Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge: Heads or Facial Features
A Blue-faced Honeyeater enjoying some lunch
A Bush Stone Curlew was not impressed with me waking it up
Getting up close and personal with a Kookaburra
Tag: blue faced honeyeater
This is October: Part Four
Of course Part Four would have to be the birds of October.
On the Queensland expedition we came across a huge flock of Cormorants and Pelicans on the edge of Somerset Dam.
On a bit of a chilly day the Cormorants were a bit sleepy in Ballina.
So were the Pelicans
The Satin Bowerbird has been busy collecting his blue bits and pieces to decorate his Bower. This is the fifth year this Bower has been used in the bush at my place.
Of course who could forget Brendan the Bush Turkey. Here he is on his mound he has built for the females to lay their eggs in. The mound is about 2 meters tall. Brendan does a great job of raking the leaves.
A Figbird sits high on a branch keeping an eye on the goings on in the garden.
The Laughing Kookaburra was on the other side of the garden.
This bloke is more of a smiling Kookaburra don’t you think? He likes the sitting branch which is the most popular in the garden.
The Eastern Whipbird sends his call down the gully This is what a whip bird sounds like here
The Pied Currawong was always around the garden.
This branch is a favourite sitting spot in the garden.
The Pied Currawong is sitting on the eggs in the nest at my besties place.
The Noisy Friarbird on the famous sitting branch
Another stand off in the Honey Gem Grevillea between the Blue-faced Honeyeaters and the Noisy Friarbird. Check out the fight here from last year
The Yellow-faced Honeyeater was wondering what the fuss was all about.
Check out my pink feet said the White Headed Pigeon.
The King Parrot having a snack of wattle seeds.
The Eastern Rosella high in the old Fig Tree wondering what I am doing.
The Olive-backed Oriel took his turn in the bird bath.
There was a Rainbow Lorikeet queue at the bird bath.
“Hey Stan……are you in there?”
“What do you want?”
Well that’s the end of This is October. I hope you got through the Four Parts.
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This is September: The birds
G’day,
September, the first month of Spring but still no rain. The last drop of rain I have had was 6mls on the 6th July. Good news is there was 21mls over the last weekend. The dry Winter and September didn’t stop the Grevillieas from flowering. I didn’t include many Grevilleas in this or the next blog. You can see them here from a previous blog. But I digress. This part of This is September is just the birds. The next blog is everything else as I looked at the number of photos and there are too many for one blog. I didn’t want your cuppa to get cold scrolling through or fall asleep before the end.
Ready……..lets get going.
The first lot are birds who are not very good at hiding, although some were just sheltering from the heat of the day probably.
The Australian Raven gave the game away by incessantly calling.
The Noisy Friarbird was in the Sweet Pittosporum
The Little Friarbird was hiding behind the Mago
The Striated Thornbill was hiding in the Hibiscus
Can you spot the White-throated Treecreeper?
The Figbird was trying to be inconspicuous
Little Friarbirds don’t hide very well do they?
I love seeing the Variegated Fairy Wrens hopping through the garden. They usually come in small flocks looking among the bushes and flowers for insects or heading to the birdbath.
The females are hard to see aren’t they?
Whereas the males really stand out
They are so cute when they sit together
As the weather has been very warm, almost Summer temperatures, the bird bath was the place to be. The Little Friarbird came for a drink.
Bottoms up
Looking about before having another drink
A Spangled Drongo seemed to have a gargle
While a White-throated Treecreeper jumped in and splashed about
Sometimes you can emerge from the birdbath looking a bit bedraggled like this White-throated Honeyeater
Eastern Whipbirds love the birdbath
Almost ready for another dip
Lewins Honeyeaters like the mosaics of this birdbath
Of course there are birds who live in the water. Darters enjoy a swim
While other birds prefer to be in the trees. Blue-faced Honeyeaters enjoy lunch
Figbirds wonder what other birds are doing
Yellow-faced Honeyeaters like sitting on sticks
A regular Spring visitor is the Rufous Whistler who sing their little hearts out during the day
The Square-tailed Kites have come back to their nest from last year to raise more chicks
Other birds don’t mind a stroll about. A Grey-shrike Thrush hopped about the leaf litter
On their regular patrol around the garden, the Wonga Pigeons stopped for a drink.
A Common Bronzewing takes a walk along the road
I like the first signs of Spring when the Rufous Whistler and the Spangled Drongos arrive at my place. Did you have a favourite bird?
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Back of Birds
The photo challenge from Cee is Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge: Back of Things What do I have the most photos of….yep you guessed it – birds. I did have to stop myself. I didn’t realise how many backs of birds I have! Here is my selection of the backs of birds for the challenge.
The Wonga Pigeon had enough of me so it was “off I go”
A Catbird sat high in the tree not caring that I wanted a photo or two.
A Blue-faced Honeyeater looking for a new blossom to get a bit of nectar.
Just an Osprey talking a casual stroll along the beach
The wonderful Emerald Dove.
Scarlet Honeyeaters are so small and acrobatic when snacking on a Lilli Pilli.
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Grevilleas in my garden
This blog was inspired by Rebel Guy and Rebel Girl’s Twenty Minutes in the Garden.
I took a walk around as the Grevilleas are flowering at the moment. I looked for the plant tags on some of the older ones that have been in the garden for ages as I couldn’t remember all their names. I have quite a number of Grevilleas now as the birds and bees love the nectar in the flowers.
This is my favourite Grevillea in the garden, the Honey Gem. The flowers can almost drip with nectar. The birds just love the flowers. See an old post One Day at the Grevillea
Moonlight is a new Grevillea and this is the first flower
I think this Grevillea is called Pink Ice
Poor Jingle Bells. The lack of rain and my forgetfulness in watering has its flowers almost spent. Hopefully after a couple of weeks of watering there may be new flowers.
Lemon Daze is another new plant I was given in exchange for some work at the same time as Jingle Bells. Still only small it has tiny flowers compared to other Grevillea in the garden.
Honey Barbara is a rescue plant from a nursery. It was pot bound and didn’t look very healthy. I bit of love and now the Grevillea has a number of flowers and is almost as tall as me.
See how the flowers form on Honey Barbara.
I can’t remember the name of this Grevillea. Another plant that needed some TLC. The first flowers are just about to burst forth. It has about 4 flower spikes waiting to open from their hairy shelter.
The Yamba Sunshine has great yellow flowers that the birds and insects enjoy.
The bees just love it.
A very old original Grevillea. A lot of the cultivars have this as their root stock as it is very hardy. Planted on the very edge of the garden it survives on rainfall.
The Blue-faced Honeyeaters are a constant visitor to have a snack.
This is what happens when the birds fight over the Grevillea
In this video, The Friarbird is far more vocal and the Blue-faced Honeyeater is nonplussed
The last video was shot last year at the end of August so you see the same old battles for control of the garden are on going.
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This is July
At last I am able to sit down and write this blog. I have a chest infection which made my concentration levels drop and a lack of interest in doing anything. Looking at the screen made my eyes sore as well. July was interesting as the days became more like Summer than Winter. There hasn’t been much rain so the garden is suffering. Most of the flowers are from elsewhere, some of the birds are from around here and there is a bit of what is that photo. There is a bit of excitement but that will come later. There are quite a number of photos so perhaps a cup of tea or coffee or whatever you drink while sitting have a look at my July.
This is the view from Raspberry Lookout in the Gibraltar Ranges, about 70kms from my place, which is somewhere to the left of the photo a few gullies over.
I thought I’d start with the bugs I found. A moth isn’t really a bug but an insect but this beauty had to go in somewhere.
We found a caterpillar munching a plant. Look at how much it has eaten for such a small sized caterpillar.
The winter flowering stone fruits are alive with bees.
I was enjoying a cuppa on the verandah when this bloke came buzzing around. I like the confusion of fly and shadow.
At the Raspberry Lookout I found a log. Not just an ordinary log but one that had a lichen that made it look so green.
Can you see the face on this old tree stump. The big cut mark on the left is where the timber cutters used to put a board to stand on to cut the tree down with an axe. The “graffiti” isn’t all that old though.
My bestie found this fantastic leaf.
One day the clouds just decided to look rather special. Something to do with a hot day, cold upper air or whatever.
“What are you looking at?”
I call this photo “The Electric Fish”. I would love to tell you how I took the photo but have no idea. The leaves and flowers were in the bottom of the bowl and the spots on the surface are fish food.
Late one evening when going for a walk, I saw the red and green leaves glowing in the afternoon sun.
A neighbours place glowed in that afternoon sun. This plant is called Firesticks.
I have never looked at a Dandelion flower. Isn’t it beautiful.
In a garden in Grafton the rest of the garden was bare and a few of the flowers were doing their last gasp but this Gazania stood out among the rest.
A fragrant Rose. I love Roses.
The Grevillea flower shone in the early morning sun.
Some birds come back every year to spend Winter here or perhaps just drop in for a snack and rest on their migratory route to further warming climes. The Blue-faced Honeyeaters stay around and nest. The mornings and evenings are filled with their calls.
The Silvereyes flock through, some keep going but some hang around for a while eating and building their strength for the next part of their journey.
The Figbirds are after the fruiting trees in the rainforest gullies. This Figbird seemed to have an interest in a Eucalypt nut.
The Lewins Honeyeater found a tasty morsel in the bark of the tree.
It doesn’t look like it was that appealing does it?
A White-throated Honeyeater, a bowl and a garden bench. There are a number of places where birds can get a drink in my garden.
Going to my besties one day, I came across a flock of Brolgas in a farmers field beside the highway. This is only the second time I have seen Brolgas and to see around twenty was wonderful.
Some birds will do anything not to have their photo taken. The Eurasian Coot did a great dive.
Have you ever been so angry that you just had to shout at a tree?
I hadn’t noticed the rich orange around the eye of a White-throated Tree Creeper before. Since the blog was published, Carol Probets who often lets me know what’s what informed me that this is a Red-browed Tree Creeper. See Carols blog at Lyreades
The Welcome Swallow was ignoring me as he sat on the old bridge watching the workings building the new one.
The Spotted Pardalote had a ritual of checking out the verandah every morning for snacks.
The Grey Shrike-Thrush have set up home at my besties.
Adorable looking birds aren’t they?
The Grey Fantail was a bit puffed up in the cool afternoon breeze.
Another regular Winter visitor to my place are the Noisy Friarbirds. Their calls resound through the forest all day long. These two were having an in depth conversation.
Every now and then a large flock of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos descend on the pine trees to feed and then take off to find a place to roost.
The lovely little Rose Robins are occasional visitors. So cute as the bounce in the garden looking for snacks.
This is excitement number one. First time I have seen a Grey Goshawk. It was high in the trees at my besties place.
Excitement number two. The first time I have seen a Fan-tailed Cuckoo. It was so happy to sit on a post and pose for a minute or two at my besties place.
This was the sunset in some of the photos mentioned before. So it must be time to go.
Thank you for stopping by. Drop me a note if you found something that interested you.
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The birds of June
It may be Winter, but here, it is the time when birds drop in on their way north to build their strength for the next part of their journey, or stay for the winter in the warm days on the North Coast. The nights can get cold but the days are usually in the low 20’s C with the warmth of sunshine and the number of plants that flower in late Autumn and Winter makes it a good place to stop off. This is not a complete record of birds as there have been birds who I haven’t managed to get in my lens plus there has been some who have just been to fast for me to photograph. Yes I have quite a number of photos of empty branches!!!
This first gallery of photos are the birds from my place.
The White-throated Honeyeaters arrive in the morning and in the afternoon with their chirp chirp chirp as they set about diving into the birdbath or pool to have their bath.
The Yellow-faced Honeyeaters arrive from down south, some stay while others in the flock fly further north.
The Blue-faced Honeyeaters come and go all year depending on what food is available. The Honey Gem Grevillea has finally started to flower after a long dry hot Summer. Look at the pollen dust on his head.
The little Eastern Spinebills are here with the distinctive clicking of their wings as they zip around the garden and their calls echoing in the gullies.
You can judge their size by comparing with the Blue-faced Honeyeater and Grevillea flower above. They really stretch to reach the blossoms at times.
Their plumage is quite pretty don’t you think?
I don’t include many photos of the female Golden Whistler but this one is so cute. They are around the place all year round with their repetitive call which can sound like a squeaky wheel, at times up to twenty single notes.
They also like to land on the side of trees and have a look around.
As do the White-throated Treecreepers who just hop up and down the trees looking for insects under the bark. They have a similar call to the Yellow Robins but not as persistent.
They also like to defy gravity as the give the trees a very thorough checking over.
The tiny Red-backed Fairy Wrens like to explore the lower parts of the forest eating grass seeds and insects foraging among the grass stalks. The Jenny Wren has good camouflage. 
The Silvereyes are migrants who stop for a few weeks to gather their strength for their next leg of their journey north.
They are another of the tiny birds around here.
The Red-browed Firetails are another constant visitor to the bush as they move about in small flocks looking for grass seeds. This is a young one as the red brow isn’t as prominent as the adults.
The tiny Striated Thornbills are always around the garden and in the gullies around the house.
They love the birdbath.
Someone who I haven’t seen for quite a while has turned up this month and has been around the garden early in the morning and in the gullies during the day. The Spotted Pardalote digs a tunnel in the side of the gully to make it’s nest. They are so pretty aren’t they?
I think this one saw me as I snuck along the verandah for a better photo.
They can be quite vocal too.
The sounds of Kookaburras signal the start and end of every day. There are about three families that live in the bush around the house and sometimes the cacophony of up to five or six Kookaburras can be quite deafening.
After I took this photo I noticed that there was another two sitting nearby in separate trees. All of a sudden they all flew off into the forest disappearing among the trees.
This next gallery are from my besties place.
The Lewins Honeyeater is the boss of my besties garden. They swoop on most other birds that dares to come into the garden. The Lewins at my place aren’t as bossy.
Can you spot the Varied Triller?
The Grey Fantails are always doing their acrobatic flying around the place catching insects on the wing. A very serious looking bird.
The Golden Whistler is always around the garden and nearby rainforest singing its lovely song.
My besties place is surrounded by rainforest so she has more doves and pigeons than I do at my place. The White-headed Pigeon has a deep sounding whoomp whoomp call. They also fly about in large flocks.
The Brown Pigeon didn’t want its photo taken.
There is always up to ten bar-shouldered Doves foraging on the ground in the garden looking for pecans that have fallen from the tree.
The Whipbirds also enjoy foraging among the leaves for pecans.
While high in the trees the Figbirds look for seeds as well as pecans. This female Figbird found the seeds of an Umbrella Tree.
The male Figbird was more interested in pecans.
The Green Catbird is also interested in pecans. Not long after this photo was taken, so was the pecan.
Another recipient of the fallen pecans is the large Brush Turkey. His strong beak breaks open the pecans and often leaves small pieces behind for the other birds to eat. This one we call Brendan who has taken over the garden and has a mound nest almost one meter tall in the front garden. One day I’ll try to get a photo of Brendan and his mound.
The most exciting discovery was finding a Regent Bowerbird just on the edge of the garden late one afternoon. I only managed to get a couple of bad photos but had to share in my excitement.
We went to Byron Bay one day to shop as we haven’t been for ages and Winter is a good time as the number of tourists is halved at least. The Golden Pendas are in flower and the Rainbow Lorikeets were having a great time screeching at each other.
And of course there are always chooks foraging around both our gardens.
That is a snapshot of some of the birds around here in June. My June photo round-up probably won’t have any birds this year. Hopefully I’ll get to that by next week.
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Tuesdays Photo Challenge: RBG
What a photo challenge!!!! How many photos have Red, Green and Blue colours? I am sure I can find some as I enjoy taking photos of birds and many Australian birds are quite colourful.
But first the jumping castle at the markets certainly has the colours.
The Chinese Lantern flower with a background of leaves and sky.
A Blue-faced Honeyeater and the Bottlebrush flower
A Rainbow Lorikeet among the Bottlebrush blossoms
The Orchard Butterfly enjoys my garden.
The Musk Lorikeet about to take off.
The lovely Eastern Rosella striking a pose.
The feathers of a rooster who used to strut about my place. (More about the rooster here)
Look here to see other photos in the Tuesday Photo Challenge RGB https://dutchgoesthephoto.net/2017/04/25/tuesday-photo-challenge-rgb/
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This was my March
March was a month of contrasts, a couple of hot days followed by a bit of rain and then Cyclone Debbie came along. I was fortunate not to be in the path of Debbie but on the edge of the system. I missed the strong winds and abundant rainfall. I still managed to have 476mls of rain for March. This rainfall ended the long dry period over Summer when usually the rains come. The total rainfall for March exceeded the total rainfall for the 6 months prior.
The few dry day did allow for some wandering about and finding some interesting stuff. The weather also bought out a good variety of fungi which have their own blog.
So onward to the stuff of March.
Isn’t this little boat the cutest?
The flood waters made the creeks run and the creek at Emerald Beach broke through the sand and flowed to the sea. The strong tannin coloured water gave the rocks an interesting hue.
Rust. As you know I love rust, the colours and textures rust gives to metal.
More rust on the fence around the riverbank park in Grafton.
In Lismore, wandering the back lanes I came across this furnace door that is still in operation at the rear of a cafe.
One of the treasures of Lismore is the street art in the back lanes. The recent flooding of Lismore didn’t damage most of the art works although some may need a bit of a clean and touch up. The following selection is from just one lane way.
The art on the door is perhaps a portend.
The fish managed to swim out the flood waters I am told.
I love this ghostly face.
How clever.
The butterflies in the rainforest.
Speaking of butterflies, I just love photographing butterflies. Of course many a while is spent chasing them around trying to get THAT capture. The Common Yellow butterfly seemed to enjoy time on the ground.
The Small Green-banded Blue butterfly kept trying to hide from me.
I haven’t had such a variety of flies at my place or perhaps I haven’t really taken a close look at them. The yellow face and bottle green body look great.
The green eyes are striking. The long proboscis also lets this fly give you a very sharp sting.
This beautiful Huntsman spider lived in my house for around two months. She has now gone outside I think as I haven’t seen her for a couple of days. Her leg span from front to back or side to side is 16cm. Her body length is 5cm. How big is your hand?
The Fire-wheel trees are flowering.
I have a number of Golden Lycras that my aged neighbour loved. He gave me lots of corms and this year they flowered the best ever. They gave me lovely memories of him. The view from the top.
They looked so lovely in the morning sun.
This Hibiscus was in my parents place and the cutting has lived on at my place filled with abundant flowers this Autumn.
The miniature Hibiscus adds small red spots in the garden
One of the original Hibiscus. This one is in my besties garden. Such a delicate flower. The petals almost look transparent.
Another tiny native flower that I have found around my property. The flower is about 12mm across so imagine the size of the insect that was getting some nectar or pollen.
The Bromiliads had a good flowering this March. They gathered enough water that’s for sure.
I hadn’t seen white Crocus before. Stunning flowers aren’t they?
I have loved the colours of Coleus since I first saw them in my grandfathers garden.
The rain has revived the Lichen.
Wandering around the garden looking for snacks, the Bar-shouldered Dove and Emerald Dove shared the space.
A little Jacky Winter enjoying the morning sun.
The Brown Pigeon sat in the Poinsettia striking a lovely pose.
Not the best angle for a Blue-faced Honeyeater though.
The little Forest Kingfisher sat in the tree looking about then suddenly plunged to the ground. When he resumed his perch, he did the bash bash on the branch to tenderise his snack. It looks like he managed to find a frog in the garden.
The Forest Kingfisher has beautiful colours don’t you think?
Thanks for taking the time to have a look at my March.
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Birds. Bugs, Flowers and Things
I love it when I have a mixed lot of photos I have taken. This blog does contain a lot of birds and things that have been previously in past blogs but they keep doing things that are different or I just like the photo and hope you do too. There is one photo that has something different from the usual photos, can you spot it?
The weather over winter and early spring has been dry with some hot days and some windy days. Since 1 August to end of October there only a couple of days where there was good rainfall, but only 14 days of rain over 3 months. Some of the flowering plants have enjoyed the dry. This year the bottlebrushes and paperbarks have had the best flowering ever.
One of the things I like to photograph is when I can see faces in things. These are a couple I have seen lately. Can you see the faces too? The first on was taken at the beach during a walk after a North Coast Landcare get together.
Can you see a dog?
Sometimes the faces can seem rather scary. I had a feeling that someone was watching me.
The Red-necked Wallabies have had a bumper Joey season this year, so it may indicate that the grass in the paddocks will soon turn green and there will be a good summer. These two were eating beside the veranda where there are patches of feed. The Joey may be too big for the pouch but still likes to get a drink from Mum.
One plant that has had a fabulous flowering this year has been the Native Frangipanni. The birds and insects are always around the tree in the early morning and late evening.
My besties garden always has flowers as the rainfall there is much better than at my place. I love the way that this flower seems to explode towards you.
The colours of this small flower are stunning adding a splash of colour throughout the garden.
My hanging pot of bromeliads have never had so many of these striking red flowers. I counted six flowers around the hanging pot. Yes that is a bird’s nest I found on the ground and was placed in the pot.
I wanted a few flowers around and planted some Alyssum seeds and they all came up giving cascades of white flowers from the many pots they were planted in. There were bees and this Hover Fly (I think) buzzing around. What a golden coloured fly!!!
Other visitors to the Alyssum flowers were small butterflies. I managed to get a photo of the Ochre Butterfly before is zoomed off to another flower in the garden.
You can see how dry the ground was when I took a photo of a Meadow Argus. They prefer to land on the ground. The underside of their wings seem fluffy and dull…..
….but the inside wings are very colourful.
In late October the Caper White Butterflies started to fly through my place on their migration to SE Queensland. They have been constantly been in the garden since then. The Pentas is a great butterfly attracting bush.
While walking around Grafton we spied some bee activity around a large Camphor Laurel. I am glad they were too busy to notice me trying to get some photos. When we went back a couple of weeks later there weren’t many bees around at all. Sadly I suspect the Council may have sprayed the nest.
The coming of warm days brings out the insects. There are a good number of varieties of flys at the moment. This brown fly spent some time walking around the rim of the jug on the window sill.
While this insect preferred the window to walk about.
The garden also has its share of insects and bugs. I love the colours on this beetle, don’t you?.
The Dragonflies are swooping around the garden and the dams. This is the blue variety. I think will do a blog just on Dragonflies as I have some other varieties.
I just had to include another White-throated Honeyeater and the hanging watering come small bird birdbath pot. He looks to be saying “Ok mate, where’s my water!!!”
On the walk along the beach I spotted some birds sitting on some rock off the shore. The Pied Cormorants were doing their washing.
Here is bird number 91 I have identified on my place. (I say “I” but has been a team effort from lots of people in my network.) The Common Bronzewing was just strolling along but I managed to get a not very good photo.
Back at the beach walk, on the way down to the beach through the dune I saw a New Holland Honeyeater gathering material for the nest.I’m sure the spider didn’t mind a bit of web taken.
Isn’t it funny how birds can have their heads looking back. The Brown Pigeon was certainly keeping an eye on me.
Amongst the vegetation, chit chatting away the Eastern Whipbird foraged for insects. Their distinctive whip crack call (from You Tube by Linda Hansbauer) many people know but when they are on the ground bustling about the have an insane cackle going on.
The most elusive bird at my besties is the Green Catbird and I am always excited when I find a Catbird amongst the foliage.
In Spring, the Figbirds arrive at my place. Late one afternoon I found this pair cosying up for the night among the branches of the fig tree.
Of course you have seen lots of Blue-faced Honeyeaters on the Honey Gem Grevillea in my previous blogs but the way they can have a snack upside down always fascinates me.
The Yellow-faced Honeyeater is contemplating the first flower on a Grevillea I planted a few years ago. I will have to try to find out the name of this Grevillea.
The Tawny Frogmouth (or it may be a Marbled Frogmouth) has the most basic of nests. Just a few twigs thrown onto a flattish spot in a tree. This bird hatched two babies.
Late in the evening, a walk along the shore at Ballina saw many pelicans coming in to roost. First stopping on the light post to make sure the fishermen weren’t cleaning their catch. It’s almost time to go….
…..the moon is up casting a glow so I must be off. See you next time.
