Last month was the first post from Ju-Lyn at Touring My Backyard for The Changing Seasons. Ju-Lyn and I will be taking turns at hosting The Changing Seasons that Su from Zimmerbitch hosted with great results. We hope you will enjoy, as you have done in the past, and keep posting your Changing Seasons with us. Just add your link in the comments or pingback to this post for your Changing Seasons.
I have had an action packed July with my camera being able to get around the local area despite the Covid restrictions that the state of NSW is currently under. There has been a couple of “incidents” on the North Coast from people coming from Sydney Covid positive. A lot of businesses are starting to not allow customers from Sydney into their premises.
Enough of the doom and gloom, something I am not used to posting on my blog. Let’s start with an Aussie song you all should know to get you through the photos.
I thought we should start a bit bright and cheerful with some flowers.
My Bromiliads flowered with such unusual flowers
My besties Gymea Lily sent up a spear. It’s about three metres tall.
The flower is yet to open and as I haven’t been there for almost two weeks, I hope it waits until I can get there to show you the flower.
A while ago I was talking about my poor sad Peach Tree. It seems to enjoy July don’t you think?
The flowers have a lovely deep pink colour. I know a couple of people will love this colour.
The bees love the flowers too.
Just beside the Peach is a Nectarine Tree and the Stingless Native Bees are loving the blossoms of light pink petals with a rosy centre.
There has been a few Black Jezebel Butterflies in the garden too.
It’s not just the insects who love the flowers. The Brown Honeyeater enjoys snacking on Lions Tails flowers.
The Rainbow Lorikeets flock to the Honey Gem Grevillea in the morning.
Lewins Honeyeaters like to pick the centre from the Ornamental Ginger flowers
Can you count the number of King Parrots in the red Bottlebrush? I have lot of King Parrots in the garden.
This female King Parrot was watching me as I was walking in the garden.
There is always someone peeking through the window to see if I am home.
or peeking over the gutter
Or sitting in the tree where this Pied Currawong was outside of my office door.
One wonderful thing is that a Chatter (yes that’s the name for a group of Choughs) of White-winged Choughs have increased in number and often cackle away while picking their way through the garden.
Driving home a few days ago I heard the sounds of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos flying overhead. I saw them start to land so jumped out of the car camera in hand. Of course they decided to fly off to a distant tree. There were a lot of Cockatoos in the flock. This is just a few as others had landed in other trees further away.
Getting out to the beach was good way to spend the day even though it was very windy.
I think that there is a system of ownership of this rock. The Crested Terns were sitting there as I walked past.
On the way back, the Cormorant had taken over
Pied Oystercatchers were combing the beach for morsels in the sand.
The Sooty Oystercatcher decided the rocks was the best place to find a snack.
A Pelican was taking a stroll along the sand.
and another Pelican enjoyed a cruise on the Clarence River
Overhead it was rather busy. A Brahminy Kite scanned the beach intent on stealing whatever the Gulls had found.
A White-bellied Sea Eagle was hovering and circling in the wind right near us looking among the rock pools where the Sooty Oystercatcher was as well.
The brown on the outer side of it’s wings is lovely
At full stretch doing a turn in the wind ready to circle back and scan once more
We were also lucky enough to see the Humpback Whales on their northerly migration even though they were not very close to the shore.
It was an amazing sight to see hundreds of Ibis heading west to the wetlands where they will spend the rest of Winter and in Spring, raise their hatchlings.
One afternoon in the grey afternoon sky, a pair of Ibis were heading to roost.
Speaking of roosting. Down at the beach there is a colony of Red-Headed Flying Foxes who were squabbling over the best places and getting ready to fly off for their nightly foraging.
While in the trees, for Becky’s July Square Trees photo challenge, I posted the avenue of Fig Trees but from one end, I commented to Becky that I should have taken a photo in the middle. Yesterday in the late afternoon I did just that – and it’s even square.
Sitting in the garden the sun reflected off something that caught my eye. It was a rather ragged spiders web which had the most amazing colours.
Only a little bit of rain for July but thee is always the opportunity for a water drop photo.
One thing I like to photograph is rusty things. The steel and the rivets plus their shadow on the Grafton Bridge.
While looking on the other side, the setting looked rather idyllic
I love clouds and these in horizontal layers with varying colours one afternoon looked wonderful.
OK folks it time for sunset and to reach the end of my July and Changing Seasons.
I hope you enjoyed a scroll though my July and enjoyed the sunset as much as the cows do.
Did you have a favourite photo? See you next month for This is August 2021 and Ju-Lyn will be hosting The Changing Seasons
