Golden in sight (and sound)

Bird of the Week Invitation: LIV

This week is the turn of the Golden Whistler. I know when they are in the garden or the surrounding bush. They don’t sit for very long but when they do they are looking around. When they see something, they can stop and look before launching at lunch, as this male Golden Whistler is about to do.

The Golden Whistler is found from northern Queensland, around coastal eastern and southern Australia, including Tasmania, to the middle of Western Australia

The females are quite pretty just not as showy as the males

I guess you want to hear one of Australia’s loudest and most beautiful songsters

REF: http://www.graemechapman.com.au/index.php

Golden Whistlers feed on insects, spiders and other small arthropods. Berries are also eaten. Feeding is usually done alone and most food is obtained from the lower or middle tree level

Male and female Golden Whistlers share the nest building duties. The nest is a shallow bowl, made of twigs, grass and bark, bound together with spider web and lined with finer grass. The nest is placed in a fork in a bush or tree up to 6 m above the ground.

I think this is a young Golden Whistler, maybe morphing into a male. Like most birds, the young look like the females until maturity.

REF: https://australian.museum/learn/animals/birds/golden-whistler/

Some of your favourites from 2023

Debbies Six Word Saturday

Debbie chose some of her favourite photos from 2023. I decided to look at the most popular of your Six Word Saturday photos just based on the number of likes a post received.
For a bit of fun, I tried to match Debbies title with my own (very loose) interpretation and photo in some of the posts.

These are in no particular order just added as I discovered what you liked. Is your favourite from 2023 in this lot?

Debbies Six Words: Cotton-picking patterns in Tashkent metro
My title: Finding a colourful place to sleep

Debbies Six Words: Glorious sunset over the River Clyde
My title: Glorious sunset over the neighbours cow 

Debbies Six Words: Getting ready for a fashionable splash
My Title: Getting ready for a sudden splash

Debbies Six Words: Getting home at 04:00 isn’t golden
My Title: A golden way to wake up

Debbies Six Words: More than just opera and ballet
My Title: More than just open for bees

Debbies Six Words: Reflection or a piece of art
My Title: Reflections in a piece of art

Debbies Six Words: Tasty coffee and some inviting books
My Title: I really need a tasty coffee

Debbies Six Words: Hard to beat a sunny Thames
My Title: Hard to beat a sunny spot

Debbies Six Words: The lakeside walk becomes a swim
My Title: A quiet swim becomes a frenzy

Debbies Six Words: Two days before full Beaver Moon
My Title: One night only for a Moonflower

Debbies Six Words: Lets turn over a green leaf
My Title: Don’t turn over my green leaf

Debbies Six Words: Something is happening in the UK today
My Title: Something is happening at the birdbath today

Re-living the Past #22 – going back to 2013

Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge: Review (2)

There were happy puppy kites

Stingless Native Bee all 5mm of her zooming past a Hibiscus flower. This plant was a cutting from my Mum’s garden.

A Gold-tailed Spiny Ant having a drink in a water drop on the verandah. I call them Gold Bum Ants until I learnt their real name

Looking under a mushroom

First time I found some freaky looking Finger Fungus

Of course there were flowers

There seemed to be pink flowers then

The first appearance on my drift wood Stick Man walking along the beach. The start of fun creations with things on the beach by my bestie and me

Shells photos were a fun post

Insects on flowers or insects in general were the beginnings of macro photography

Butterflies and Honey Gem Grevillea flowers became a favourite

As did birds who enjoyed the flowers nectar like this Blue-faced Honeyeater

Birds at the bird bath made easy to take photos. Golden Whistlers and others always stopped in for a drink or a bath

Everyone loved the Long-necked Tortoise sunning on the almost tortoise shaped rock

Here is my Rooster. He was the one who helped start me on my addiction to photo challenges, thanks to Yvette from Priorhouse who was looking for some feather photos

Of course there was a few Red-necked Wallaby photos, taken from my kitchen window, especially the cute Joeys.

One my way home from work in town, I sometimes stopped when the sunset looked amazing just a few kilometres from my place

My first sunset photo I posted. Can you spot on the mountains where the sun was setting from the previous photo?

On the angle

Debbie’s One Word Sunday: Diagonal

Couldn’t decide on one so here’s a few diagonals

Water

Intentional Camera Movement in the garden

A Pelican

Some clouds

A female Golden Whistler on a diagonal branch. There one minute and gone the next

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
blair athol estate_house_named_inverell_june 2019
We did venture around the countryside. It was quite sad. I think this granite outcrop says it all.granite_rocks_outcrop_named_tingha_june 2019
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.pied_cormorant_named_inverell_june 2019
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.pacific_black_ducks_dam_named_home_jackadgery_june 2019
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.grey_shrike_thrush_named_home_jackadgery_june 2019
Another Winter visitor to the garden are Golden Whistlersgolden_whistler_named_home_jackadgery_june 2019
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.eastern_yellow_robin_named_home_jacadgery_june 2019
Little Striated Thornbills are flying about the garden in the afternoonsstriated_thornbill_named_home_jackadgery_june 2019
The Rose Robins are still around as wellrose_robin_named_home_jacadgery_june 2019
The Agave looked lovely in the afternoon lightagave_garden_sun_named_home_jackadgery_june 2019
This is called Witches Broom it is on a small Eucalypt. witches_broom_garden_named_home_jackadgery_june 2019
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.palm_elkhorn_birdsnest_fern_haresfoot_fern_garden_named_home_jackadgery_june 2019
Nearby, a Jacaranda has a lovely growth of moss that cascades to the ground.moss_garden_named_home_jackadgery_june 2019
My mate Geoffs Iris has flowered. Always will bring back a memory.iris_purple_garden_named_home_jackadgery_june 2019
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.lichen_named_home_jackadgery_june 2019
I love finding water drops. My besties place has had much more rain than here.cumquat_water_drop_garden_named_caniabajune 2019
These are the seed pods from an Eucalypt tree I found in Inverell.nut_eucalypt_tree_inverell_june 2019
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.red-necked_wallaby_named_home_jackadgery_june 2019
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.bandi_bandi_named_caniaba_june 2019
There appears to be lots of Wanderer Butterflies about at the moment. Found this one flying around the lane-ways of Lismore.wanderer_butterfly_flying_named_lismore_june 2019
Meanwhile there are Wanderers in my besties garden feeding on Echinacea flowers.wanderer_echanacia_flower_garden_named_caniaba_june 2019
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.humpback_whale_blow_named_ballina_headland_june 2019

I love it when they gave a wave.
humpback_whale_fin1_named_ballina_headland_june 2019
Managed to get some tail shots.humpback_whale_tail_splash2_named_ballina_headland_june 2019
but could never be focused on the right place when a Humpback breachedhumpback_whale_tail_splash1_named_ballina_headland_june 2019
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.eclectic_window_wierd_named_lismore_june 2019

A stack of chairs in a window.
chairs_window_named_lismore_june 2019

One morning, the mist was settled in the valleys. I used to tell the kids that the mountains have captured the clouds.
great_dividing_range_cloud_june 2019

A bit of my playing around with photos. A Magpie on a steel post
magpie_post_art_named_inverell_june 2019
OK the sun is down so time for me to go.sunset_orange_named_caniaba_june 2019

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.