Head on over for the One Word Photo Challenge: Pelicans
Looking at others photos of Pelicans, I didn’t know they were different to the Pelicans here. I have a couple of new photos never seen before.
Pelicans look so wonderful as the soar across the sky. Huge graceful birds
“I told you to get my best side”
You will be pleased to know that this month I have been picky in choosing what to put on my April post. This is not a marathon so maybe you won’t need a drink and a snack to get to the end.
Let’s get going then.
It’s just a leaf I found. I just love the colours.
There is a whole ecosystem on this fungi
Down the hill from from the above fungi, a whole miniature forest was growing.
I love the sunsets and these grass seed heads.
More grass seed heads against the late afternoon sky. The camera knows how to lie as these aren’t very big.
One of my favourite garden flowers – Cats Whiskers
I don’t know the name of this flower. We call it The Pink Thing. Bees love disappearing inside of the bell or where the flower joins the stalk.
The small flowers of the Bangalow Palm are waiting to burst out. The outer casing had fallen off early in the morning and the palm was full of buzzing bees.
Trying to get some bee photos I didn’t realise I have taken photos of little Dwarf Eastern Tree Frogs. I don’t know if they were hunting bees or other insects
I only found these two but I am sure there were many more among the hanging stalks.
The snail was having a good time exploring the leaf
I found an interesting looking Shield Insect walking along the electric fence tape.
The Caterpillar was quite disturbed at my presence as you can see the red warning bits shooting out. It certainly made short work of the small bush lemon tree’s leaves.
Just a bee getting some nectare and pollen from the Singapore Daisy flower.
In the Fan Palm, I saw a black shape. Now I am sure I will be careful around the palm with Paper Wasps setting up a nest.
I think this is a Lemon Migrant Butterfly among the purple flowers.
I have lots of photos of Brown Ringlets but none taken from the underside. It was almost like a mother of pearl shining in the sunlight.
The Orange Palm Dart flitted around the Pentas flowers.
There is always someone who pokes their tongue out when a photo is being taken.
I seemed to have an obsession in April with spiders webs. The sun glowing gave the web a golden sheen.
This web was damaged by the rain leaving little gems of water on the web.
Some webs were so traditional looking. The tiny spider sat waiting for someone to get snared.
This is a first for me. An Eastern Curlew was walking about the Gulls and Terns.
Some Pelicans had a snooze while others got on with the washing.
This bloke was a bit late but glided in to try and find a spot on the sand bar.
A Lewins Honeyeater was scanning the Fan Palm for something to eat.
The Yellow-faced Honeyeaters loved the bird bath on a warm Autumn day.
After their bird bath, a couple of Red-browed Firetail Finches sat about doing their laundry.
This Red-browed Firetail Finch showed his firetail
A couple of Buff-rumped Thornbills contemplated going into the water
I am sure the Spangled Drongo was ignoring me.
I have been looking for Royal Spoonbills to photograph for ages. I spied a couple in a flooded park in the middle of Ballina. Not in a wetland as I expected but in town with cars whizzing by. A couple of people wondered what I was doing as they went past.
Don’t my orange eyebrows give me a certain something.
I couldn’t not have a post without a photo of everyones favourite Northern Yellow Robin, our little regular garden visitor, Bobbin.
Thanks for stopping by. Did you have a favourite or two?
January has been a month of hot weather a bit of rain but most of all the butterflies are around. The hot days have made the birds a bit scarce. Now the Summer flowers are out they’ll return. The rain over the past 5 days has seen a lot more smaller birds in the garden.
Ok lets get going. Another huge lot of photos so maybe your favourite drink you enjoy while looking at blogs may be in order again.
Perhaps some flowers and plants to get going. Isn’t the bark on this Australian Native Fig Tree wonderful
The Red Tower Ginger flowers are looking after the garden
More red flowers are emerging
The Blue Ginger buds are ready to burst
I did find a bit of wood fungi in the forest
I have never seem Macaranga flowers before. I am still not sure if they are flowers or buds
The flower buds are high in the canopy. When they open they are tubular white flowers which drop to the garden floor.
A mixture of weeds. A Camphor Laurel leaf on a Cobblers Peg plant
The Cunji are growing so well on the banks of the spring
The spring is a lovely place to be on a hot day.
I discovered this Australian Native plant when I was mowing the front of my place. It is almost two meters tall, covered in white flowers which ants love.
Some bits and pieces
Holding the cattle yards together
The trawler setting off in the afternoon to fish through the night
The rusty seat on the old tractor
Reptiles I have found
The Geckos live in my house. This is the Gecko who lives in the hallway.
You never know who is sleeping on the verandah rafters.
Such pretty markings
Time for some birds
I didn’t know this bird as it flew about me. I have taken photos of Jacky Winter birds before. This is a young bird
The Lewins Honeyeaters are always on the look out for the grubs in the Poinciana tree
Late afternoon and the Pelicans are ready to sleep
The Gulls are ready to annoy them.
The lovely Eastern Yellow Robin happy to be in the garden.
Found these native snails in the garden having a snooze.
The Cricket was happy to be taken outside
What would Summer be like without Dragonflies
I love their wing patterns
A grub in the Paperbark tree making track and holes all over the tree
There was a migration of moths. We called this one a Fox Moth
The outside wings of the Meadow Argus are quite muted
Inside is a different story
The Wanderers are slowly coming back
Common Crows are everywhere at the moment
A Common Ringlet about to take off
There are so many butterflies with the word Common in front of their name. The Common Eggfly is a name that doesn’t do this butterfly justice.
Remember The Quest to photograph a Blue Triangle Butterfly. Well now I have two Blue Triangles. Aren’t their faces great
The Moon is up and about in the clouds
The Sun is almost setting
So it is time for me to finish off. Hope you have enjoyed my January.
Join in with Debbie over at Travel with Intent with the word prompt: Elevation
Here is a my Elevations for the photo challenge
The Wattlebird has a good lookout in the coastal heath atop a Banksia
Pelicans in the harbour will find anywhere to sit
High in the Pine Tree, a Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo surveys the best pine cones for dinner
Of course Part Four would have to be the birds of October.
On the Queensland expedition we came across a huge flock of Cormorants and Pelicans on the edge of Somerset Dam.
On a bit of a chilly day the Cormorants were a bit sleepy in Ballina.
So were the Pelicans
The Satin Bowerbird has been busy collecting his blue bits and pieces to decorate his Bower. This is the fifth year this Bower has been used in the bush at my place.
Of course who could forget Brendan the Bush Turkey. Here he is on his mound he has built for the females to lay their eggs in. The mound is about 2 meters tall. Brendan does a great job of raking the leaves.
A Figbird sits high on a branch keeping an eye on the goings on in the garden.
The Laughing Kookaburra was on the other side of the garden.
This bloke is more of a smiling Kookaburra don’t you think? He likes the sitting branch which is the most popular in the garden.
The Eastern Whipbird sends his call down the gully This is what a whip bird sounds like here
The Pied Currawong was always around the garden.
This branch is a favourite sitting spot in the garden.
The Pied Currawong is sitting on the eggs in the nest at my besties place.
The Noisy Friarbird on the famous sitting branch
Another stand off in the Honey Gem Grevillea between the Blue-faced Honeyeaters and the Noisy Friarbird. Check out the fight here from last year
The Yellow-faced Honeyeater was wondering what the fuss was all about.
Check out my pink feet said the White Headed Pigeon.
The King Parrot having a snack of wattle seeds.
The Eastern Rosella high in the old Fig Tree wondering what I am doing.
The Olive-backed Oriel took his turn in the bird bath.
There was a Rainbow Lorikeet queue at the bird bath.
“Hey Stan……are you in there?”
“What do you want?”
Well that’s the end of This is October. I hope you got through the Four Parts.
I love it when I have a mixed lot of photos I have taken. This blog does contain a lot of birds and things that have been previously in past blogs but they keep doing things that are different or I just like the photo and hope you do too. There is one photo that has something different from the usual photos, can you spot it?
The weather over winter and early spring has been dry with some hot days and some windy days. Since 1 August to end of October there only a couple of days where there was good rainfall, but only 14 days of rain over 3 months. Some of the flowering plants have enjoyed the dry. This year the bottlebrushes and paperbarks have had the best flowering ever.
One of the things I like to photograph is when I can see faces in things. These are a couple I have seen lately. Can you see the faces too? The first on was taken at the beach during a walk after a North Coast Landcare get together.
Can you see a dog?
Sometimes the faces can seem rather scary. I had a feeling that someone was watching me.
The Red-necked Wallabies have had a bumper Joey season this year, so it may indicate that the grass in the paddocks will soon turn green and there will be a good summer. These two were eating beside the veranda where there are patches of feed. The Joey may be too big for the pouch but still likes to get a drink from Mum.
One plant that has had a fabulous flowering this year has been the Native Frangipanni. The birds and insects are always around the tree in the early morning and late evening.
My besties garden always has flowers as the rainfall there is much better than at my place. I love the way that this flower seems to explode towards you.
The colours of this small flower are stunning adding a splash of colour throughout the garden.
My hanging pot of bromeliads have never had so many of these striking red flowers. I counted six flowers around the hanging pot. Yes that is a bird’s nest I found on the ground and was placed in the pot.
I wanted a few flowers around and planted some Alyssum seeds and they all came up giving cascades of white flowers from the many pots they were planted in. There were bees and this Hover Fly (I think) buzzing around. What a golden coloured fly!!!
Other visitors to the Alyssum flowers were small butterflies. I managed to get a photo of the Ochre Butterfly before is zoomed off to another flower in the garden.
You can see how dry the ground was when I took a photo of a Meadow Argus. They prefer to land on the ground. The underside of their wings seem fluffy and dull…..
….but the inside wings are very colourful.
In late October the Caper White Butterflies started to fly through my place on their migration to SE Queensland. They have been constantly been in the garden since then. The Pentas is a great butterfly attracting bush.
While walking around Grafton we spied some bee activity around a large Camphor Laurel. I am glad they were too busy to notice me trying to get some photos. When we went back a couple of weeks later there weren’t many bees around at all. Sadly I suspect the Council may have sprayed the nest.
The coming of warm days brings out the insects. There are a good number of varieties of flys at the moment. This brown fly spent some time walking around the rim of the jug on the window sill.
While this insect preferred the window to walk about.
The garden also has its share of insects and bugs. I love the colours on this beetle, don’t you?.
The Dragonflies are swooping around the garden and the dams. This is the blue variety. I think will do a blog just on Dragonflies as I have some other varieties.
I just had to include another White-throated Honeyeater and the hanging watering come small bird birdbath pot. He looks to be saying “Ok mate, where’s my water!!!”
On the walk along the beach I spotted some birds sitting on some rock off the shore. The Pied Cormorants were doing their washing.
Here is bird number 91 I have identified on my place. (I say “I” but has been a team effort from lots of people in my network.) The Common Bronzewing was just strolling along but I managed to get a not very good photo.
Back at the beach walk, on the way down to the beach through the dune I saw a New Holland Honeyeater gathering material for the nest.I’m sure the spider didn’t mind a bit of web taken.
Isn’t it funny how birds can have their heads looking back. The Brown Pigeon was certainly keeping an eye on me.
Amongst the vegetation, chit chatting away the Eastern Whipbird foraged for insects. Their distinctive whip crack call (from You Tube by Linda Hansbauer) many people know but when they are on the ground bustling about the have an insane cackle going on.
The most elusive bird at my besties is the Green Catbird and I am always excited when I find a Catbird amongst the foliage.
In Spring, the Figbirds arrive at my place. Late one afternoon I found this pair cosying up for the night among the branches of the fig tree.
Of course you have seen lots of Blue-faced Honeyeaters on the Honey Gem Grevillea in my previous blogs but the way they can have a snack upside down always fascinates me.
The Yellow-faced Honeyeater is contemplating the first flower on a Grevillea I planted a few years ago. I will have to try to find out the name of this Grevillea.
The Tawny Frogmouth (or it may be a Marbled Frogmouth) has the most basic of nests. Just a few twigs thrown onto a flattish spot in a tree. This bird hatched two babies.
Late in the evening, a walk along the shore at Ballina saw many pelicans coming in to roost. First stopping on the light post to make sure the fishermen weren’t cleaning their catch. It’s almost time to go….
…..the moon is up casting a glow so I must be off. See you next time.
As you know I love to get about when I can, discovering new things or rediscovering stuff. I love living in a bio-diverse region where the trip to the mountains or to the coast always sends a surprise encounter. Over the month so far I have seen so many wonderful things this world has, sometimes it may just be something that I saw that I found to be wonderous whereas others have just walked by probably thinking what the hell is that bloke doing with that camera.
So…..this wander through my days I hope fills you with a bit of love for our nature and environment in which we inhabit as it does for me.
I do find butterflies amazing creatures, as you probably have noticed as a lot of my blogs seem to have a butterfly or two. This small butterfly, about 17mm in size, has been whizzing around my besties garden and mine as well – a Small Green-banded Blue butterfly.
I was wading through the water at Taylor Lagoon when all bout there were dragonflies zipping here, zipping there on their mission to do…..waht do dragonflies do when they zip about like that. Well after a while some settled on the sticks poking out of the water. Their irridecence was amazing to see. Unfortunately the dragonfly isn’t quite in focus but I love the effect of the water, don’t you?
This dragonfly has a great grip on the stick.
While wading in the shallows I looked at the water and the reflections of the over-hanging bottlebrush and sedges around the edge. I think it was facinating the way the image always changed as the water rippled and moved with the wind. This photo was my favourite of the couple I took.
The shadow of the tree looked like it was walking across the rock face. What do you see?
I love the contrast of colours, the shadows and where the rock landed (or was put by my bestie lol)
Shells. I love seeing the shells and stuff that is on the beach. The light shining through the shell caught my eye form a distance.
I wonder how the small creatures can survive when the tide is out or is it how do they survive when the tide is in? This one found a nice little niche in the rocks. Aren’t the colours subtle but striking at the same time?
The number of tiny sand balls that were spread all along the shore was incredible. Some of the patterns made were so artistic.
And here is the little bloke who spend a large amount of its life making those tiny sand balls.
“OK fella…..how about a bit of privacy. I didn’t come down to the beach to sit in the shade of my lovely green umbrella just to have you come along taking your photos….”
“If you are going to hang around with that camera, I’m off….”
As I was walking along the shore, all of a sudden there was a whoosh and a couple of Pelicans came flying along looking for a place to land. They are so big up close.
As we walked along the beach, we were discussing how we hadn’t seen any White-bellied Sea Eagles or Brahminy Kites, which are nearly always here. All of a sudden, at the other end of the beach, there was a commotion with Seagulls wheeling about and then appeared the Sea Eagle with a fish. Even with the lens at full stretch they were still a long way a way.
Here is a close up as best as I could manage. The image is heavily cropped just to show the size of the fish.
There was also another White-bellied Sea Eagle just soaring around the sky looking for it’s own fish.
Meanwhile at the waters edge, a group of Crested Terns were having a bath and preening themselves trying to get their “hair” in order.
I have no idea what this plant is but the spots of white among the rocks certainly stood out.
Even the Eastern Spinebill was too heavy for the Pentas making hanging on a bit of a chore.
The Whipbirds are always pocking around in the garden, flicking over leaves and bits of bark to try and find some insects and bugs to snack on.
Over the past few weeks the Eastern Yellow Robins have seemed to appear in numbers in the garden. This one was sitting out front on the warm gravel early one morning. They are such sweet little birds.
Heading into town early one misty morning, I spotted this Black-necked Stork (I really prefer Jabiru) stalking about the small pond where the “Tyre Turtle” lives. It was one of a pair. The other one was further back in the paddock in the ffog.
Aren’t the colours great. I never noticed their red cap before either.
The Water Dragon has set up home in my besties garden. Such a lovely prehistoric looking creature.
But they still enjoy a good laugh. Not really. He really enjoys a few bits of apple. The inside of his mouth is so pink.
That’s the end of what I have found in April so far. Hope you enjoyed seeing what I have seen.
When the day looks like being a bit warm….ok bloody hot at home, it’s great to head to the coast and enjoy the coolness of the ocean. There is an opportunity to wander around the rocky headlands, peering into tidal pools and generally seeing who is also hanging at the beach. This day was spent at Brooms Head. A quiet coastal town usually but over the Summer holidays, the caravan park is packed to capacity, swelling Brooms Head to almost double it’s population.
This day bought about some lucky encounters as we waded through the tidal pool. The bird life was quite varied and we had the opportunity to see some birds we had not seen before as well as the usual large groups of gulls squawking about nothing in particular.
The Sooty Oystercatchers scurried among the rocks.
Some of the Terns were having a bad hair day.
But their landing skills were quite good.
Can you pick the odd one out?
Easy wasn’t it! The Sea Eagle was scouting along where the waves were breaking but still the birds on the rocks kept an eye out just in case.
It did make the Sharp-tailed Sandpipers nervous and every now and then the small group took to the skies.
When they were foraging among the rocks, they were hard to see.
Occasionally another shore bird appeared. The Grey-tailed Tattler seemed to be playing chasings with the Sandpiper.
But the Pelican kept an eye on what was going on in and around the rocks at Brooms Head.
I love being at the beach, don’t you?
I have been doing my usual wandering about, looking for things that are interesting, stunning or just plain great to photograph. This is what I have found over the past two months which have made a quick stroll or a drive into a lot of stop and look.
The early morning fog sitting in the Clarence Valley looked quite amazing as I came over the hill on the way to town.
Some of the morning skies had so much colour
The Pelicans were paddling on the Clarence River looking for their breakfast. Everyone knows that Pelicans are great fishers and know exactly where the fish are.
The Little Corellas played on the light towers, swinging on the wires and generally creating havoc.
There were many storm clouds around but I haven’t had much rain at my place in the past few months and the Summer storms just didn’t appear this season. These were looming while I was travelling around the Richmond Valley.
The next few photos are stuff I found in Lismore. I will have to go back and see if I can get the shot I saw in my mind with this spiral stair case.
I love puddles
I also love rust – the textures and colours rust brings to metal.
This is what it’s like looking down the barrel of a gun.
The footpath also got my attention. The moss is such a striking green.
The early Winter flowers were appearing in the gardens around Lismore. A splash of white caught my attention. I have no idea what it is though.
One tree had ants massing all over as they were preparing to launch the winged ones.
But the tree looked nonplussed.
On the way back to my besties, we stopped at the outdoor cathedral in Bexhill. The Grevillea flowers (I think) were almost over but still looked amazing.
The flowers at her place were also blooming. I was hoping to get a bee or two but they were too fast.
The birds that are there are nothing like the birds at my place, although there are a couple that I find at mine as well as at hers. The cheekiest is the White-browed Scrub Wren who likes to hang around the back door.
“Is anyone home!!”
“I know you’re in there!!”
The Catbirds were around in the afternoon making their weird sounds.
I also came across this butterfly. Its colours made for a great camouflage until I came blundering along.
I guess the sun is setting so drop by soon and let me know if you enjoyed my some of my Discoveries in June and July.
Life's ups and downs, a personal journey.
Writing Down The Bones
Making the most of the South African Lifestyle
inspired by the colours of the land, sea and sky of Cornwall
...but now I'm not so sure
Sharing a world of joy with photos and words
From the Existential to the Mundane - From Poetry to Prose
Giving and Receiving Blessings
...foind de zor/...cu rânduri și cu imagini, ce dansează printre pagini...
Making blessings out of this busy life!
Thoughts from photos and photos from thoughts.
Mainly through the lens of a Nikon
Smile!
Everything in life is balance...
