The word photo challenge prompt from Debbie at Travel with Intent: Golden
The Gold Top Mushroom
Of all the Spiders in my garden, the Golden Orb Weaver is spectacular with a rather messy web
Other Spiders webs are well constructed. This one with a golden glow of the morning
The Golden Lycras are a sight to see in the garden
The Golden Whistler has a wonderful song
and of course the golden glow of a sunrise is a great way to start a morning
How many golden things are in your life?
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Vibrant Colours
Some Australian birds definitely have vibrant colours. Which bird do you think has the vibrancy over the others?
A Rainbow Lorikeet having a snack on a Golden Penda
A King Parrot
A Golden Whistler
A Scarlet Honeyeater and a red Bottlebrush flower
A Forest Kingfisher
What a month July has been. I haven’t been inspired to take photos. I have had a general malaise that has not been inspiring to take many photo and some I have taken are not worth the effort to place in my blog. Sorry everyone. This is my mediocre blog for the year. I have had some special moments. My best mate and his partner came for a almost a week, my bestie arrived a few days later and my “twin” and I had a great birthday together. (look back into my blog to realise why or there is a recent blog on Meet the Bloggers blog if you want to read)
Enough of being maudlin Let’s get going for some of my world in July
I have found grass seeds are quite striking. Perhaps they need a blog of their own? This seed head is a variety called Summer Grass or perhaps a Couch. So many choices I give up
Same with this one. I liked trying to get a good photo of grass seed heads, perhaps I should have tried hared.
The low chill stone fruits are flowering. The Peach has a lovely amount of bees. Maybe more bees next time.
The spider webs have been looking nice in the mornings. Here is a love heart for you.
One of the rusty rooves that didn’t make it into Becky #RoofSquares photo challenges
At the Lismore Air Show, some Black Kites decided to join in the fun. A Kite with a Pit Special acrobatic aeroplane. I may do another blog on the Air Show.
I like this photo even though it’s not the best. It’s a bird, it’s a plane. Yes it certainly is.
This is what a Black Kite looks like
Some Sacred Ibis did a formation fly over too.
A usual winter visitor is the Satin Bowerbirds. When it gets cold in the mountains, they come to winter at my place. This male enjoyed an afternoon drink.
The females and juveniles have similar plumage. I think this is a female Satin Bowerbird.
Enjoying a bath.
Looks like a grumpy Pied Currawong didn’t want me around.
Eastern Spinebills are lovely to have around the garden. Their distinctive wing clicking lets me know when they are around.
The Eastern Spinebill has found a potted Grevillea and has made the Grevillea its own feeding place.
It looks like there is no communication when the bird bath has to be shared. A White-throated Honeyeater and a White-throated Treecreeper aren’t talking this afternoon.
A Spotted Pardalote enjoyed a moment to itself.
A new visitor to my garden is a Striated Pardalote. Here looking at me as I was at my desk taking photos through the glass door.
I had four Pied Butcher Birds having a look for insect when I was cutting firewood. The sound of the chainsaw brought them to examine what I was doing. 
A female Golden Whistler loved being in the garden. Often seen swooping through the sprinklers when I was watering the garden.
I often neglect some birds as I see them all the time. The little White-throated Honeyeaters love my garden.
My mission for August will be to get some good photos of Eastern Rosellas.
The wonderful Winter visitor to my garden is the Rose Robin. Such a lovely sight as he flits through the garden.
The photo I used in an earlier blog. Just had to include this again. What a lovely bird to have in my life.
The sun is setting so almost time to say goodnight or good morning, depends on where you are in this world.
This time of year, it is time to harvest sugar cane. Some cane farmers still burn the cane prior to harvest. This is the view of the cane fires from my besties garden.
The last light is almost upon us so I guess I’ll see you later.
See you later. Say G’day. I would love to hear from you.
Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge : Birds
One day I was looking at some of my bird photos. One in particular was of a heron standing in a tree in my backyard with the sun behind. The silhouette wasn’t that clear, so I set about changing the white areas to very white and the bird and tree to black.
Of course this started a series of converting colour photos to grey-scale so I could hand colour what I wanted. You can see at the very top of the Rainbow Bee Eater below where I missed a small amount of the white.
When I print these and frame them I didn’t need a frame around the photo. On a blog post the white does disappear and the edges are gone. The Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo just flies around the page.
This one, a New Holland Honeyeater on a Banksia, was the most difficult but worth the effort don’t you think? 
The Golden Whistler singing among the many branches was also a bit fiddly. I left a little bit of his yellow on his throat but didn’t make it white as something different to the others 
Writing the post wasn’t easy either as I added all the photos in one go and had to find the spaces to write. I thought about doing borders for this post. Do you think I should have put borders on the photos?
The word prompt from Nancy’s Photo a Week Challenge: Gold
The gold of a sunrise
The gold of a Honey Gem Grevillea
The Golden Lycras in my garden
A Yellow-tufted Honeyeater enjoying the Honey Gem flowers
A Golden Whistler singing in the Honey Gem Grevillea
The golden glow at the beach in the morning
The golden glow of a sunset
Here we are at what I saw in March. There has been a couple of photo challenges I have done in March so some of those photos aren’t in this lot. It is another big photo post. There are a few photos of snakes, spiders and other insects but try to have a peek through your fingers when they come along. Nature is full of wondrous colours and shapes.
Of course there are flowers and birds plus my March obsession of spiders webs. So I do recommend getting your favourite drink and perhaps a snack as you settle in and have a look at my month of March.
OK, I’ll get the insects out of the way first for all those who have told me of their dislike of bugs. You will be rewarded with seeing some lovely little creatures from my world.
I’ll ease you into the insect section with a lovely Wanderer Butterfly
Remember My Quest to photograph a Blue Triangle Butterfly. Well now it seems they are waiting for me. This Blue Triangle was on the road when we went for a walk.
There were a lot of Easten Common Brown Butterflies around this year.
A long range photo of a lovely bug with orange feelers. Some close ups are coming next.
When you are a small insect you really have to hang on if there is a breeze about.
I look fearsome but I’m not.
A small Fly with red eyes came to sit with us while we had a drink on the deck. Spiders next
Remember the spiders web from my March Squares. Lots of people were glad the spider wasn’t in the web. Well here he is, all 5 or 6mm of him. Better watch out if you are a mossie.
Some spiders hang up side down on their web.
First prize in the messiest web. I love the droplets on the web from the morning mist.
As part of my obsession, I have been playing with my photo editor. Do you like this one?
A bit of respite now. A Lemon Migrant Butterfly on Lantana
While on a day trip, we stopped at an art gallery which wasn’t all that great. Outside life was far more interesting. I found a Praying Mantis eating a Bee in the flower bed.
This poor little bloke couldn’t get his wings folded
Photographing some grass seeds I was photo-bombed by a Dragonfly
I don’t think it was this lovely red Dragonfly. I love the shadow
My favourite Australian Native Bees are the Blue-banded Bees which are in other posts this month. This Australian Native Bee has the best named of all. Let me introduce you to the Teddy Bear Bee. Do you know of a cuter bee name?
When we look out of the kitchen window at my besties place, neatly framed in the arch, waiting for his breakfast too is PJ the horse. He knows where to stand to get attention doesn’t he?
The grass seed photo I talked about earlier.
An Australian Native flower that grows at my place. This one was on the side of the road.
My besties Roses are lovely this year. The camera couldn’t capture the wonderful red colour though
A great year for Bromiliad flowering too.
This plant is called Ink Weed. Apparently you can make ink from the plant. Not sure which part but they did in the early days of the colony.
I have often shown the Blue Ginger flowers up close, sometimes with a Blue-banded Bee in them. This is one patch of them in my besties garden.
I love Cats Whiskers flowers. They are just opening in March.
Aren’t the colours of the garden striking?
Remember the many posts about the Dancing Lady Hibiscus. Here is a shot of the many flowers that came out this year taken from the verandah where we sometimes have breakfast, the most flowers we have ever seen. The Hibiscus bush trails up the Poinciana tree trunks. How many Dancing Ladies can you count?
A tiny Eco-system in a tree trunk on the side of the road.
The fence post was covered on one side with these fungi.
A lone fungus on the side of the hill.
I love this shot from under the Poinciana tree at the small fungi high up.
The Common Garden Skink, I call a Copper Headed Skink, doing its best not to look at the camera before it scurried away.
Apart from flowers, fungi, birds, the Poinciana also has a non-venomous Green Tree Snake who lives in the hollows. These Pythons are harmless
Beautiful little snake. Aren’t the colours and markings lovely?
I wondered why the chook was hesitant about coming out of her yard. When she did she would run across the yard to a sheltered spot. She never came into the front garden. Then I spied why. The Square-tailed Kites have built a nest in a eucalypt in the front yard
The Black Kites are everywhere near the Lismore Waste Center
On a drive to Caniaba, while waiting for some dairy cows to cross the road, I saw two Wedged-tailed Eagles wheeling about high in the sky.
The Little Wattlebird enjoyed singing and searching for food in the Poinciana tree
He saw me with my camera while up side down looking for grubs.
The tiny Buff-rumped Thornbill defied gravity looking for a snack in the Poinciana tree too
A Golden Whistler was in fine voice in the Poinciana tree.
Another singer in the garden is the Varied Triller
A flock of Silvereyes called in to have a feed
A Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike strained to see if it was food or just the wind blowing leaves about
On a recent walk, I spied a young Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike harassing its parent for food
“Where is everyone?” the Pied Cormorant seemed to say as it looked around before diving for fish once more in the Brunswick River.
Meanwhile on the beach at Brunswick Heads, a Welcome Swallow found a convenient stick to perch
Remember the Bromiliad Flower? The Lewins Honeyeater has been sticking his head into the flower to get a snack. The flower also rewarded him but giving him a pollen crown.
I love Wonga Pigeons. This pair were sitting in the garden preening and looking about.
The Grey Fantail looked like he was walking on stilts.
A great moment in March was seeing the Green Catbird feeding her young. Seconds later another young one came along which disturbed the scene and soon all three had flown off.
I can’t do a post with birds and not included Bobbin, the cute resident Northern Yellow Robin. I recently discovered that I have been calling the Yellow Robins around here and at my besties, Eastern Yellow Robins. There are two distinct races of Yellow Robins. So from now on Bobbin and his friends are Northern Yellow Robins.
Thanks for getting this far. I even made a second coffee to keep me going to the end.
The afternoon colour and trees looked so lovely
The Full Moon earlier in March looked great with the clouds drifting by.
I like to put the captions before the photo. What do you do? Do you prefer the captions before or after a photo? Let me know what you think?
Did you have a favourite photo from March?
Frank at Dutch goes the Photo’s word prompt: Time
I had some
questions
to ask.
I went to ask
a bee
about
flowers, honey and
things all bee.
The Bee said
“Sorry I don’t
have time”
I went to ask
a Golden Whistler
about a song,
a whistle
in my head
The Whistler said
“Sorry I don’t
have time”
I went to ask
a Lewins Honeyeater
about
the taste of
a Bromiliad.
The Lewins Honeyeater said
“Sorry I don’t
have time”
I looked around
with questions
in my head.
Questions of
bees and nectar.
Of songs
of Golden Whistlers.
Of the sweet taste
in flowers
from the Lewins Honeyeater.
No one had
Time.
From the green
pasture
I heard a
voice.
“Sit yourself
down,
inquiring mind,
I have Time”
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.
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?
Always keep an eye out when you walk about as there are a few things that can bite or sting in the Australian bush.
Isn’t the little garden on the old log just magical?
A few twitters in the garden and there was the Silvereye sitting among the branches.
A flash of yellow caught my eye as it flew past and the Golden Whistler landed on a branch nearby.
A jump among the leaves caught my attention and the little Broad Palmed Frog was looking at me as well.
I hope you enjoyed a quick walkabout with me.
A few years ago I looked at some of my photos and thought they would be good as silhouettes. I remade some of the best ones that I thought would be good to frame and sell at hand-made markets or other markets that abound here on the north coast of NSW. I only managed to get a stall at a couple of markets, no where near as many as I would have liked to attend, over the past year or two.
There has been some good sales and some where not one photo sold. Perhaps this year I may get to more markets as a stallholder and see if anyone enjoys my photos.
I don’t just convert from colour to black and white, in some cases I have taken the photo in monochrome, I actually trace around the photo to get a bit of a better definition. This takes time and sometimes I think I have spent more time than necessary but I enjoy doing the work.
This first silhouette is the photo that I took that started the process. I came home late in the afternoon and as I drove down the driveway, I disturbed the White-faced Heron on the dam who flew onto a branch near the house. I was just getting excited in capturing birds with my new digital camera, this was an ideal opportunity. The original photo late in the afternoon was almost in black and white with the sky blue and the Heron without any detail, just a dark image. The bark of the Yellow Stringybark was a challenge!!!
I have always like to outline of birds against the sky. An Osprey wheeling above the water looking for a fish provided a nice silhouette.
The Cormorant sitting on a branch on the edge of the dam also looking for a fish or yabbie obliged by sitting still for quite some time.
The Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos with their almost slow-motion flying as they flew overhead to their roost for the night were a delight to watch and photograph. The wing tips were hard to get right.
The New Holland Honeyeater sitting atop of a Banksia isn’t really a silhouette but the conversion into black and white was so striking that I decided to leave it as a monochrome. I included this one in my silhouette series as it is a popular photo at the markets.
Some birds are so distinctive in their shape, they are just right for silhouettes. Even a brightly coloured Rainbow Bee Eater is recognisable in black and white.
As is a Spangled Drongo.
The Golden Whistler photo has taken me the most time to convert into a silhouette. I didn’t realise that when there are branches in the background that they are ever so slightly out of focus and need a lot of attention. I even left a small patch of the bright yellow colour on the neck as neither black or white to add a bit of definition of this wonderful small bird.
I have posted lots of brightly coloured birds on my blogs over the years. I hope you have enjoyed something different.
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