One Word Sunday A photo challenge from Debbie at Travel With Intent
An encounter with the Red-necked Wallaby and her Joey in my garden.
“Now stand still and upright”
“Let’s see, you have to look your best”
“Awww Mum…do you have to”
“Hold still….I’ve just got to get under your chin”
“There you go…..it wasn’t that bad, was it?”
It’s just a typical day at home for the Black and White Sunday Photo Challenge
In the front of the house, the family drop in for breakfast
While out the back, a mother and her Joey look about for something else to eat
A typical day at home.
The one word prompt from the Daily Post: Tender
What could be more tender than the love of a mother and her baby or in this case the love of a Red-necked Wallaby and her Joey. This encounter was in my garden.
“Hey Mum, I have an itch I can’t reach.”
“Here, I’ll take care of that darned itch.”
“Is that better?”
“Thanks Mum.”
I love the idea of Simple Things.
Like a little Super Fairy Wren looking for a snack
A row of chairs in a church in Verona
An old tap the one day may be turned on again in Venice
A blue bottle left on a plinth with blue graffiti in Bologna
Chimney pots in Paris
Days end in a cafe in my home town
Or the Simple Thing of finding that place to have a rest in my garden
Look at the Simple Things that other have found
I would be very remiss if I didn’t use my lovely Red-necked Wallabies who hop around my garden and lovingly tend their Joeys for Paulas photo challenge – Female.
This young female is so pretty don’t you think?
But also camera shy.
“What are you doing in there?”
“It’s OK Mum, I’m just chilling”
One day you will have some fur on those skinny arms.
“Mums pouch is the best place to be”
My entries for this weeks Photo Challenge
I am sure there will be photos of Elephants in this photo challenge. Here is mine, found in a secondhand shop.
Flying and almost flying
Face washing. Don’t you hate when your Mum just has to wash your face!
Flower. The Moon Flower blooms at night so it was special to be there when the flower came out
Here is some of my elephant collection https://bushboy.blog/2015/02/21/elephants/
One morning, a Red-necked Wallaby Joey and his Mum were enjoying the garden. When all of a sudden the Joey decided it was time to climb out of Mum’s pouch and test out his hopping skills to see how fast he could get around the garden.
“Hey Mum, I think I might go for a very fast hop over there.”
“I better check out what’s around just in case.”
“Maybe I’ll hop over that way”
“No…..I’m going to hop really fast this way”
“Mum…..Mum….watch me go Mum”
“Watch out for your tail Mum ‘cos here I come.”
And like a rocket, the Joey came hurtling back to Mum.
“Hey Mum, that was fun!”
“Yes dear, you really can hop fast.”
December has been quite warm to hot and I wish it would rain. The birds are coming into the garden for the watering places I have set out for them. The garden is getting drier but most of the plants are hanging on.
The Red-necked Wallabies are hanging around the house. Some have taken to the cool under the house or in the shade offered by the house and sheds.This bloke just hopped into the garden and lay down for a rest.
The Pink Lilli Pilli had a fantastic flowering this year, and the insects and birds made the most of what was on offer. The bees were buzzing around and sampling the Lilli Pillis wares.
I never get tired of watching Blue-banded Bees scrunch into the Blue Ginger flowers so their blue bums are on show.
When the Crocus flower, the Stingless Native Bees come flying in the early morning when the flowers first open for the day. How much more pollen can a bee fit into its pollen sac?
First off, I must apologise for the poor photo of this Planthopper. It was in the kitchen late one night and I have never seen one at my place before. It wouldn’t sit still enough to get a good photo. The black with stunning orange spots and those eyes!!!!
On a hot day the Australian Painted Lady came onto the verandah. The colours are far more prominent than the other Australian Painted Lady butterflies I have found.
The hanging pot bird bath, the subject of so many bird photos, also hosts insects as well as birds looking for a drink.
Yes it is hot. The little White-throated Honeyeater does look he needs a drink doesn’t he?
“Well George, do you come here often?”
On a hot day, everyone has to share. The Scarlet Honeyeater and White-throated Honeyeater both enjoyed a drink.
The female Scarlet Honeyeater thought it was a good time for a bath. A quick dunk in and out.
Meanwhile at the other bird bath, the King Parrot enjoyed the bird bath to himself.
At my besties bird bath, the birds who arrive in the afternoon for a quick bath and drink are different to the ones at my place, although the Eastern Yellow Robins are at my place too.
A very fluffy Eastern Yellow Robin after a number of dives into the water.
A view from the back shows the yellow feathers aren’t just on the chest of the Eastern Yellow Robin.
The Eastern Whipbirds always look at their legs and feet when they get out of the water!!! Remember this blog
The Red-browed Finches come to the bird bath in a large flock. Some have better eyebrows than others lol
The Superb Fairy Wrens arrive at the same time as the Finches. They are such delightful birds.
The males are so different to the females. I like the Jenny’s eye make-up.
It’s the same with the Scarlet Honeyeaters. The females are so different.
I think this one may be a juvenile male just starting to get his scarlet colours.
Soon he will be as striking as this Scarlet Honeyeater male.
Meanwhile, from high atop the gum tree, a Peaceful Dove watched what was going on in and around the chook yard.
My poor Flame Tree gave it its best shot this year. The dry resulted in sparse flowers but the Little Friarbird still enjoyed what was on offer.
The Satin Flycatcher likes to visit as you saw in my last blog. Here is his lady who was peeping out from the bushes.
For the first time a gang of Grey-crowned Babblers came into the garden and had a quick snack in the fig tree. They are normally in the forest away from the house and in the semi-open country under the power lines. It was lovely to see them forage around the garden with their constant chatter..
The last full moon, my bestie and I were lucky to be home to see the Moon Flower bloom. In the afternoon she said that the bud looked like it was ready to open so late that night we went into the garden to see this amazing flower.
We used torch light to get the photos.
The Moon Flower is so alien looking when you look deep inside the bloom.
Thanks for stopping by and looking at what I have found this December. I love taking photos and sharing.
See you next year
Brian x
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.
What a mixed bag of photos I have this time. I just grabbed some photos from the end of last month that I liked which weren’t put in the previous blog. I am slowly catching up. I would like to write more but am not feeling well, just a sinus thing but my concentration isn’t that good.
At the moment, the Red-necked Wallabies are hopping through the garden and the bush, some with small Joeys and others with a protective male. This bloke kept a close eye on me as I walked around.
One thing I have been meaning to do is put a whole lot of photos showing the symmetry in nature or just how plants have their unique way of growing. Succulents are fascinating in the many forms, shapes and colours they have. Here is just a couple I have found recently.
The tight centre gradually spreads and becomes redder on the margins with some leaves turning almost completely red.
The Jelly Bean Cactus has to be one of my favourites. Do you have a favourite cactus?
This is the first flower of a Grevillea I planted last year, fascinating flowers aren’t they?
I call this flower a Chinese Lantern. This year the plant had so many flowers, much more than any year previously. You can see the 3 different stages with the pod to the right of the flower and the next new flower about to open behind.
Another plant who has had the best show of flowers ever is the Orange Trumpet. Yes I did plant it to grow over a shed.
When the bush lemon tree flowered, the insect came so there was always someone buzzing around the tree, crawling over the flowers or getting inside the flowers being productive. I don’t think the Stingless Native Bees could fit much more pollen in their pollen sacks.
Even the other bees had heaps of pollen as well.
This ant was very careful when it moved over the flowers.
I have never seen this fly before. A lovely orange with the reddest eyes!!!!
Every now and then I find a native snail-shell. Occasionally see a snail but not one of these. I still haven’t identified which species of snail it is.
One afternoon, the Spangled Drongos came in for a bath. The bath certainly makes a spangly Spangled Drongo!!!
On a wetland right beside the Pacific Highway, a flock of Magpie Geese stopped over on their migration to rest and recharge. It was hard to get into a good position to get some photos as the shoulder of the Highway is very narrow there and I didn’t want to walk into the farmers over grown paddock either.
A new addition to the neighbourhood has been circling overhead. The Square-tailed Kite also has decided to make a nest in a tree across the road. I didn’t see any babies and I think I may have missed them all together..
The late afternoon light was good for a photo shoot.
Another new comer to my garden was the Spectacled Monarch making number bird number 89 spotted or heard on my property.
Meanwhile, at my besties place, the Noisy Friarbird was turning itself inside out trying to get the Noisy Miner to get away from the bird bath
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