fall of rain. Lovely to see a bit of water. The last rain since.
Going up into the mountains for a bit of a walk and see new places. The players of the mountains from my favourite spot, the Raspberry Lookout.
Another place near Washpool, (which is now on fire) The smoke is from the fires to the north in early October.
I love finding a leaf that has been skeletised (OK I made up that word according to spellcheck)
The new Spring flush of leaves on a Eucalypt.
The Casuarina and the blue of the distant hills. My bestie reckons it is like a Japanese print.
One of the new crops on the north coast is dryland rice.
Back at the waterhole on my place. The ferns in shelter spots are growing well. This is called a Five Fingered Jack or a Rough Maidenhair Fern.
While in the Gibraltar Ranges in Spring I was hoping to find some native flowers. Here is a Blue Dampiera.
Tiny False Lilac flowers
A Hairy Bush Pea with a Native Stingless Bee
Don’t the little Small Leaved Boronia look ever so sweet.
There were lots of White Paper Daisies along the road sides.
The flowers of a Flapjack Succulent
The first time this plant from my old mate Geoffs place has flowered and I can’t remember what it is
My besties Foxgloves flowered well this year
The start of my Hippeastrums 
More have started to bud up
Once the flowers arrive, so do the Native Stingless Bees
Look at the amount of pollen in the flowers. The Native Stingless Bees get coated in pollen
An olden Hibiscus at my besties attracts a bee or is it a wasp?
Casting a fine web, this spider waits underneath for lunch to drop in.
OK all is done. I had to include a photo of our Sun late in the afternoon on a fire day. A mixture of clouds and smoke.
I hope you enjoyed a stroll through my October. Did you have a favourite photo? I love to hear what you think so please drop me a line. I guess I need conversation
also for Su’s Changing Seasons
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Pink
This is September 2019
What a month September was. A month of fear of fires, another month of not much rain, watching the dam level drop and not being able to water the garden with the last bit of water in case I needed the water in case a fire appeared. The fires were not close, over 40kms away from my place but the sky and atmosphere was choked with smoke. A few rainfalls during the month helped alleviate my concerns, topped up my water tanks so I have enough water for my household needs and I have been watering the pot plants around the verandahs and in the house with the tank water. I also use this water to put in the various bird baths around the house as well as other water containers for the animals that may pop in and need a drink.
The downside is I am watching a lot of my garden die. Some palms that provide lovely shade for my house have already lost their tops and the others are struggling. Most of the garden is Australian native plants and some, like the lilli pillis are not looking all that flash. The Wallabies and Possums are also eating some of the garden plants so I may have to put fences around gardens so the new shoots appearing now the weather is warming don’t get nibbled.
There are a few photos to get through, so maybe a cup of tea, coffee or glass of wine or beer, depending when you are reading, Sit back and I hope you enjoy a scroll through my September.
I have found a few photogenic animals on my travels. The horses have already had their post and some others have appeared already as well but I have to put this fluffy Donkey in again.
I love going past the dairy and seeing these beautiful cows.
It is never good to see one of these ants on the verandah. Their bite is quite painful for such a small insect.
I do enjoy finding a spiders web in the right light.
The start of Spring has a few butterflies appearing. The Caper White Butterflies are migratory and this one is one of the first to arrive.
Meadow Argus are enjoying the early Spring flowers on the Pittosporum. 
The Stingless Native Bees certainly loved the Rocket flowers.
As did the honey bees.
Flies are pollinators as well. This one was in a nursery we went to in Byron Bay. There were lots of other insects on the flowers too.
Saw this amazing flower but forgot to write down the name, sorry.
The Cacti were in bloom as well.
Yes it is a bud, a very weird hairy bud. Can you guess what flower may appear from this in my besties garden?
The yellow Poppy enjoyed the sunshine.
Here is the hairy buds flower, a red Poppy.
Spring brings out the Begonia flowers
And the Bottlebrush are starting to look fabulous at my besties but mine are having a hard time and the bushes haven’t looked like flowering yet.
Her Roses are looking wonderful. This one is a Double Delight just opening.
This Double Delight is open showing lovely delicate colours.
My White Fig tree is struggling a bit in the dry weather. The figs often drop their leaves at this time of year. The ground is covered in the yellow and orange leaves.
It also likes to show its true Aussie colours of Green and Gold
There are lots of birds around at the moment too. The Red-browed Firetails are cruising the grass eating the seeds
The Straw-necked Ibis are also wandering about looking for grubs in the paddocks.
I have a few Australian Ravens who have a walk about the garden looking for snacks.
We saw some Chestnut-breasted Mannikins down the road. They must have followed us home as later on I saw around 20 to 30 sitting in the fence.
The King Parrots are enjoying the last of the seeds in the Leopard Tree.
The Mistletoe Bird has wonderful red colours.
Remember the Willie Wagtails nest that was destroyed by something a month or so ago? Well they found a safe place and have raised three chicks. Only a mother could love a baby like this.
The Welcome Swallows have four chicks in two nests at my besties under the verandah. They are always hungry.
Some years, Welcome Swallows have two nestings. Here comes another feather to line the nest for the next lot of babies.
The Restless Flycatchers like to patrol the fence lines in the morning.
As the season was so bad I felt sorry for the birds and put a container of food out every now and then. The Currawongs tended to dominate but one morning a small flock of Satin Bowerbirds turned up. I have never seen so many bower birds together. These are females and juveniles. The male sat by and kept watch from a nearby branch.
A lot of the birds at my place are not hanging around the house as there isn’t much food in the garden. Normally the grevilleas are full of flowers but a lack of rain has seen a reduced number of grevillea flowers. There are a lot of birds down the lower part of my property at the waterhole. A Yellow-faced Honeyeater and a White-throated Honeyeater enjoy a drink together.
The little Striated Honeyeater just jumped straight into the bird bath.
Whereas the White-throated Honeyeater just dived straight in.
This is the first time I have seen a Little Friarbird and a Noisy Friarbird together.
A female Olive-backed Oriel came to the bird bath for the first time at my besties.
The Male shows why they are Olive-backed Oriels.
He doesn’t look to pleased to see me with my camera does he?
Everyone like the Australian Raven skipping down the hill last month. How about a Silver Gull dancing? 
AS I said, the sky was been choked with smoke from the fires. I couldn’t quite capture the red sun at sunset one afternoon
Other sunsets were quite orange.
or a blaze of yellow!
The smoke mixed with cloud made for some interesting shapes and spooky atmosphere.
Well here we are at the end. The grass seed heads made a lovely part of the afternoons walk. When I looked at the photo on the computer screen, there was, I think, a Grasshopper winging away for the night.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed my September.
Also a contribution to Su’s The Changing Seasons
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