fungi – bushboys world

Vision

Published on June 22, 2017 by bushboy14 Comments

The Thursday Photo Challenge from Lost in Translation is Vision

Today, I took a walk on my property mainly to pull out weeds but as usual had my camera with me, just in case. When walking about you have to have vision as so many things happen or can be seen. Here is a snapshot of what I saw today just a few meters from my house.

I love finding things as I walk. Isn’t this small blue rock unusual?
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Always keep an eye out when you walk about as there are a few things that can bite or sting in the Australian bush.
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Isn’t the little garden on the old log just magical?
170622_blog challenge_vision_moss_fungi

A few twitters in the garden and there was the Silvereye sitting among the branches.
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A flash of yellow caught my eye as it flew past and the Golden Whistler landed on a branch nearby.
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A jump among the leaves caught my attention and the little Broad Palmed Frog was looking at me as well.
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I hope you enjoyed a quick walkabout with me.

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Unusual

Published on June 13, 2017 by bushboy36 Comments

Week 61 of Franks Tuesday Photo Challenge. This topic is Unusual. I have many unusual fungi growing on my place, but the Finger Fungi are quite unusual.
170613_blog challenge_unusual_fungi

My April: Full of Flowers Birds and Insects

Published on May 2, 2017June 7, 2017 by bushboy7 Comments

April. An Autumn month where the hot days give way to warm days, a hint of rain and cool nights. Migratory birds stop off, some plants flower and the weather is great for getting into the garden.

My garden helpers. Well maybe not all the time but they can help out with the insect control. They are constantly digging somewhere.

The end of March saw floods around the region and as a result, the floodwaters that entered the ocean caused the beaches to become foamy wonders. Here is a selection of the water at Sharpes Beach near Ballina.

I love the structural shapes in cacti

Some cacti were flowering

Other flowers bloomed in their own showy way. The camellias were beautiful this year.

Other flowers were just as spectacular

The Hibiscus is one of my favourites

The deep red of the Dahlia is stunning

The bees are loving the Pentas.

The fungi were everywhere in March but now just the few last fungi are popping up here and there. This is a wonderful pink fungi.

It looks almost planetary from the top don’t you think?

On a young eucalypt I found this amazing growth which I was informed is called Witches Broom. The ants seem to enjoy scurrying over it.

I have had a visitor in my house since early this year. She has been moving from room to room but has moved into the laundry. She is the biggest Huntsman Spider I have ever seen. When she stretches her legs she has a 16cm span. How big is your hand?

One day out in the garden, I dug out some old plants and also dug out a spider. At first I thought it was a Funnel Web Spider but it was a Mouse Spider. Both species of spider are quite venomous. It was too fussed about being disturbed.

The Line Blue Butterfly stopped for a rest on the hanging pot support.

The Eastern Yellow Robins have been zooming around the garden chasing one another. The female Robin sat on the bush just outside of the window. I think she was looking in the window.

The Yellow-faced Honeyeaters have returned for the winter.

The Plumed Whistling-Ducks have also come to rest for a while. I found a large flock in Waterview Heights, a outer suburb of Grafton. They were walking up and down the edge of a dam, chatting among themselves.

The ever present Kookaburra is not far away when I am digging in the garden, either sitting in a tree or like this bloke, on a fence post.

That was a bit of Bushboys World in April. Hope you liked stopping by.

Thursday’s Special – Pick a Word in April

Published on April 6, 2017April 24, 2017 by bushboy4 Comments

Some more words from Lost in Translation to pair with a photo

Projecting

pink fungi_log_named_home_march 2017

Arresting

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Pastoral

170405_word_pastoral

Convex

170405_word_convex

Communal

wasps_named_binna-burra_jan-2017

Thanks Paula for the chance to think and to find a suitable solution.

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These are Fungi 2017

Published on March 31, 2017March 31, 2017 by bushboy3 Comments

The rain came.
The sun came out.
The earth warmed.
Life emerged from the earth.
These are Fungi

The first signs as the fungus pushes its way from the earth

The yellow hue of this fungus didn’t translate to the photo as it nestled among the leaves of the Honey Gem.

All manner of shapes and colours appear among the grass and sticks.

Sometimes emerging from the mulch can be difficult.

When your neighbour emerges after you have and tilts you

Even in decay the fungus emits a golden sheen

Flipped onto its back the delicate frills no longer are there

The texture of the fungus is rough to the touch but has a softness also

The underside frills make a lovely fan

A certain translucency when the sun falls upon the frills

Fungi come in groups. These tiny fungi are everywhere dotting the grass with their orange brown spots. See how big the blades of grass are compared to the tiny fungi.

Or group together and dwarf the blades of grass

The brown fungi like to hang closely together.

The Finger Fungi are never alone as the stand tall. Well as tall as a Finger Fungi can.

Is this one of the ball shaped fungi above starting to grow old.

This next few photos are of fungi that I have never seen here before.

The tiny red fungi are easy to spot as they grow among the Norfolk Island Pine needles. Seemingly solitary with other red fungi nearby.

The pink fungi are coming out from between cracks in an old sleeper.

This type of small fungi are a jet black and only a few appeared next to the verandah and in a day or two, were gone. The photo doesn’t show the true colour

These are the fungi at my place. There are more as some others are in my first fungi blog from years ago.

The Things of January

Published on February 2, 2017 by bushboy11 Comments

THE HOT SUMMERS DAYS are here and the lack of consistent rainfall has sapped my energy causing me to be indoors more often than out in the biting rays of the Sun.

However I did get out and about and went to the Bangalow Markets hoping for some photographic inspiration. There was a bit of action but on the whole my mojo wasn’t there.

The colours did grab my attention.

In some part of my besties garden, the flowers are always around. There is more rainfall and cooler weather there. I was taken by the red flower buds getting ready to burst forth.

Back in my garden the storms gave relief to the plants with a Murraya sending out its perfumed blossoms.

I love the Hibiscus schizopetalus. The flowers hang down from the long stems and dance in the breeze.

The small amounts of rain and a bit of hot weather has made a fungi or two pop out of the soil. This one was the biggest I have seen for a long while. I didn’t know what to use to show its size but a brick came in handy

It looked just as amazing from beneath as well.

It may be Summer but the Teak Tree has decided that it is time to lose its leaves making the garden have a temporary Autumn feel.

Summer time and the wasps are constructing their nests from chewed wood giving them a papery look, hence the name Paper Wasps. Unfortunately these are under the gutter at my besties and will have to go. When I had a bloke doing some building work at my place, he managed to disturb a nest and was stung on his ear and back. They chased him as he ran away from the nest. Paper Wasps in the bush are OK but around the house they have to move on.

Even though it is hot, early morning and late in the day, the butterflies are about. I think this is a Skipper whose wings have seen better days.

The Caper Whites are still around but no where near the numbers of late Spring.

Here is a large horse fly Triclista singularis’ These fly slowly with a loud buzzing and we gave them the nickname of B52s. When they do land and bite you really know it. This is the biggest fly around my place, around 25mm. It is rather pretty for a fly.

I noticed movement in the kitchen on a potted begonia I found a Praying Mantis. He hung around the kitchen for a few days before going outside. Fearsome looking but quite friendly.

The Yellow-faced Honeyeater looked pleased with itself as it puffed out its chest.

The constant calls of the Bar-shouldered Dove ring around the garden as they sit high among the trees.

They have a pink ring around their eyes which I hadn’t noticed before.

I love the feather patterns on the Little Wattlebird

There is a queue at the bird bath waiting for their turn.

A return visitor to the garden is a lovely little Forest Kingfisher. The orange spots stand out as does the wonderful white chest.

He was so obliging to turn around to show the striking blue feathers. When flying about the garden the flashes of blue catch the eye.

I hope the hot weather soon abates and February brings more things for me to share with you.

A mixture of many things

Published on August 11, 2016August 16, 2016 by bushboy7 Comments

So much has happened since my last blog. I am no longer employed and have time to try to sort out my photos and other stuff. I am not able to do all that much as my hips are hurting a bit especially when I bend down. It’s quite amazing to discover how clumsy I am, I seem to drop so many things which leads me into decision-making. Do I leave whatever I have dropped there or do I really need to pick it up!!!

Enough of that and onto some of the wonders in nature I have come across as well as other things that I have thought was a bit special and hope you do too.

The succulent that is growing among the rocks in the garden, possibly dropped there and started to make a home for itself, has flowered. So many tiny flowers that only were around for a couple of weeks but added a drop of colour in the garden.

The Grevillea, Yamba Gold is flowering for the first time. The rains in July were a life saver for the garden which had a flush of life.

I gave the nectarine tree a severe trimming and this year it has been covered in blossoms.

The bees have been visiting the tree. The buzzing, as I walked about, was very loud.

The Stingless Native Bees have also discovered the tree.

Both bees decided to visit the same flower at the same time. It looks like a face off doesn’t it?

I love finding a Praying Mantis slowly swaying as it makes its way around the garden. Just after this photo, it decided to jump onto the camera and wander about. The photos of the Praying Mantis on the lens didn’t come out as good as I thought they would.

One evening in July, it was rather warm so I had windows open and in flew a fly. The fly just buzzed around me while I was trying to do stuff!!!

We had a few days away and while we were sitting outside enjoying the late afternoon and the sunset, this cloud caught my eye. I immediately thought it was Micky Mouse. What do you think?

All of a sudden there was a loud flapping of wings and the Brush Turkeys headed to their roost high in the Norfolk Island Pine.

The Eastern Spinebill hung around the garden all through the dry period and took over ownership of my favourite Honey Gem Grevillea. They did allow the Silvereyes to enjoy the flowers as well. The Silvereyes dropped in on their way north as they usually do in July.

The Silvereyes stayed around for a week or so before going on their way. Such a pretty little bird.

Late one afternoon the light was just amazing. It changed the whole colour of the Honey Gem making the greens so vivid.

There was a bit of competition at my besties bird bath. The birds have a bit of a bath or a drink.

Early one morning the ~~Little Wattlebird~~ Olive-backed Oriole (thanks for the ID @carolprobets ) wondered if the water was too cold to have a bath.

I went onto the verandah and there was a flurry of activity as around 20 Red-browed Finches flew out of a patch of long grass where they were feeding on the seed heads. Some flew into the trees whereas others just popped onto the garden edges to watch what I was doing.

The palm frond made a good perch to wait until I went away so they could continue with their seed eating.

The Wrens make a splash of colour as the hop about the garden looking for things to eat.

Down at the beach I am always on the look out for birds of prey in the sky. This time the ~~White-bellied Sea Eagle~~ Brahminy Kite (thanks for the ID @carolprobets )soared high in the sky, occasionally dropping lower to investigate a possible meal.

The unseasonal rainfall and warm weather produced so many fungi. The tiny orange fungi were all through the leaf litter.

These dimpled fungi pushed their way out of the soil in the morning sun.

I found this silver looking fungi under the tank stand. The red centre looked a lot redder than the photo shows.

These larger orange fungi were scattered in small clear patches throughout the bush.

Now come the tale of woe. During the few days I spent away enjoying myself at the resort in Kingscliffe, mayhem was happening at home. I came home to find that all of my chooks had been killed by a dog or perhaps two. I was devastated. There were four dead chooks in the chook house, a few piles of feathers in the bush and one pile of feathers on the road about 60 meters from the chook yard. When I saw those feathers on the road as I drove home, I had a sinking feeling. Speaking to some neighbours, I found out that three properties had some of their chooks killed as well. Apparently there had been a stray dog spotted around the neighbourhood.

Here is my rooster who was giving me the stink-eye for disturbing the foraging among the food scraps I just threw down. The six brown hens had only been here for about three weeks. These were the first hens I had ever purchased and they were just settling into the chook yard routine. One hen had just started to lay as well.

Sorry to end on such a sad note. I love my chooks and now I am sure the dog has gone, I’ll have to get some more chooks.

Birds, Bugs and Flowers

Published on January 12, 2016January 12, 2016 by bushboy3 Comments

I have been meaning to do the last lot of photos for December. Being on holidays makes it hard to sit and do useful things. I haven’t really gone anywhere. Just doing the usual day trips around the north coast of NSW, trying to avoid the places where the tourists are massed and clogging the roads. Managed to get caught in a 7km traffic jam because I didn’t check Live traffic before I left home. A useful website when driving around here in the school holidays.

The title doesn’t really tell you everything that is in this blog but there are birds, bugs and flowers. I suppose I should warn some of my more squeamish readers that this blog may contain spiders and moths. Yes someone doesn’t enjoy my moth photos.

The Ibis is the garbage scavenger quickly replacing the Seagull. I looked up one fine day and there, high above me, wheeling around on the air currents were some Ibis. They looked so graceful.

It was a hot day and the young Magpie Lark or Pee Wee as we called them as kids, was in the trees occasionally squawking but mainly panting – that’s if birds pant.

The heat of the day also brings some visitors to the verandah into the cool. The hanging plants make a good resting place for this King Parrot. King Parrots are regular visitors.

Walking around Lismore Heights, we stopped at the lookout where there were heaps of Copperheaded Skinks. Mostly small ones that were quite fast who ran away when I got too close.

I love coming across caterpillars. I have no idea what this one is and am feeling too lazy to get the books out. They are always ready to have their photo taken.

There has been a hatching of Cabbage White butterflies. There were quite a few flitting about the garden. I am not sure of the name of the flower this butterfly was enjoying.

Bugs. I really need a bug book as there are so many in the gardens and places I go to. I just call these types of insects shield bugs. It was quite intent on sucking on the stem of the plant and didn’t mind me taking a few photos.

Whereas this bloke was quite busy trotting about the vege garden. As you can see it wasn’t a very big bug.

The tiny moth just settled on the door frame, keeping dry from a passing shower. I love how hairy some moths can be. This one looks like it even has feathers on its back.

Bees. I love trying to get good photos of bees as you would know. I wonder how many bee photos I have?

As I was doing a bit of a tidy up in the garden, I came to the Crinum and was removing some of the debris that had gathered in the leaf stalks. I was also looking for spiders as well because they love to make a home in there. This time it wasn’t a spider I found but a cricket. It tried to wiggle its way deeper into the stem. This was the first photo before it made itself smaller.

One evening I got into the shower and this girl was in there as well. I gently moved her out of the shower as I don’t think she would find hot water beneficial. She decided that the mirror was a good place to sit. Maybe she was reflecting on her day.

I have developed an obsession in photographing Dragonflies. I didn’t realise there were so many different colours in dragonflies. This one almost looks like the stick it is sitting on.

Some dragonflies are quite orange. They seem to hold their wings out to the side when they are resting.

And then there are the red dragonflies that I have been trying to get a photo of for quite a while. The red is almost fluorescent. The red dragonflies hold their wings to the front.

Dragonflies can also be a bit hairy.

Of course any blog of mine would be complete without a fungi appearing somewhere.

It looks like we are up to the flowers. I have had a fascination with photographing flowers since I got my first SLR camera. The small geranium flowers all seem quite different if you look carefully.

The ball of flowers that make up the Pentas flowers looks so striking even when you get right into the flower and see the individuals that make up the whole ball.

Flowers grow in all sorts of shapes and patterns. I didn’t notice the structure of this flower until I looked from directly above. What a lovely circle of flowers.

These marigolds have so many subtle shades of orange that changes when viewed in sunlight. In the shade they seem to darken with lighter highlights.

What would summer be without the scent of a Frangipani? I can almost smell them when I see the photos, can’t you?

Buddha has a nice shady spot to sit. I like to visit him often for a chat.

Well that is the last of the 2015 photos. I hope you have enjoyed being with me as I made some lovely discoveries over the 2015. Here is the year in review that WordPress build – http://bushboy54.com/2015/12/31/2015-in-review/

Thanks for the positive comments and support and I hope I can let you see what will be in my world in 2016.

Novembers discoveries

Published on November 25, 2015 by bushboy2 Comments

I love this time of year. The warmth starts everything growing, flowers bloom in the garden, many birds arrive to spend the end of the year and life just abounds. It also gives me a chance to find things at my place, at my besties, in town and everywhere I am wandering.

This year, the Hippeastrums were spectacular. The red ones were full of life and colour. Remember the native bees? The other colours bloomed after the reds and I found this little grasshopper while I was admiring the flowers. The grasshopper was inside the flowers trumpet but tended to be camera shy and started to get away from the lens.

I have no idea what this bug is! Maybe a grasshopper? I was standing in the garden when it decided to walk onto my foot. This bloke wasn’t camera shy at all and kept walking towards me. Just after I took this photo, he jumped onto the camera.

On my besties place, a farm for more than one hundred years, I came across this concrete pier from a building long since gone. This is the only pier I have found, covered in moss, laying in what is now a young rainforest.

Also down among the leaf litter are the fungi. This one looks like it has been tied up by the grass.

There is lots of this type of fungi. It seems to grow on rotting wood especially bits of the fig trees which have tumbled from the big old trees, the remnants of the original Big Scrub rainforest.

Now back to my place. I have found a couple of this grass species throughout the bush. The stem has a lot of purple fruit which really catch the eye when walking in the bush. This plant is growing beside the track to the house.

I love Gerberas, don’t you? They come in so many colours adding a splash of colour to the garden.

Enough of bugs and plants. The Bar-shouldered Doves have taken to walking around the garden in the mornings, examining the bits of bark and grass to find their breakfast.

We went to Ballina and came across these fluffy plover chicks who were in constant movement as the walked across the field, closely followed by the parents. Yes I was a chicken and stayed on the other side of the road as the parents didn’t like me getting too close.

My besties birdbath is a constant source of photo opportunities. The Little Wattlebirds have become a fixture in the garden over the past 3 years. This one looks like it saw me hiding on the verandah.

This year the Jacarandas in Grafton were amazing. The large tree near the building where I work had an extra surprise this year. A Figbird pair decided to make their nest close to the building. Here is mum coming back to the nest to feed the young one. I think she saw me at the window don’t you?

But she soon settled down the sit on the nest among the Jacaranda blooms.

A few days later, the wind was blowing when dad turned up to give the little feller a snack, blowing the blossoms away allowing a sneak peak at the young one.

Then he took over the nest sitting duties.

Late in the evening at my besties, the Green Catbirds start making their strange calls from high among the trees.

Yes it is getting dark. The flowers in the garden still shine in the encroaching darkness.

Well the sun is setting, so I must say goodnight and a goodnight from the Kookaburra too.

See you next time. What did you enjoy the most, the bugs, the fungi, the flowers or the birds?

As I wander about

Published on September 7, 2015September 7, 2015 by bushboy2 Comments

It’s been ages since I have had time to get things sorted, to take time for things and actually sit down to set out to write a bit. I have been taking photos of all manner of stuff – as you will see. It is difficult to have a clear pathway of thoughts, to put ideas down and try to make sense so that you can follow where I have been and what I have seen. Many a time I just take off to see what I can discover and see something that I find interesting, colourful or part of our world that some people would just walk by everyday and not think of the beauty. Perhaps I look at the world in a different way, to imagine in my head what I see, grab my camera and let the lens take me where I think it should go. Enough of a jumble of thoughts – as The Beatles sang

“Thoughts meander like a restless wind
Inside a letter box
They tumble blindly as they make their way
Across the universe”

So lets go across the universe or through a small part of my world. Starting at the beginning. Early one misty morning, some rogue cattle were walking along the road when we was taking a walk.

Further down the road, the spiders webs were all through patches of grass. Small cup shaped webs dotted the side of the road in their hundreds.

As it is still rather cool here I am still out in the bush every couple of weeks to cut some firewood. One morning I noticed the White-winged Choughs doing their daily march along the clearing with their incessent chatter as they kicked over sticks and rocks looking for their breakfast. They had an almost straight line as they marched up the hill.

Sometimes you can look up and see a Spangled Drongo fly past the moon, even in the late afternoon.

I though the Bellwood Cormorant Hotel was rather fab but the double decker Osprey nest near Chinderah has a far better vantage point.

While we were having lunch in the Tweed Heads industrial/shopping complex, we watched as a bird swooped across the car park, grab what we think was a lizard and go back to the roof top and eat away. After I took the photo (OK I took heaps of photos), I discovered it was an Australian or Nankeen Kestral. What a pretty bird don’t you think?

Speaking of pretty, the Emerald Doves are out and about in numbers at the moment. This bird was not all that content having me stalk it to try and get a good photo.

It stuck its bum in the air as if to say “Go on….take a photo of my best side!!!”

This little bird was sitting in the tree singing its little lungs out.

Having a cuppa on the verandah one morning, one of the local King Parrots decided to pop over and see if we had any snacks.

The Bar-shouldered Dove didn’t seem to mind the Brush Turkeys leaf raking exercise. The turkey was flicking leaves so high into the air! The turkey’s litter mound is about 5 meters away from where it was methodically raking leaves.

One morning I found a Rainbow Lorikeet sitting on the ladder in the old swimming pool looking rather grumpy.

OK….now this is where things take a different direction for a while. One day we decided to walk across the Clarence River on the walkway under the Grafton Bridge. The structure has been graffitied over the years and the layers of paint with a bit of rust made lovely colours and patterns.

I like the rust colours.

This green almost looked like moss.

One of the hundred of thousand rivets holding te bridge together. Small but significent.

The walkway along the bridge also had two tunnels at either end which have always been “decorated”. Sometimes some of the graffiti has to be added to doesn’t it?

Othertimes the message is what everyone needs to hear.

One of my favourite cafes in Grafton is the Tilted Teaspoon. Skye has a wonderful sense of decoration with ever changing bits and pieces gleaned from Op-Shops and garage sales.

The water below the bridge has shapes that change as the water ripples from passing water craft. This one is rather spooky.

Speaking of spooky, what is the blue flash that appeared in my besties loungeroom?

I love the “eye lashes” on the bullet hole in the road sign.

Enough of the different stuff and back to colour and nature. The red flower of the eucalypt just seems to burst in a riot of colour.

One of the first flowers that I started to photograph many years ago were the Azalias of the next door neighbours. They had so many varieties that cascaded over the front suburban fence. The colours were superb. My besties Azalias have been a wonderful splash of colour around her garden. The deep pink flowers are lovely. One of the surprises when taking photos is the unexpected bits that are in and around the flowers.

This flower was hidden inside the same bush as the pink one above.

The red Azalias are such a stand out in the garden.

The Irises are dotted through the garden not being showy but adding a bit to the shape and form in the garden. It also is the home for a small spider.