Cee’s Midweek madness Challenge: December Colours – Silver or Gold
Tag: golden whistler
Still
This is June 2019
About time I hear you say. Yes I am a bit late with last months wrap up. I didn’t take as many photos early on and then I seemed to find lots to photograph. This months photos have a couple I have used in other photo challenges but I decided to keep this post a bit shorter by not including the those photos.
So sit back and have a scroll through my June
Let’s start in Inverell, a town about 200kms from my place. We decided to have a mini holiday and ventured west. My goodness the drought has really hit hard out there. Didn’t see the usual paddocks with sheep and cattle in them. Many farmers have de-stocked and just holding onto their core breeding stock for when the drought breaks.
We stayed at a fabulous B’n’B, Blair Athol a Manor house from the early 1900’s. It is a great place to stay
We did venture around the countryside. It was quite sad. I think this granite outcrop says it all.
I found a Pied Cormorant just after a bit of a dip in the water. I love how Cormorants do this. Makes me smile every time.
Back home I was surprised to see ducks on my house dam as the water level is quite low. Three Pacific Black Ducks cruise the dam.
Sometimes when I am about in the garden doing a bit of bird spotting I get a feeling I am being watched as well. This Grey-shrike Thrush was making sure I was being good.
Another Winter visitor to the garden are Golden Whistlers
Of course a monthly wrap wouldn’t be the same without the resident Eastern Yellow Robin who found a post to sit on while surveying the garden for a snack.
Little Striated Thornbills are flying about the garden in the afternoons
The Rose Robins are still around as well
The Agave looked lovely in the afternoon light
This is called Witches Broom it is on a small Eucalypt. 
The variety of plants that are growing on a palm in the garden is wonderful. At the front is an Elk Horn, behind it on the right is a Birds nest Fern. They are surrounded by Hares Foot Fern and to the left rear is Fishbone Fern. All of these plants have decided to grow among the palm’s trunk.
Nearby, a Jacaranda has a lovely growth of moss that cascades to the ground.
My mate Geoffs Iris has flowered. Always will bring back a memory.
All around the place Lichen has sprung up as there has been showers of rain over the last part of the month enough to keep the garden happy and for some plants to emerge.
I love finding water drops. My besties place has had much more rain than here.
These are the seed pods from an Eucalypt tree I found in Inverell.
I haven’t taken many photos of the Red-necked Wallabies that hang around my place. I caught this bloke with a mouth full of grass.
Late one afternoon at my besties, she called out to come over to where she was in the garden. She found a little Bandi Bandi going across a log heading for a safe place to spend the night.
There appears to be lots of Wanderer Butterflies about at the moment. Found this one flying around the lane-ways of Lismore.
Meanwhile there are Wanderers in my besties garden feeding on Echinacea flowers.
One day we decided to head to the coast for lunch at the Ballina Beach Surf Club. Afterwards, after watching whales from the window while eating, we wandered up to the headland and watched the Humpback Whales cruising past. I bit of blow usually let me know where they were.
I love it when they gave a wave.
Managed to get some tail shots.
but could never be focused on the right place when a Humpback breached
Now for a bit of weird. Walking down a lane in Lismore we always look to see if this window has changed. I think the hand and flag on the right have been added.
A stack of chairs in a window.
One morning, the mist was settled in the valleys. I used to tell the kids that the mountains have captured the clouds.
A bit of my playing around with photos. A Magpie on a steel post
OK the sun is down so time for me to go.
I hope you have enjoyed a bit of a look at my June. The feature photo is a butterfly among the Zinnias in my besties garden.
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It’s Black and White
The May Photo a Day Challenge from Maria at CitySonnet: Silhouette
I have been doing silhouettes for quite some time now. These are my original photos converted to black and white and the outline of the birds redrawn by hand. The black enhanced and filled but not “flood filled” but each pixel or a group of pixels. The same process with the white part of my photograph.
I haven’t done any new ones for a while now as it is rather time consuming. I haven’t applied borders. When the photo is framed it doesn’t need a border but on the web page perhaps. I hope you enjoy my bird silhouettes.
This is the first one I attempted. A White-faced Heron who was sitting on a tree in my garden.
A Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo flying at my place
The distinctive tail shape of a Spangled Drongo
Another easily identified bird by their tail – a Rainbow Bee Eater
A Golden Whistler singing in the tree
One of my best and most complicated, a Wattlebird on a Banksia flower at Evans Head
The featured image is a Pied Cormorant keeping watch on the dam at my place
the old song
The new song
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Birds Around My Neighbourhood
Two photo challenges caught my eye today.
Lens-artists: Around the Neighbourhood
Jenns: Feathered Friends
Come for a quick walk around my neighbourhood. There is my dead end gravel road which is about three kilometers long which has an intersection with another gravel road which is paved about sixteen kilometers from my place. It goes from the highway to a long way away, perhaps fifty kilometers.
Lets get going.
The Noisy Friarbird will often let others know we are about
Listen for a chip chip and look at the tree trunks to see a White-throated Treecreeper scouring the bark for an insect or two
The lovely face of a Blue-faced Honeyeater
You might hear the wings of the Eastern Spinebill before you see one zoom past
The Pied Butcherbirds song will fill the forest as we walk along
We may see a Jackie Winter sitting on a fence
Lovely little Eastern Yellow Robins will be chip chip chipping seemingly endlessly
Of course the familiar sounds of Kookaburras will resound around the bush
Small Brown Honeyeaters will be silently having a snack on a Bottlebrush
A flash of colour and a Spotted Pardelote will fly by
A Forest Kingfisher, a sudden flash like a blue jewel, as he flies through the bush
The unmistakable squawking of Rainbow Lorikeets as they argue about whose branch it is will get your attention
The beautiful song of a Rufous Whistler will kep you spell bound for ages
A whistle, a flash of red, the smallest honeyeater is unmistakable in the bush
High in the tree, the resident Square-tailed Kite will keep an eye on you
While overhead it’s mate will soar
Up the road a bit, some Crimson Rosellas have a snack on the horses feed
What’s that chatter chatter chatter? I hear you say. The Grey-crowned Babblers walk about the forest floor snacking on unsuspecting insects talking about their day
More jewels in the sky as the Rainbow Bee-eaters gather
Another remarkable song and bright yellow of the Golden Whistler will make you stop and listen
Musk Lorikeets can be seen as they feast on the nectar of Pink Euodias
The largest bird of prey, a Wedged-tailed Eagle on the lookout for an unsuspecting wallaby or animal, will sit silent until we get to close
A bit more whistling heralds that we are near some King Parrots
A strange metallic sound draws our attention to the iridescent and distinctive tail shape of the wonderfully named Spangled Drongo 
A Satin Bowerbird who is similarly coloured to a Drongo will be in the bush sometimes finding food
or finding sticks or blue stuff to decorate and construct his Bower
Thanks for dropping by and having a bit of a walk around my neighbourhood. I hope you had a good time.
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Quit
Golden
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?
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Vibrant Colours
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
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This is July 2018
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.
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Birds in Black and White
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?
