Welcome to a new year.
Again another quiet be at home mostly month. The weather started to turn warm to hot signalling that Summer is here. The hot days were just that so time was spent inside in the middle of the day.
Towards the end of the month, the rains came with hot days and afternoon storms, some of which were doozies. Thunder, house shaking a couple of times when the storm was directly over head, not much lightning and torrential rain. So much so that the gutters couldn’t hold the water and there were curtains of water around the house!
OK It’s time to have a look at what I found in January. There were a couple of exciting moments as you’ll see so away we go.
This is your scrolling song which is perfect for the rain I have had so far this month.
The frogs have been loving the rain as well. This Australian Green Tree Frog could have been living in the downpipe and was washed out with the force of the water. Their croaking has been so loud as it echos in the downpipes. They love the rain and that’s when they do their best croaking.
A regular on the verandah, a Garden Skink, who investigates every morning to see if a snack arrived over night
One of the annoying Brush-tailed Possums who clomp around the roof, thump onto the verandah and are generally noisy during the night. I think this female has a young one ready to be born judging by her big belly. When the young are bigger, they ride around on Mums back.
I spotted this unusual shaped insect scurrying across the verandah. Looking at the photo, I saw that it had a spider for lunch. You can see the fangs of the spider under the insect. It was moving quite quickly dragging lunch somewhere safe to consume.
Some of you have seen this Katydid before on a Macro Monday post. The Katydid flew onto my desk one night, no I didn’t jump, why would you ask! It was quite happy for a few snaps until I tried to get too close. The Katydid has already been in battle with a Huntsman Spider or one of the Velvet Geckos that live inside my home.
I chose two views from the kitchen window, the first is a young female who has just arrived as a garden visitor
And the other is the big young male who has staked my garden out as part of his territory
This is the first of the excitement photos. My old mate who lived down the road, gave me a whole lot of plants from his garden before he went into care. This is the first time this lily had flowered. Isn’t it fabulous.
All of the Hibiscus plants are flowering, the pinks and reds and this one is a favourite. It is in a neglected part of the garden (which is the next garden project area) but still has hung on for a very long time. The pink in the centre wrapped in a mass of messy orange petals.
The Ornamental Ginger plants are flowering through the garden giving off a wonderful scent at night that mingles with the Murraya and Frangipanni flowers perfumes.
The big black Orchard Swallowtail Butterflies have been in the garden for a while but in January several arrive and were flitting around the garden. The lone male had company. When I took this photo, there were five butterflies on the Pentas bush.
Thornbills are a regular around the bush and garden. A Buff-rumped Thornbill watched me closely as I walked around the garden.
For a while it seemed like there was a lack of small birds in the garden again. The Currawongs had gone for Summer but suddenly there were lots of small birds hopping around the garden again. A family, a male and five or six females or juvenile Red-Backed Fairy Wrens came looking for grass seeds.
Scarlet Honeyeaters are around most of the time. They are quite small and a flash of a red jewel zooming through the garden is a wonderful sight.
Yellow-faced Honeyeaters have established the garden as their territory but are always bullied by the bigger Friarbirds or Blue-faced Honeyeaters.
Just thought I’d drop in to see if you are still with us.
A Rainbow Lorikeet examines the verandah in case something important may be happening.
The next bit of excitement was that a pair of Brown Goshawks came for a week or so to see what happens at my place. This is a reason for a lack of small birds around the garden I think.
This photo is heavily edited as the Brown Goshawk was in shadow so I had to lighten and correct.
I always knew where they were in the garden because the pair chatted, probably letting each other know where I was in the garden. I thought they may have nested nearby but I haven’t seen them for over a week now.
Another reason the Goshawks may have moved on is the resident Square-tailed Kites may have encouraged them to move on. The Kites have been patrolling the area a lot more so maybe they have young in the nest.
As the Square-tailed Kites effortlessly soar and glide over head, the Noisy Friarbirds who also have lots of nests around at the moment, try to scare the Kites away with lots of squawking and dive bombing the kites if the get too close to the tree tops.
This Noisy Friarbird decided it was time to get out of there real fast. One of the perils of pissing off a Kite
Another Yellow-faced Honeyeater just looking cute and inquisitive
The Spangled Drongos look rather majestic as they check the garden for a snack
Not happy about a photo being taken at bath time. I get “that look” from a Scarlet Honeyeater.
I must tell you that no bird was killed from the incident with the sun room window. It must have been a shock for the poor bird. I didn’t hear anything so I may not have been at home or elsewhere in the garden or shed. There wasn’t a hurt, injured or dead bird in the garden which surprised me
When the storms arrived they were good ones. This storm also was very windy bringing tree down some across the roads to get to the highway as well as across the highway.
I had to go to town and I could just squeeze past the downed trees. On the way home, the bloke next door was finishing cutting the trees off the road. I was thinking I would have to do it when I got home and the day was hot and muggy.
After the storm has passed from over head, the sunset gave the storm clouds a lovely tinting
That’s a quick look through my January. Did you like the song? As always, did you have a favourite photo? Join in The Changing Seasons too
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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Tag your photos with #MonthlyPhotoChallenge and #TheChangingSeasons so that others can find them
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