Tag: wanderer butterfly
Purple
The word prompt from Debbie at Travel with Intent: Purple
Check out Debbies Purple – click on the above link – It is stunning and I was thinking what do I have that’s purple to be able to contribute to this photo challenge. There is no way I can do wonderful lights like Debbies post. But I do live in a city which just had it’s Jacaranda Festival and has Jacaranda trees. But I wanted more so it’s floral all the way.
Here’s my bit of Purple
Better start with a Jacaranda tree
Purple berries from a native vine
Looking into a Torenia flower
Another Native flower from my place. Haven’t identified it as yet.
The Native Wisteria or Wild Sarsparilla that grows all over my place
and a regular Wisteria with bonus Wanderer Butterfly
Purple Pansies
Another purple flower I found somewhere
Wonderful Water Lilies
Another Australian Native flower found on the coast, Purple Fringe Lily
My old mates Iris
Back to the streets of Grafton
Thought about a song. Here is the original from 1958
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Close Up
The word prompt on the Tuesday Photo Prompt: Close Up
I love close up photography. So many photos to choose from so here is just a few of my Close Ups
The Welcome Swallow was just as interested in what I was doing as I him.
The Wanderer Butterfly wing has so many patterns and colours
The Green Tree Frog seemed happy to see me and my camera
A Tawny Frogmouth just looking in on what you are doing
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Butterfly Wings and the Moon
This is March 2018
Here we are at what I saw in March. There has been a couple of photo challenges I have done in March so some of those photos aren’t in this lot. It is another big photo post. There are a few photos of snakes, spiders and other insects but try to have a peek through your fingers when they come along. Nature is full of wondrous colours and shapes.
Of course there are flowers and birds plus my March obsession of spiders webs. So I do recommend getting your favourite drink and perhaps a snack as you settle in and have a look at my month of March.
OK, I’ll get the insects out of the way first for all those who have told me of their dislike of bugs. You will be rewarded with seeing some lovely little creatures from my world.
I’ll ease you into the insect section with a lovely Wanderer Butterfly
Remember My Quest to photograph a Blue Triangle Butterfly. Well now it seems they are waiting for me. This Blue Triangle was on the road when we went for a walk.
There were a lot of Easten Common Brown Butterflies around this year.
A long range photo of a lovely bug with orange feelers. Some close ups are coming next.
When you are a small insect you really have to hang on if there is a breeze about.
I look fearsome but I’m not.
A small Fly with red eyes came to sit with us while we had a drink on the deck. Spiders next
Remember the spiders web from my March Squares. Lots of people were glad the spider wasn’t in the web. Well here he is, all 5 or 6mm of him. Better watch out if you are a mossie.
Some spiders hang up side down on their web.
First prize in the messiest web. I love the droplets on the web from the morning mist.
As part of my obsession, I have been playing with my photo editor. Do you like this one?
A bit of respite now. A Lemon Migrant Butterfly on Lantana
While on a day trip, we stopped at an art gallery which wasn’t all that great. Outside life was far more interesting. I found a Praying Mantis eating a Bee in the flower bed.
This poor little bloke couldn’t get his wings folded
Photographing some grass seeds I was photo-bombed by a Dragonfly
I don’t think it was this lovely red Dragonfly. I love the shadow
My favourite Australian Native Bees are the Blue-banded Bees which are in other posts this month. This Australian Native Bee has the best named of all. Let me introduce you to the Teddy Bear Bee. Do you know of a cuter bee name?
When we look out of the kitchen window at my besties place, neatly framed in the arch, waiting for his breakfast too is PJ the horse. He knows where to stand to get attention doesn’t he?
The grass seed photo I talked about earlier.
An Australian Native flower that grows at my place. This one was on the side of the road.
My besties Roses are lovely this year. The camera couldn’t capture the wonderful red colour though
A great year for Bromiliad flowering too.
This plant is called Ink Weed. Apparently you can make ink from the plant. Not sure which part but they did in the early days of the colony.
I have often shown the Blue Ginger flowers up close, sometimes with a Blue-banded Bee in them. This is one patch of them in my besties garden.
I love Cats Whiskers flowers. They are just opening in March.
Aren’t the colours of the garden striking?
Remember the many posts about the Dancing Lady Hibiscus. Here is a shot of the many flowers that came out this year taken from the verandah where we sometimes have breakfast, the most flowers we have ever seen. The Hibiscus bush trails up the Poinciana tree trunks. How many Dancing Ladies can you count?
A tiny Eco-system in a tree trunk on the side of the road.
The fence post was covered on one side with these fungi.
A lone fungus on the side of the hill.
I love this shot from under the Poinciana tree at the small fungi high up.
The Common Garden Skink, I call a Copper Headed Skink, doing its best not to look at the camera before it scurried away.
Apart from flowers, fungi, birds, the Poinciana also has a non-venomous Green Tree Snake who lives in the hollows. These Pythons are harmless
Beautiful little snake. Aren’t the colours and markings lovely?
I wondered why the chook was hesitant about coming out of her yard. When she did she would run across the yard to a sheltered spot. She never came into the front garden. Then I spied why. The Square-tailed Kites have built a nest in a eucalypt in the front yard
The Black Kites are everywhere near the Lismore Waste Center
On a drive to Caniaba, while waiting for some dairy cows to cross the road, I saw two Wedged-tailed Eagles wheeling about high in the sky.
The Little Wattlebird enjoyed singing and searching for food in the Poinciana tree
He saw me with my camera while up side down looking for grubs.
The tiny Buff-rumped Thornbill defied gravity looking for a snack in the Poinciana tree too
A Golden Whistler was in fine voice in the Poinciana tree.
Another singer in the garden is the Varied Triller
A flock of Silvereyes called in to have a feed
A Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike strained to see if it was food or just the wind blowing leaves about
On a recent walk, I spied a young Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike harassing its parent for food
“Where is everyone?” the Pied Cormorant seemed to say as it looked around before diving for fish once more in the Brunswick River.
Meanwhile on the beach at Brunswick Heads, a Welcome Swallow found a convenient stick to perch
Remember the Bromiliad Flower? The Lewins Honeyeater has been sticking his head into the flower to get a snack. The flower also rewarded him but giving him a pollen crown.
I love Wonga Pigeons. This pair were sitting in the garden preening and looking about.
The Grey Fantail looked like he was walking on stilts.
A great moment in March was seeing the Green Catbird feeding her young. Seconds later another young one came along which disturbed the scene and soon all three had flown off.
I can’t do a post with birds and not included Bobbin, the cute resident Northern Yellow Robin. I recently discovered that I have been calling the Yellow Robins around here and at my besties, Eastern Yellow Robins. There are two distinct races of Yellow Robins. So from now on Bobbin and his friends are Northern Yellow Robins.
Thanks for getting this far. I even made a second coffee to keep me going to the end.
The afternoon colour and trees looked so lovely
The Full Moon earlier in March looked great with the clouds drifting by.
I like to put the captions before the photo. What do you do? Do you prefer the captions before or after a photo? Let me know what you think?
Did you have a favourite photo from March?
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This is January
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.
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Mundane Monday Challenge #130: Wisteria
My bestie has a wonderful arbour arc covered in a Wisteria. Trying to photograph wisteria has its challenges. Trying to capture the long hanging blooms makes you twist this way and that, stand back, go in close, shoot upwards or downwards. What do you think is best?
You can go in close
You can look at the jumble of flowers
If you are lucky a passing Wanderer Butterfly might help
Or do you crop just for the Wanderer and ignore the flowers
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This is September: the other bits
Well here is the second installment of This is September. Here is an assortment of stuff but mainly nature.
First off I’d like to let you know my sad news. My elderly neighbour and good friend Geoff, the bloke who gave me this beautiful Iris, died earlier this week. I have so many plants from his wonderful garden, perhaps a future blog, that I will always have good memories especially when the plants flower and spread sunshine to my garden.
I might as well stay on the flowers that managed to bloom despite the lack of rain. Orange Trumpet flowers hang from the shed.
The Bromiliad flowers are most unusual
The Pansys battled on with a watering every now and then.
I like the lion face in this Pansy
The Rose Geraniums flowered looking so spectacular dotted through the garden
Most of the flowers also had other things happening too. Can you find the insect on the Westringia? Hint it’s a bee
The butterflies liked resting on the Westringia. Not sure if this is a Grass Dart or a Skipper
Stingless Native Bees were a buzz about the Orange Trumpet flowers.
Other bees likes to get among the Grevilleas
The Wisteria came out to bloom for a few weeks. Wanderer Butterflies were attracted to the flowers perfume.
Another sign of Spring is Orchard Swallowtails in the garden.
One of the biggest butterflies that come around the garden.
Some moths are hard to find when they sit on the ground
Other butterflies are rather small like this Barred Skipper who didn’t mind resting on a leaf
Do you remember the Assassin Bug photo? Here is the full photo
Come warmer weather, spider webs appear. The St Andrews Cross Spider didn’t quite get the “this is what a cross looks like” memo
I din’t think he cares very much
Insects are everywhere. Some like to see what you are doing on the computer
Just a fly sitting on a leaf
An ant scurried away when it saw the camera
A Common Yellow Butterfly shows the birds how to hide among the leaves
Some leaves look wonderful. The colours the White Fig leaves turn merge so well
The sunlight on the Bottlebrush leaf drew my attention. This is without the photo bombing bee
The Bloodwood Tree nuts litter the forest floor
On a walk we came across a Spotted Gum with interesting bark patterns and lumps. What can you see?
The Ironbark looked like it had a claw emerging down its trunk.
Can you see a cat?
We saw a bear…can you?
The Silk Tree pods are like orange velvet in the tree tops
Sometimes the pods drop with their seeds intact
The Agave looked lovely in the morning sun
The Skink hung on to the bricks as it surveyed the scene on the church in Grafton
The Joeys are now too big to fit in the pouch any more
The Spring sunsets have been amazing
The sun is almost gone so it’s time to say see ya later.
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Februarys butterflies
There has been so much happening this month it is impossible to put into one blog. February is when everything has come alive and this year, the rains have come bringing life to my place. There has been a lot of new birds and insects being spotted which gladdens my heart. I must be doing something right with my own small piece of this world.
The main thing that I have found is there are more butterflies than ever before. Actually some more varieties of butterflies. As I have written in previous blogs, I have spotted quite a few butterflies but they have been around the north coast of NSW, at my besties place, as well as other places I found when we have been wandering around. I haven’t included some of the ones I have put in my other February blogs so this is just the others I have managed to photograph. One of these days I am going to get a photo of the Blue Triangles which fly so fast and don’t seem to rest when I am around.
So let’s get going, I hope I have named them correctly.
I’ll start with the Blue Tiger, a butterfly I found in Ballina. There were quite a number flying around the coastal vegetation and as it was late in the afternoon, quite happy to sit for ages.
The names of the butterflies around my garden are bird related. There has been quite a number of Common Albatrosses which seemed to disappear as they look white when flying but at rest they are a yellow colour. The inside of the wings are white.
The other bird named butterfly is the Australian Gull. I have a number of photos and they look different in each one. This poor old one looks a bit ragged doesn’t it?
This one looks a bit healthier.
This photo shows the inside of the wings a bit better.
The Common Jezabel has been around the garden for a while and tends to rest with its wings open.
Of course there has been Wanderers floating about. I rescued one from a Night Spiders very very sticky web one afternoon.
My favourite is the Northern Jezabel as I saw a flash of red as it settled on the Pink Euodia.
I hope I get to find some more butterflies this weekend.
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What’s been happening in March
THIS month has been a frustrating month for my writing and photographs. My computer hasn’t been performing to “manufacturers specifications” which took me many a night of working out what was happening but finally the solution happened. For the geeks out there, the C: drive space was disappearing, just filling up, despite my making room to have that space disappear overnight. The solution was in the back-ups that was happening daily or sometimes twice a day to the C: drive was stopped and back-ups deleted freeing 880GBs!!!! That’s enough of that….onto March and what discoveries I have found for the month.
Took another drive around the back roads and on the road between Uki and Tyalgum there was a huge tree, a Camphor Laurel, which was laden with Birds Nest Ferns and Stags. The photos I took just don’t give the wonder that is this tree. Can you count them all?
Trees are important as they can provide so much for everyone. Even a dead tree has its uses. They make great lookouts.
From such a great spot, the Black Shouldered Kite was able to survey the surrounds of Cowans Pond Wetland and nearby farmlands. I think he saw me don’t you?
While spending a warm day sitting in the Clarence River at Lilydale, a White_bellied Sea Eagle soared over the water looking for a snack.
The Osprey was so high up as it wheeled across the sky I didn’t think I would get any photos. Getting two different bird of prey photos made my day!
While back on the ground, a lovely song was being sung in my besties garden. It took a while to find the tuneful bird but persistence found the Varied Triller singing away high in the branches of a coastal pine.
Everyone likes the bird bath photos. This time one of the small birds was having a lovely time. A Brown Thornbill was looking particularly fluffy during his bath time. He even was concerned about how clean his feet were just like the Whipbird
Afterwards, among the branches of the wisteria looked like a safe place to dry off.
Around the garden, even though there hadn’t been much rain, some plants put on their end of summer show. Everyone knows how much I love to photograph flowers The colours are amazing, so onward with a small flower show, starting with a stunning red flower.
The bromeliads were full of flowers. The white inside with red spires and the twisty ends of a purple/mauve colour.
The little Chinamans Hat flower looked stunning covering the bush with its little yellow curled up stamen.
The cream colouring on the Zinnia made it stand out among the others.
Passionfruit flowers can look rather messy.
The Camelias showed plenty of welcome for the insects to gather pollen.
The Blue Banded Bees loved these purple flowers
While way up in the eucalypt, the blossoms made a spectacular sight. Even the insects were enjoying what the gum blossoms had to offer. Can you see the little bug searching among the blossoms?
Travelling around the north coast it’s not hard to find a beach somewhere. Even the beach has its insects. There were a few flies just chillin’ on the sand.
The garden was also full of butterflies, many who were too fast for me, but there were a few who I managed to get while they were resting or sampling what the flowers had to offer. The Wanderers are always accommodating when the camera is near.
And the Jezabels are always dressed in their brightest colours with a fluffy coat.
The Common Grass Yellow certainly stands out among the darker green foliage as it feeds on a Farmers Friend flower.
See more butterflies here
So the usual suspects were around in March plus a few new discoveries. I hope you have enjoyed some of my March wanderings. See you next time for more adventures through the lens of my camera.
brian
