Moving Waters is the Photo a Week photo challenge from Nancy Merrill
The foamy sea after a flood
The foam flicked and splashed onto the shore
The gentle waters ripples in the harbour
The waves at sunrise
See what other photographers have submitted to the Moving Waters blog challenge
Cee’s fun foto challenge Winter – Water
Looking through my photos, my winter photos don’t really reflect winter at all. I guess winter here isn’t the same elsewhere. I don’t get snow, only two or three frosty days and it rarely gets to 0 degrees. So I am just doing water for this challenge.
I like to photograph water especially when there are interesting reflections on the waters surface.
The sunset adds to the wonderful colours.
The ripples and colours make a certain mysterious affect.
And sometimes a ghostly visage makes an appearance
Late afternoon on a cloudy day and a bit of a breeze with water lilies covering the water surface
Every now and then the part of Australia I live in has floods. The Clarence River can be spectacular when the floodwaters come. This is the River gauge showing how high the water rises.
Here are what some buildings look like. This is the tower on top of the boat shed.
At least it is dry in the pub
Here are the steps going up to the pub when the water isn’t covering them. The bottom of the steps are about 1 meter above normal river level.
This what the Clarence River looks like near my place many kilometers upstream
The floodwaters empty into the ocean creating foam that washes onto the beaches and rocks.
Everyone who goes to the beach will have seen the small balls laid out on the sand. I find them a wonderful expression of nature. None are the same although some are more elaborate than others. When we went for a walk along Emerald Beach on the Mid-north Coast of NSW, with all the other people who take advantage of a leash free area on the beach where the dogs can run free, I noticed that the small balls on the beach didn’t have any footprints in them. Perhaps there is a bit of respect for the creators of what I like to call Crab Art.
First of all have a close look at the sand balls. They do look rather random don’t they?
They are a seemingly bunch of sand balls scattered on the beach
But some have a shape and form
Can you see the little roads?
This one has a certain cartoon effect I feel. Can you see the face?
This is one of my favourites. Almost a butterfly?
From another angle you can see the little hole where the crabs “home” is.
You really should meet one of the Crab Artists. They are about the size of a finger tip. What fabulous blue eyes.
Do you think the crabs create art on the beach?
A good chance to find some photos that give the sense of Moving toward a future
The airplane going somewhere
Ducks in a hurry
Walking on the beach
FEBRUARY has been quite busy. A new thing for me this month has been submitting some photos in photo challenges, which I have found to be quite interesting. The photo challenges make me think about my photography and that my photos elicit comments from other bloggers and in turn, I comment on their photos or the words used to enhance the photos in their blogs. So if you would like to see what I have submitted, have a look at my last few blogs in February. Maybe you would like to comment too.
In this blog I would like to take you on an adventure with me.
Lets set off, do you have a cuppa or something to sustain you while we explore my world?
I like to find something unusual to capture. The frangipannis shadow on the fence post caught my besties eye so this photo is inspired by her. I also took the photo in black and white but it didn’t have the same effect as a splash of colour in the background.
We like to get away in February for a couple of days (we call our mini-holiday) to Ballina Beach Resort. Among the gardens there is always a Water Dragon or two sunning themselves. Looking down from the balcony you get a different perspective of the Water Dragon.
But he is always watchful and spied me looking over the edge.
Back at my besties famous bird bath, where many a bird photo has been taken, the Striated Thornbill liked to show off his little reddish leg, almost taking a bow.
Now we are going for a bit of a walk around my place. For once I just took my camera to get some of the stuff around here. Most walks get disturbed by the habit of pulling out weeds as I walk around. This time I concentrated on getting some of the life around here. OK, I may have pulled a few weeds here and there!
One of the weird and wonderful are the air ferns. They look rather alien at times don’t you think? This one is growing on a fence post.
As I walked around, every now and then, I smelt the heady scent of honeycomb. The Bloodwoods are in flower. I love the creamy colour of the flowers and green of the leaves against the blue sky.
OK back to ground level. The native flowers that abound the bush come in a number of colours, blues, purples, yellows and occasionally red. Most of the flowers are quite small, ranging from about 5mm to 15mm. I have to find something to take with me to show the size of the flowers. I also need an identification guide to let you know what the flowers are so if anyone knows a good publication on native flowers of north-east NSW please let me know
This blue flower is one of the bigger ones.
It was hard to capture the lovely mauve of this little pea like flower. The flower is around 5mm.
The star shape is common. Previous blogs have had the yellow and blue star shaped flower. This walk I found a pale purple star shaped flower. This flower is about 10mm in size.
More purple flowers. A bit bigger in size and a bit hairier. Grows closer to the ground than the other flower which are on stalks.
A small yellow pea type of flower similar to the mauve flower a few flowers back, a about the same size. I love the red stripes. This one comes with a bonus water droplet.
More yellow flowers. A lovely bunch of tiny yellow puff balls. The whole bunch would be no more than 12mms.
A bit of rain saw the mosses come back to life after seemingly disappearing during the dry spell. The smaller star moss and the feathery moss that cascades over the log.
A wonderful discovery was the Hyacinth Orchid just standing tall in the bush. No leaves or anything else, just a lovely flower spike about 20cms tall. It was the only one in the surrounding area. I haven’t been back for a week or so, so I wonder if it is still there?
Rain has put a bit of water into the dam, freshening up the water and the water plants are flowering. The Water Snowflake’s flower is a lovely flower. A wonderful fringe form and so white against the dark green leaves and water.
The Cape Waterlily is also flowering and the reeds are starting to set seed. Among the reeds is a number of frogs whose song at night is quite loud. Also flitting about the dam are a variety of Dragonflies.
The little iridescent blue dragonfly doesn’t sit still as long as the larger dragonflies. They are different to the other Dragonflies as they have their wings folded along their body.
The many blue dragonflies fly off, swoop and then land to catch their breath on any small piece of reed they can find.
There is as many red dragonflies as blues. They seem to land on the dead reeds on the ground although some never seem to land. The red and blues also fly around the house almost like a patrol flying back and forth along the front verandah, occasionally flying under the verandah roof.
Now this little bloke is so different from the others, not only in colour and patterns, but seems to prefer to land on the end of seed heads of the water plants and then stick it’s rear end up in the air. It doesn’t seem to mind how it has it’s wings either.
I found this orange dragonfly at my besties but they are also at my place but not as common as the others.
The Blue Gingers have the most delightful flowers. The flower spikes have so many tiny flowers and buds that there is always a number of flowers open so the bees have a chance to get inside. As I have said before, the bees have to scrunch to get at the pollen of the Blue Ginger flowers.
The native Blue-banded Bees certainly love the Blue Ginger flowers and have a good scrunching technique as well.
This Summer, my verandahs have been taken over by night spiders. Unfortunately they have become very lazy and leave their webs up during the day. Luckily they have been catching lots of insects so the web is easy to see but there may have been a time or two where I have walked into a web.
There are quite a number of Bull Ant nests in the bush. When I try to get a photo, I make sure I look all around to see if there are any outside the nest on patrol or bring back food to the nest. When they bite you know you have been bitten!
I was surprised to find the Satin Bower Birds bower was still in operation and chock-a-block with a variety of blue bits and pieces in the collection. The only things that come from my place are the blue pegs. I know when a Bower Bird has come calling when I find the peg basket up ended. The Satin Bower Birds have made my place home. Years ago they only came here when it was too cold in the Gibraltar Ranges and leaving when it got too hot here.
On our mini-holiday, we managed to get to the beach at sunrise one morning. The sunrise over the sea is fantastic.
The Seagull was patient and seemed to like getting its picture taken early in the morning.
There was a line-up of Seagulls checking out the surf.
One of my favourite photos of February. Just a branch on the beach. I was tempted to put the photo in the blog upside down.
Well it’s getting dark so I must head off to bed. I hope you have enjoyed this little bit of my world in February.
I leave you with the Paperbark tree and the street light.
As you know I love to get about when I can, discovering new things or rediscovering stuff. I love living in a bio-diverse region where the trip to the mountains or to the coast always sends a surprise encounter. Over the month so far I have seen so many wonderful things this world has, sometimes it may just be something that I saw that I found to be wonderous whereas others have just walked by probably thinking what the hell is that bloke doing with that camera.
So…..this wander through my days I hope fills you with a bit of love for our nature and environment in which we inhabit as it does for me.
I do find butterflies amazing creatures, as you probably have noticed as a lot of my blogs seem to have a butterfly or two. This small butterfly, about 17mm in size, has been whizzing around my besties garden and mine as well – a Small Green-banded Blue butterfly.
I was wading through the water at Taylor Lagoon when all bout there were dragonflies zipping here, zipping there on their mission to do…..waht do dragonflies do when they zip about like that. Well after a while some settled on the sticks poking out of the water. Their irridecence was amazing to see. Unfortunately the dragonfly isn’t quite in focus but I love the effect of the water, don’t you?
This dragonfly has a great grip on the stick.
While wading in the shallows I looked at the water and the reflections of the over-hanging bottlebrush and sedges around the edge. I think it was facinating the way the image always changed as the water rippled and moved with the wind. This photo was my favourite of the couple I took.
The shadow of the tree looked like it was walking across the rock face. What do you see?
I love the contrast of colours, the shadows and where the rock landed (or was put by my bestie lol)
Shells. I love seeing the shells and stuff that is on the beach. The light shining through the shell caught my eye form a distance.
I wonder how the small creatures can survive when the tide is out or is it how do they survive when the tide is in? This one found a nice little niche in the rocks. Aren’t the colours subtle but striking at the same time?
The number of tiny sand balls that were spread all along the shore was incredible. Some of the patterns made were so artistic.
And here is the little bloke who spend a large amount of its life making those tiny sand balls.
“OK fella…..how about a bit of privacy. I didn’t come down to the beach to sit in the shade of my lovely green umbrella just to have you come along taking your photos….”
“If you are going to hang around with that camera, I’m off….”
As I was walking along the shore, all of a sudden there was a whoosh and a couple of Pelicans came flying along looking for a place to land. They are so big up close.
As we walked along the beach, we were discussing how we hadn’t seen any White-bellied Sea Eagles or Brahminy Kites, which are nearly always here. All of a sudden, at the other end of the beach, there was a commotion with Seagulls wheeling about and then appeared the Sea Eagle with a fish. Even with the lens at full stretch they were still a long way a way.
Here is a close up as best as I could manage. The image is heavily cropped just to show the size of the fish.
There was also another White-bellied Sea Eagle just soaring around the sky looking for it’s own fish.
Meanwhile at the waters edge, a group of Crested Terns were having a bath and preening themselves trying to get their “hair” in order.
I have no idea what this plant is but the spots of white among the rocks certainly stood out.
Even the Eastern Spinebill was too heavy for the Pentas making hanging on a bit of a chore.
The Whipbirds are always pocking around in the garden, flicking over leaves and bits of bark to try and find some insects and bugs to snack on.
Over the past few weeks the Eastern Yellow Robins have seemed to appear in numbers in the garden. This one was sitting out front on the warm gravel early one morning. They are such sweet little birds.
Heading into town early one misty morning, I spotted this Black-necked Stork (I really prefer Jabiru) stalking about the small pond where the “Tyre Turtle” lives. It was one of a pair. The other one was further back in the paddock in the ffog.
Aren’t the colours great. I never noticed their red cap before either.
The Water Dragon has set up home in my besties garden. Such a lovely prehistoric looking creature.
But they still enjoy a good laugh. Not really. He really enjoys a few bits of apple. The inside of his mouth is so pink.
That’s the end of what I have found in April so far. Hope you enjoyed seeing what I have seen.
It’s been a while since I have put a bit about what I have discovered in my travels around the north coast. A lot of these photos are from my place and my besties plus some from places in between. There has been many a thing to find, some accidental, some that made me go wow and of course an assortment of themes.
Last week at work, I looked out of the window and there was a rainbow’s end in the park. But I looked again and saw the second rainbow so I thought that is rather special to share. Yes folks, that is the view from my desk. Looking across the mighty Clarence River to Susan Island and beyond to South Grafton.
I think these tiny plants are a moss growing along a small north facing bank. They look like little stars but are tiny erect plants when the macro lens gets into the structure.
These yellow flowers of the Beach Primrose are helping to hold the dunes together on Cabarita Beach.
There is so much debris on the beaches most of it natural. I love the shapes and random patterns it makes interspersed with a splash of colour, a bit of green here, a bit of pink there.
The coastline has some interesting geology as well as all the other stuff we see at the beach. The vertical strata caught my eye at Cabarita.
The day was getting stormy and the gulls were gliding in the wind.
Away from the beach the Wonga Pigeons were calling in the trees. This pigeon was just walking along the branches.
The Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike had a fine place to spot any potential food source at Lismore Lake.
There were a lot of Egrets wading on the edge of the Lake when all of a sudden they all took to the skies, wheeled about for a while then just settled back to their preening and looking for a snack or two to come along. There were plenty of frogs calling.
Also watching from a vantage point was the Azure Kingfisher. They look quite regal as they survey their realm.
Back at home, a stunning blue shape was flying around the garden. The Leaden Flycatcher found time to sit for a while.
Of course my blog wouldn’t be right if I didn’t have a Spangled Drongo doing something different. This bloke seemed to have his head on backwards.
I reckon the Wattlebird said to its mate “Show him your best side”
I caused a bit of a Twitter conversation with this photo of a Praying Mantis egg casing. Thanks to all the people who let me know what it was as I have seen them before but had no idea what it was.
There has been lots of butterflies around. I think this one may be a Ringlet.
The Orchard Butterflies certainly liked getting a feed from the red Pentas.
The Meadow Argus put on a bit of a show.
The bees weren’t getting left out either. The Blue-banded Bee zipped about the garden gathering pollen from the flowers.
The mauve Pentas look a treat. Did you spot the ant as it was exploring the flowers?
The white Pentas certainly put on a show with a touch of pink highlights.
I have never seen a galangal flower before.
The red Hibiscus flowers seem to burst out with their petals cascading from the centre.
My bestie planted the seeds of the Gaillardia and only one flower emerged but hopefully more will appear later.
The rain drops were hanging from the Pink Trumpet Flowers. The drops on the top of the flower can be seen through the petals.
The Blue Gingers are stunning this year. A bit of a dry start to summer and the rains have made the bloom explode.
The rain on the fungi gave it a shiny coating
These two little fungi looked like a fungi with a mini-me.
The wet ground has allowed the wood fungus to appear all through the bush. This one is one of my favourites.
The huge fig tree at my besties has possible reached the end of its life and has been dropping its huge branches so only two remain. The recent rain has seen a lot of the dead wood covered in this fungi.
It is so white and fans out from the branch.
All through the fungi are all sorts of insects. The Ear Wigs were scurrying under and over the fungi so not a clear photo but I was surprised that I actually got it.
On the way home from work, I drive past a small pond which has had a tyre in it as long as I can remember. On this day I had to do a quick U-turn as the tyre had two Long-necked Tortoises enjoying the sun. I have called them the Tyre Turtles as it sounds better than the Tyre Tortoises.
Well as she catches the last rays of sunshine, I better get going as well. Did you enjoy this small peek into my world?
It seems like ages since I had time to sit down and look through the photos I have taken over the past few weeks. Some of these are from the end of February as I decided to just do the butterflies. I took a lot of butterfly photos in February and since then, have even taken more. I was asked about taking butterfly photos and had to say that out of twenty or so photos, there is usually only a couple that are ok.
This blog hasn’t any butterflies but has some other insects that I came across when walking around the garden or other people’s gardens. I was getting buzzed by this black insect. It wouldn’t go away but finally tuckered itself out and sat on a leaf.
I also spend a bit of time chasing bees around gardens. Coming in for a landing with rear legs full of pollen.
It took a bit of wrangling to get the caterpillar a bit angry to expose his red antennae while holding the camera in one hand and keeping the spikes on the bush lemon at bay as well.
Always have a close look inside of flowers. You never know who you may find!
I love these little orchid flowers. They grow on long stalks and this year have been flowering all the time.
The tiny Native Wisteria flowers are so perfect as they gradually open along the stem giving a blush of colour throughout the garden.
One of the old cottage style Hibiscus flowers. One of the original plants over thirty years old in my besties garden.
I found hundreds of small flowers growing on the breakwall at Ballina.
The Pink Bloodwoods were covered in blossoms, with bees buzzing about making a bit of a racket.
I was walking through the bush at my place when I came across a small shrub covered in white flowers. I haven’t seen this plant in flower before. It is quite pretty isn’t it?
Here are the flowers up close. Can anyone tell me the name of the shrub please?
I love the Tiger Lillies when they bloom, adding a splash of colour through the garden.
While we endured six months of no rain towards the end of last year, my favourite Honey Gem Grevillea suffered with the lack of water and still hasn’t flowered as strongly as it has in the past. Luckily the Pink Euodia has stepped up for the birds with bunches of flowers covering it, attracting so many birds. The Rainbow Lorikeets did their usual antics, hanging upside down to get a snack.
The Little Friarbirds kept an eye on the lorikeets when they popped in for lunch.
This is the first time I have seen the Scaly-breasted Lorikeets at my place. They only stayed for a couple of days.
The Musk Lorikeets returned to feast on the Euodias bounty.
They are so striking with their red heads, cheeks and beak
I really love the smallest of Australia’s Honeyeaters, the Scarlett Honeyeater. They can sit on top of the blossoms and not even bend the boughs at all.
They look so lovely among the pink flowers
They really are like “tiny red jewels” among the foliage around the garden.
One rainy day, I heard some disgruntled squawks and found some less that appreciative Rainbow Lorikeets sitting in the rain.
As always, the Kookaburra kept an eye out for any small creature or insect to wander across the grass. I was going to say lawn but that would be stretching the truth a long way.
The Galahs in the reserve behind the beach at Ballina found the Casuarina nuts irresistible.
Down at the water’s edge, a Seagull looked wistfully out to sea.
The Seagull kept an eye on us in case we had some chips.
Some birds have shown their funny side. I wonder if this is why this one is called a Drongo.
The Wedged-tailed Eagle is the biggest bird. I spotted one down by the side of the road ripping into a Wallaby road kill while it’s mate and the young one sat in a nearby tree. I didn’t notice them until one glided off the branch and into the forest leaving the young one. It sat there for a while until it too flew off. Such magnificent birds.
Well it’s time to kick back and relax. If anyone knows the names of any of the flowers or insects in this blog, please let me know. Thanks
When the day looks like being a bit warm….ok bloody hot at home, it’s great to head to the coast and enjoy the coolness of the ocean. There is an opportunity to wander around the rocky headlands, peering into tidal pools and generally seeing who is also hanging at the beach. This day was spent at Brooms Head. A quiet coastal town usually but over the Summer holidays, the caravan park is packed to capacity, swelling Brooms Head to almost double it’s population.
This day bought about some lucky encounters as we waded through the tidal pool. The bird life was quite varied and we had the opportunity to see some birds we had not seen before as well as the usual large groups of gulls squawking about nothing in particular.
The Sooty Oystercatchers scurried among the rocks.
Some of the Terns were having a bad hair day.
But their landing skills were quite good.
Can you pick the odd one out?
Easy wasn’t it! The Sea Eagle was scouting along where the waves were breaking but still the birds on the rocks kept an eye out just in case.
It did make the Sharp-tailed Sandpipers nervous and every now and then the small group took to the skies.
When they were foraging among the rocks, they were hard to see.
Occasionally another shore bird appeared. The Grey-tailed Tattler seemed to be playing chasings with the Sandpiper.
But the Pelican kept an eye on what was going on in and around the rocks at Brooms Head.
I love being at the beach, don’t you?
A couple of time over the past week I have been at the beach. It was very overcast and not all that inviting but usually there is something on the beach that gets my attention. I would have loved to photograph the kangaroos on the beach but high on the headland would have to do.
There’s something about the water, sand and light that I see but can’t quite get what I want on a photo.
A rock full of molluscs always attracts attention.
While eating lunch, a Kookaburra came over to closely check us out.
The Emerald Dove is so funny. Just walks up the garden path to discover what’s in and around things, sometimes to get a drink out of a saucer under a pot plant.
The Black-chinned Honeyeaters were ever so cute when they had a washing session.
The Satin Bowerbird was very vocal while perched above the dam.
THe rain has been a blessing, bushes started to flower. The Chinaman’s Hat is a bit rude….I think I have been flipped off by a flower
I love finding insects and spiders in flowers especially when they are so small that you often miss seeing them as you walk by.
The rain also bought out some interesting fungi. Everyone knows how much I love fungi. This fungi blog is full of them. I have never seen a cup-shaped fungi before.
And it was so white.
See you next time.
brian
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