Sunshine’s Macro Monday #23
Last Macro Monday I posted an Agapanthus buds. Todays effort is the flowers.
This is the umbels or cluster. Can you see the tiny Stingless Native Bee?
The flower 
A bonus flower with the Stingless Native Bee
Tag: stingless native bees
This is November 2019
November has been quite a month. I managed to get away for a week and a half, part of October and the beginning of November, to Tasmania where I experienced fresh air, so many different sights and managed to relax. I am still working on a post of my Tasmanian adventure. I have already shared a couple of photos in some of the photo challenges.
Unfortunately I came back to the heavy smoky atmosphere which has made it quite difficult to relax or feel calm. The constant smoke has affected my lungs, a bit of a “smokers cough” and my eyes are quite sore at times. Be assured I am safe and will remain so. I have repacked my car with some of my “treasures” and am ready to go when I have to. I shan’t dwell on this part of my life but there will be touches along the way in This is November.
This isn’t huge but you may like to make yourself comfortable, settle back and let’s go…..
Most of my sunrises are like this through the smoke
I had to get out and see where the fires were to the west. Took a bit of a detour to Cangi. You cross this wooden bridge over the Mann River.
The water levels are quite low. It is still a pretty place to stop and contemplate the world.
I was surprised to see quite a few small fish
There must be bigger fish in the Mann otherwise this Pied Cormorant is just hanging about enjoying the ambience.
I watched the White-faced Heron stalking among the rocks. He did eventually catch a small fish which was quickly gobbled down.
I think he may have followed me home. I saw him sitting in a tree in the garden.
I have a family of Laughing Kookaburras who are around the garden on a regular basis. This fella liked to show his tail feathers off.
The older Kookaburra is showing his age now.
I have an old swimming pool which is a bit of a frog pond. The evaporation is taking the water so the frogs are getting snapped up.
Once lunch has been consumed, it’s off to sit in an old gum tree.
How hot has it been in November?
The young King Parrot liked to sit in the shade of the verandah and let a cool breeze get through his feathers. He also asked for a drink and a snack with an enquiring face.
Some days there was a queue to get a drink and a quick splash at the bird bath. A White-throated Honeyeater makes a King Parrot wait her turn.
The Satin Bowerbird found a water pot on the ground where the Brush Tailed Possums and Wallabies drink.
At my besties place sometimes the bird bath gets quite crowded
Scaly-breasted Lorikeets and Rainbow Lorikeets often squabble over whose turn it is.
The “just out of the bath” is not a good look for a Scaly-breasted Lorikeet.
Meanwhile, a Olive-backed Oriel was keeping an eye on what was going on.
The Crested Pigeon really loved sitting on the shovel handle.
A rare visitor to my besties garden is an Australasian Pipit. He walked among the grasses looking for insects.
I don’t think this Noisy Friarbird wanted his photo taken
There may not be much water around but the dragonflies are flitting about the garden.
I love a close up
One of my pot plants, a Calathea has small delicate flowers.
The bees were everywhere on the Eucalypt flowers down at the river at Cangi.
Another plant my friend Geoff gave me has flowered. a wonderful Day Lily.
The Stingless Native Bees love it too.
Look at the well filled pollen sacs on these tiny bees.
One of the almost daily occurrences are the helicopters going to the nearby Clarence River to fill the water buckets. Sometimes they fly over my house. That is smoke not cloud. The fires are not near my place.
Well the sun is setting so it’s almost time to go.
The solar lights have come on in the garden.
and our Moon is bright overhead.
I hope you had a lovely time wandering through my world. We must do it again sometime.
PS Yesterday the fires jumped the highway and are at Cangi today. This does not bode well for me as westerly winds will eventually send the fire towards my place. Cangi is around 25kms from here. Hopefully that old wooden bridge will be OK. The Rural Fire Service has the fire under control at the moment.
Also included in Su’s The Changing Seasons Do drop by and see the wonderful posts over at Su’s place
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The flower, the ants and a bee
This is October 2019
Oh my aren’t I tardy with the October wrap up? Lots of things have been happening – see some of the posts over the past week. I shan’t dwell on the most horrible situation I find myself in right now. I guess you have seen all about the fires in Australia, The north coast of NSW is where I live and the fires have been burning since early October.
I can’t really think straight as I haven’t slept well for a while now. Luckily and the end of October to early November my bestie and I had a brief holiday in Tasmania. I hadn’t been before so it was all new. Breathing air that wasn’t smoke laden was a blessing as was cool temperatures and even a bit of rain. That will be a post of its own later when I get around to it.
OK there isn’t all that many photos compared to previous “This is” posts but still grab a snack and a drink of your choice so you can stroll through my world in October.
I haven’t posted many photos of the Red-necked Wallabies that hang around my garden for a while. This little Joey has fun speeding around.
His Mum was keeping watch. Check out those lovely lashes.
I was out on a walk with my bestie and a friend when we came across some Eastern Grey Kangaroos resting in the shade. There was a female, a Joey and a male. When the male stood up we stopped and waited to see what they would do. Thankfully they group hopped over the fence in one bound and into the next paddock. When he stood up to his full height, he was about 2 meters tall. Look at those chest and arm muscles!! 
I may be in drought but every evening the frogs start up, not as many as usual. I love these tiny Eastern Dwarf Tree Frogs. Here he is again in a previous post that has the call as well.
Meet Bob, one of the funniest fish I have ever seen. He would swim away and then appear from the side of the tank, look at you and swim away. The Seahorse World where he lives is at Beauty Point in Tasmania.
A regular sight around the north coast are Black-shouldered Kites hovering over a field waiting for snack to make a move then drop like a stone.
Here is one some of the European readers will know. The European Goldfinch was introduced into SE Australia and Tasmania in the 1850’s.
A Forest Kingfisher waits patiently on the power lines in the late afternoon for his meal to move in the paddock below.
The little hanging pot bird bath is too small for the King Parrot but its good for drinking. The Hippeastrums will come later.
One very unseasonably hot day, the temperature reached 38C IN SPRING!!! Here is a young King Parrot and a Spangled Drongo discussing the day, “hot enough for ya”
Down at the waterhole on 3rd after a good fall of rain. Lovely to see a bit of water. The last rain since.
Going up into the mountains for a bit of a walk and see new places. The players of the mountains from my favourite spot, the Raspberry Lookout.
Another place near Washpool, (which is now on fire) The smoke is from the fires to the north in early October.
I love finding a leaf that has been skeletised (OK I made up that word according to spellcheck)
The new Spring flush of leaves on a Eucalypt.
The Casuarina and the blue of the distant hills. My bestie reckons it is like a Japanese print.
One of the new crops on the north coast is dryland rice.
Back at the waterhole on my place. The ferns in shelter spots are growing well. This is called a Five Fingered Jack or a Rough Maidenhair Fern.
While in the Gibraltar Ranges in Spring I was hoping to find some native flowers. Here is a Blue Dampiera.
Tiny False Lilac flowers
A Hairy Bush Pea with a Native Stingless Bee
Don’t the little Small Leaved Boronia look ever so sweet.
There were lots of White Paper Daisies along the road sides.
The flowers of a Flapjack Succulent
The first time this plant from my old mate Geoffs place has flowered and I can’t remember what it is
My besties Foxgloves flowered well this year
The start of my Hippeastrums 
More have started to bud up
Once the flowers arrive, so do the Native Stingless Bees
Look at the amount of pollen in the flowers. The Native Stingless Bees get coated in pollen
An olden Hibiscus at my besties attracts a bee or is it a wasp?
Casting a fine web, this spider waits underneath for lunch to drop in.
OK all is done. I had to include a photo of our Sun late in the afternoon on a fire day. A mixture of clouds and smoke.
I hope you enjoyed a stroll through my October. Did you have a favourite photo? I love to hear what you think so please drop me a line. I guess I need conversation
also for Su’s Changing Seasons
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This is September 2019
What a month September was. A month of fear of fires, another month of not much rain, watching the dam level drop and not being able to water the garden with the last bit of water in case I needed the water in case a fire appeared. The fires were not close, over 40kms away from my place but the sky and atmosphere was choked with smoke. A few rainfalls during the month helped alleviate my concerns, topped up my water tanks so I have enough water for my household needs and I have been watering the pot plants around the verandahs and in the house with the tank water. I also use this water to put in the various bird baths around the house as well as other water containers for the animals that may pop in and need a drink.
The downside is I am watching a lot of my garden die. Some palms that provide lovely shade for my house have already lost their tops and the others are struggling. Most of the garden is Australian native plants and some, like the lilli pillis are not looking all that flash. The Wallabies and Possums are also eating some of the garden plants so I may have to put fences around gardens so the new shoots appearing now the weather is warming don’t get nibbled.
There are a few photos to get through, so maybe a cup of tea, coffee or glass of wine or beer, depending when you are reading, Sit back and I hope you enjoy a scroll through my September.
I have found a few photogenic animals on my travels. The horses have already had their post and some others have appeared already as well but I have to put this fluffy Donkey in again.
I love going past the dairy and seeing these beautiful cows.
It is never good to see one of these ants on the verandah. Their bite is quite painful for such a small insect.
I do enjoy finding a spiders web in the right light.
The start of Spring has a few butterflies appearing. The Caper White Butterflies are migratory and this one is one of the first to arrive.
Meadow Argus are enjoying the early Spring flowers on the Pittosporum. 
The Stingless Native Bees certainly loved the Rocket flowers.
As did the honey bees.
Flies are pollinators as well. This one was in a nursery we went to in Byron Bay. There were lots of other insects on the flowers too.
Saw this amazing flower but forgot to write down the name, sorry.
The Cacti were in bloom as well.
Yes it is a bud, a very weird hairy bud. Can you guess what flower may appear from this in my besties garden?
The yellow Poppy enjoyed the sunshine.
Here is the hairy buds flower, a red Poppy.
Spring brings out the Begonia flowers
And the Bottlebrush are starting to look fabulous at my besties but mine are having a hard time and the bushes haven’t looked like flowering yet.
Her Roses are looking wonderful. This one is a Double Delight just opening.
This Double Delight is open showing lovely delicate colours.
My White Fig tree is struggling a bit in the dry weather. The figs often drop their leaves at this time of year. The ground is covered in the yellow and orange leaves.
It also likes to show its true Aussie colours of Green and Gold
There are lots of birds around at the moment too. The Red-browed Firetails are cruising the grass eating the seeds
The Straw-necked Ibis are also wandering about looking for grubs in the paddocks.
I have a few Australian Ravens who have a walk about the garden looking for snacks.
We saw some Chestnut-breasted Mannikins down the road. They must have followed us home as later on I saw around 20 to 30 sitting in the fence.
The King Parrots are enjoying the last of the seeds in the Leopard Tree.
The Mistletoe Bird has wonderful red colours.
Remember the Willie Wagtails nest that was destroyed by something a month or so ago? Well they found a safe place and have raised three chicks. Only a mother could love a baby like this.
The Welcome Swallows have four chicks in two nests at my besties under the verandah. They are always hungry.
Some years, Welcome Swallows have two nestings. Here comes another feather to line the nest for the next lot of babies.
The Restless Flycatchers like to patrol the fence lines in the morning.
As the season was so bad I felt sorry for the birds and put a container of food out every now and then. The Currawongs tended to dominate but one morning a small flock of Satin Bowerbirds turned up. I have never seen so many bower birds together. These are females and juveniles. The male sat by and kept watch from a nearby branch.
A lot of the birds at my place are not hanging around the house as there isn’t much food in the garden. Normally the grevilleas are full of flowers but a lack of rain has seen a reduced number of grevillea flowers. There are a lot of birds down the lower part of my property at the waterhole. A Yellow-faced Honeyeater and a White-throated Honeyeater enjoy a drink together.
The little Striated Honeyeater just jumped straight into the bird bath.
Whereas the White-throated Honeyeater just dived straight in.
This is the first time I have seen a Little Friarbird and a Noisy Friarbird together.
A female Olive-backed Oriel came to the bird bath for the first time at my besties.
The Male shows why they are Olive-backed Oriels.
He doesn’t look to pleased to see me with my camera does he?
Everyone like the Australian Raven skipping down the hill last month. How about a Silver Gull dancing? 
AS I said, the sky was been choked with smoke from the fires. I couldn’t quite capture the red sun at sunset one afternoon
Other sunsets were quite orange.
or a blaze of yellow!
The smoke mixed with cloud made for some interesting shapes and spooky atmosphere.
Well here we are at the end. The grass seed heads made a lovely part of the afternoons walk. When I looked at the photo on the computer screen, there was, I think, a Grasshopper winging away for the night.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed my September.
Also a contribution to Su’s The Changing Seasons
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This is August 2019
I am not really in the mood to write. The dry continued for all of August so my mood wasn’t all that enthusiastic to gather images around my place. I posted quite a number of images from here and for the photo challenges over the month and I haven’t, as usual, added them to this months wrap.
I am heartened by the caring responses from my “blog family” to my posts. Thank you for being there.
August was my first month of being the Thursday Ragtag prompter sharing with Tracy. I was surprised at the number of people who responded with some great photos, writing and poetry.
OK lets go. I think you may need to go to the dunny and come back with a cup of tea/coffee or drink of choice, perhaps a snack or two depending on the time of day you are here.
I might start with some of the things I found at an auction which I didn’t know was happening. I was going to the farmers market for breakfast and a bit of food shopping.
One of the things I like to find and collect are boxes. Pity these were already sold or if they weren’t the auctioneer was a long way from this lot
A rather random group of items
Anyone have one of these at home?
Up the road a ways is the town of Kyogle. We go there at least once a year in case something may be happening. On this day it was just us and the tumble weeds lol There is some nice gates though.
I was surprised by the number and variety of flowers in peoples garden as we walked about the back streets
The bees were about too
I think this Salvia is called Hot Lips
I love this salvia
More flowers for you to enjoy
The grevilleas are quite outstanding this year, except at my place
A lovely window box of daisies
These flowers were further north near a town called Murwillumbah where we went following the Mud Trail which was along the North Cost highlighting the pottery skills of the potters around here.
My begonias are flowering but not as profusely as in previous years
I was down at the waterhole digging out the silt to make the waterhole back to what it was years ago. While I was there I walked about and found this native plant about to flower despite the lack of rain and soil moisture
A black and white view of Kyogle from the Art Gallery 
The lovely layers of blue you get from the vapours of Eucalypt trees
The bees are out collecting pollen and nectar from the flowers
Look how full the pollen sacks are on the tiny Native Stingless Bee
While we were away for a few days we came across the flower gardens that had just been watered in Nelson Bay
I love finding cats in windows. This one was just moving on just as I saw it.
Oh well a cats tail is still OK
I just love this cows hair cut
Down at the waterhole, the place where there has always been water on my place. This year it was the lowest I have ever seen it but the birds know where it is and flock there to get a drink or a bath. Time to get in……….
…..and out again
The Fuscous Honeyeaters seem to stay down this part of my place and don’t venture up near the house.
A Red-browed Firetail gets a drink
The whole flock of Fuscous Honeyeaters suddenly turned up much to the astonishment of a White-throated Honeyeater
Remember last month I told the story of the Willie Wagtails nest that was destroyed by something. Well they found a spot on the car port to rebuild their nest
The Willie Wagtails really can’t stand the Magpie getting close to their nest. Incoming!!!
They really give the Magpie a hard time until it goes away
The Welcome Swallows are also nesting at my besties
Here is three of the four chicks in the nest. Aren’t their fluffy heads adorable?
The Little Friarbirds have found the grevilleas
An Olive-backed Oriel dropped into the birdbath for a while
I found these Pelicans at the Lismore Waste Facility – a fancy name for the rubbish dump 
I felt for the birds and have put up a feeder which I put seed in every now and then. The King Parrots drop in for a snack when there is seed in there.
The Brown Honeyeater has to stretch a bit
The Double-barred Finches are enjoying the grass seed
While we were travelling around we dropped into a small wetland that is surrounded by farm land. I was surprised to see a Black Swan paddling about.
At the wast facility the Black Kites are always wheeling about.
I love seeing the flocks of Ibis as they fly over my besties place every afternoon on their way to their roost.
These Corellas loved it up a bit in Nelson Bay
Is there anything a happy as an Australian Raven skipping down the hill
Our Moon and the clouds
Almost time for sunset
At this time of year the sun sets just on the hill
OK then, thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoyed your look at my This is August 2019
Also for Su’s Changing Seasons
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Getting close with bees
Another double photo challenge with photos of bees taken on the weekend.
First we have the Weekly Prompts Photo Challenge: Close
and there is Sunshine’s Macro Monday
I must start of mentioning Sue from Nan’s farm who I have had a conversation or two about macro photography. Sue is also one of the hosts of the Weekly Prompts. Sue gave me a mention in her post on Close which did inspire me to get a couple of bee photos. Have a look what Sue said on her Nan’s Farm Close post.
OK, lets get a bit close with some Bees which also follows my theme so far for Sunshine’s Macro Monday.
The Rocket flowers at my besties has been a magnet for the bees over the past few weeks
Not only honey bees but the tiny Stingless Native Bees as well
It is always a challenge to get some bee flying action. Patience and a steady gaze on the bees and the flowers and shoot.
All of the photos were taken sitting in the chair having morning tea in the garden. I used the telephoto function of my Canon PowerShot SX70HS set on Auto. A bit of cropping using Corel PaintShop Pro 2019
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The Bee
Sunshines Macro Monday – 5
I am keeping with my plant theme for a bit longer – flower, leaf, bark (with a spiders web) and water drops. So now a Stingless Native Bee. These bees are about 5mm in size so just perfect for Macro Monday. I think the pollen sacks are full
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Busy
The Weekly Word Prompt from Sue: Busy
Who is busier than a Bee?
Stingless Native Bees on a Crocus
I can’t remember this flower but the Bee is enjoying it
I am thinking this may be a Fireweed flower which the bees like
The flowers of a Tuckeroo tree which has the bees buzzing when it flowers
Another Fireweed flower
and for a bit of fun
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Size
Here is Debbies One Word Sunday: Size
Some of the things I have been contemplating on contributing for OWS perhaps can also be some of my Favourite Things as Patti from Ragtag asked.
Perhaps some of the small things in my world should be a start. The feature photo is a Scarlet Honeyeater, the smallest honeyeater and a red jewel that flashes through my garden and the forest.
I love having Stingless Native Bees in my garden
and of course Blue-banded Bees scrunching into flowers
All of the tiny native flowers that abound on my place
I have to include some big things too. Kookaburras are always hunting in the garden and waking me with their morning song
Overhead one of the Square-tailed Kite family soars 
While in the garden, a Red-necked Wallaby snacks on the Honey Gem Grevillea 
The trees of the forest that surround are the big
Now a warning for those who have a thing about spiders – there is one in the next image
Isn’t she a beauty. She lived in my laundry for a Summer and then came into the lounge and dining rooms for Winter last year. I think she became bored of my company and headed outside.
