Category: Insects

A bit of a quiet month for me. The days have been lovely so I have been in the garden or wandering about town – actually a quick coffee and shopping. There was a few days of almost rain. Enough to discourage taking the camera out.

As the nights have been quite cold, a lot of my days were spent with chainsaw in hand and gathering firewood, then splitting the rounds for the fire. This is a good bit of exercise plus pushing a full wheelbarrow of the split wood up to the house.

I have acquired a new friend but more about her later.

Here is your August song to help you get through this post

I have had some feral cats in my yard during the month so I set my live capture trap with a can of cat food in the hope to get one. I checked the trap and it hadn’t gone off but the food was gone. I immediately suspected rats so out with the smaller live trap just in case it wasn’t a Ratus ratus.

Here is the little one I trapped. It isn’t a Black Rat but not sure what it is, so I let it out in the bush nearby. Isn’t it cute?

OK lets start with a few flowers. The Grafton Regional Art Gallery is finally getting the gardens together. Some bulbs popped up and looked so good.

A house nearby has some lovely Hibiscus

I am not sure what flower this one is. It looks like a Purple Violet but the leaves are different. This just popped up in a new garden bed we made a few years ago.

This Winter is the first time the Giant Salvia (my name, not sure what they are really called) have flowered. The plant has really big leaves and is now over two metres tall.

This year being wet and now dryish has confused a lot of the plants in the garden. The Grevilleas and Bottlebrush have been flowering nearly all year now. The birds are loving the flowers and this pink Bottlebrush is a favourite of the small birds.

The small Nectarine and Peach trees have had a blossom bonanza as well. The bees are all over the trees.

The flowers look so lovely.

On one of my days in town, I decided to have a bit of a photo session of the Grafton Goal, some photos I have already posted (Thursday Doors) and there will be some more over the next week or so.

The crown above the gates looks like it has been recently refurbished. It is quite a grand Victorian building.

Walking around town, I spied a teapot on a fence. It was near a cafe and I forgot to ask if they put it there to attract customers.

Also just sitting there was a Pied Currawong in my garden. It is sitting on a dead palm that didn’t survive the drought at the end of the last decade. Pied Currawongs come down from the mountains when the weather gets cold.

Last week a couple of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos decided to stop over for a rest and a snack. This one just seemed to sit in the tree and didn’t do much at all.

Whereas it’s friend decided to gnaw at a tree. They listen for grubs in the tree and then commence to dig the grub out.

Stopping long enough to admire it’s handiwork.

and then back into hacking into the tree. By the time the Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo finished there wasn’t much tree left but it is still standing. I am waiting for a strong wind to see if it comes crashing down. Luckily it is not in a part of the bush where I walk.

I have a number of bird baths scattered around the garden but some birds, like these female Satin Bowerbirds seem to like this rusty old drum

Yes the Whipbirds are still coming into the garden to forage. One day I hope to be outside and in a spot to get a photo and not through a window

The King Parrots are still around as well but not in the same numbers as last month or earlier this month. This female King Parrot sits outside of my office and ever now and then knocks on the window to get my attention to let me know the feeder is empty.

Remember I mentioned I have a new girlfriend? Well this is her. I came home from town one day and noticed a Brush Turkey walking across the garden and head down into the bush. I have never had Brush Turkeys on my place before so this was strange to say the least. Over the next few days I saw her in the garden sometimes pecking under the bird feeders getting spilt seed.

Over the weeks, she has gotten used to me and now hangs around me when I am in the garden or splitting firewood in the hope I’ll turn up insects. When I came home from town this afternoon, there she was on the verandah so she is becoming bolder.

I suspect she has been hand reared and has been dumped. People often dump birds and animals out my way but this is a rather strange one to say the least. As she looks like staying around I have named her Betty – Brush Turkey ➡ BT ➡ Betty

I saw a few Pink Galahs on a patch of lawn in nearby town, Lawrence. It was a case of “Hey bud, no paparazzi” as they walked down the hill

One day I looked at the sky and saw these clouds, grabbed my camera and started taking photos. People on the street wondered what I was doing, looked up and remarked to each other how wonderful the clouds were. Would they have noticed if they didn’t see me looking skyward?

Well speaking of looking upwards, the Moon is up in the morning on this day but even so once the Moon is up it must be time to finish off and get to bed.

I hope you enjoyed my August.

I hope this finds you serene and at peace with all that surrounds. Did you have a favourite?
Perhaps you would like to join us with your Changing Seasons post?

About The Changing Seasons

The Changing Seasons is a monthly project where bloggers around the world share their thoughts and feelings about the month just gone. We all approach this slightly differently, though generally with an emphasis on the photos we’ve taken during the month.

For many of us, looking back over these photos provides the structure and narrative of our post, so each month is different. Some focus on documenting the changes in a particular project — such as a garden, an art or craft project, or a photographic diary of a familiar landscape.

But in the end, it is your changing season, and you should approach it however works for you.

There are no fixed rules around post length or photo number — just a request that you respect your readers’ time and engagement.

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