Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes - A big Thrill in Home Birds

With our inch of rain last week, the birds are fighting 

over food sources that aren't even there yet.

A very noisy flock of New Holland Honeyeater were

squabbling in my side garden where I grow Grevilleas

for their delectation. They are nowhere near to 

flowering.

 A moment before this, there were three of the little 

darlings sitting in close proximity. By the

time I pulled the trigger, this was all that was left.

The House Sparrow flock still haunts my garden, 

probably because of it's unkempt state it still has

seed heads for them to feed on.

I rather like this gentle shot in mild fog.

The Yellow-rumped Thornbills are very active, noisy,

pretty as a picture and stay clear of my camera for 

the most part.

In case you haven't been bored to tears yet, here is

some eye candy, my piece de resistance,
the Red-cap Robin, newly arrived

and I am crossing my fingers, holding my thumbs

and praying he has brought a mate and will deign

to grace our gardens for the season.

Sorry he is not quite in focus but that is the best I 

could do with my hand held 500mm lens.

I got nine shots in and this was the only vaguely

keeper.

Sometimes they stay and sometimes they move on 

to the pine forests not too far away.

Linking to 

Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday

and 

Michelle's Nature Notes (Logo on side bar)

OUR WORLD - There's Gold in them thar Hills

A little rain and viola! the countryside turns gold.

I mean it, really gold.

As you can see, we are very near a grape growing district.

These were taken near Woodside on my usual route to town.

Whatever is going on in your neck of the woods,

make sure you enjoy it.

TODAY'S FLOWERS - Flowers from a bare Garden

After the long, hot summer without water for the garden except

what I saved from the shower and sink,

this is all there is to see

some weeds in the grass we sometimes laughingly

call a lawn

out of 150 bushes, one single, hardy groud-cover rose

this delicate looking but hardy daisy like perennial.

(the name escapes me for the moment)

and lastly, one single geranium flower.

Not much to show for a once showcase, large garden.

I just hope others have more than I.

SkyWatch - Sunrise Overload !

Third and final instalment of the sunrise I have posted over 

a few weeks. I promise this is the last one.

They look better enlarged.

Somehow these delicious colours remind me of Turner's paintings.

although the mixture of tints is just something a human 

cannot possibly achieve.

The colours muted into shades of magenta/purple

That little cloud was still there, getting whiter by the second

 the sun was only thinking of getting up, but the first bird was 

already on it's way.

To the south, the colours were fading and I finally gave up 

and went back to bed.

Keep posting those skies, we all enjoy them.

Wild Bird Wednesday - Everyday Waterbirds

Spotted on the Murray River

Eurasian Coot

and a few more, there were over 50 of the little darlings

a couple of Pacific Black Ducks

and one giving me a big smile

as well as a family of Australian Wood Ducks and an

unavoidable seagull in the background.

Linking with Stewart's 

Wild Bird Wednesday

OUR WORLD and Nature Notes - EARTH DAY 2013

 Tread softly on this fragile crust and leave only light, green footsteps. 

Repair what you can. Don't expect others to save the planet

 while you watch it on TV. Get out and plant a tree or shrub in you 

own garden or a street plantation, carry a bag in your pocket 

and pick up rubbish where you see it, especially in wilderness areas.

 These are little things but if we all practice instead of preaching, 

it will make a change in the world at large. 

After all, we can only teach by example. 

If you are too incapacitated to physically care for your environment, 

donate to wild life preservation, be it elephant or marsupial mouse, 

it all adds up to the survival of species.

Recently, my daughter drove me to the End of the World,

before the hills drop down to the Murray valley.

On one side of the road, the hills were stripped of their forests

or scrub land in historical times, and heavily overgrazed.

On the other side, there appears a different kind of landowner

one who has removed the stock and is letting the trees reseed.

Oddly enough, the local council is against changed land use and 

therefore, against planting forests.

If you want to have your land return to it's old natural state,

you cannot graze it, but only let it regenerate on it's own.

That of course, takes a long, long time and landowners 

have a way of changing as time goes by.

When this fragile land is overgrazed, it is also subject to fierce

erosion as the autumn rains set in.

Almost a lunar landscape.

With hills so massively denuded of their normal plant cover,

the seed reserve is small and certainly non-existent for many 

plants once endemic to this region.

We were actually heading to this little oasis of green on 

Reedy Creek but that is for another day.

 On this EARTH DAY 2013,

do something to save the earth, not just today but get

into the habit of recycling, mending instead of replacing, 

planting instead of cutting down and picking up plastic bottles 

and other rubbish along the beaches, waterways and forest tracks.

Weekend Reflections - Grebes on the Dam

A couple of Grebes on our dam.

No it is not a sepia shot, just reflections of our very dry paddock.

To join Weekend Reflections, klick on the Logo

on my side bar.

SkyWatch - Same Sunrise Continues

Same sunrise as last week. These are just the next minute or so.

See that little cloud like a bird in a nest?

Layers and layers of colours and clouds . . .

 Here is that little cloud again

Nothing spectacular, I just like those gentle pastel colours

 I turned my head to the west and the clouds were lit up in

a completely different way 

amazing how some clouds are alight like candles and others

are grey and subdued

and here they rise diagonally across the sky.

Next week the sequel of rather more spectacular colour.

Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes - Oh so Common!

Oh dear, just a couple of really common birds

and a fish, a fish?

To make matters worse, an imported pest fish!

One of our house sparrows, "so what"! I hear you say.

Well, this little bird kept its beak open flying about and landing 

here and there without closing it at all. I had to wonder whether 

it had tried to swallow something too big and now was stuck in

a very sticky situation.

This silly gull I met at the Murray River.

It picked up something it may have thought was a tasty

morsel

showed it to me and threw it into the river. Nothing is as it seems.

Conversely, a fisherman had pulled this beautiful almost 

2 pound carp out of the river and thrown it onto the lawn 

behind him. Australians, unlike Austrians, do not honour the 

humble carp and with the excuse of saying it tastes of mud

and has too many bones don't even think of eating it. 

Once it is caught, it is against the law to throw it back since 

they helping the extinction of our native fish.

Having spent my early youth in Europe and, in consequence,

being used to freshwater fish with bones one had to be wary of,

I was not going to let it go to waste.  You could not get a 

fresher fish. An hour after is stopped swimming in the river, it 

was in my pot and made the most delicious soup with 

the most delicate white flesh. Yummm!

Linking with Wild Bird Wednesday

and

Nature Notes

OUR WORLD - Oh to go to the sea

Last August, with my health rapidly breaking down,  I bit the 

bullet and after a number of years of looking after my husband

of 54 years standing, had to put him into a nursing home.

Now, I visit when I can but it is a 150 km round trip and the 

drive does exhaust me.

A dear friend flew down from Queensland to see him. 

Luckily he was still recognised.

In the afternoon I took our friend to the airport and since it is 

not far from the sea, I finally got to smell the fresh sea air that I

had missed for a whole year.

Just the colour was enough to lift my spirits.

Even though a service vehicle had driven up and down a few 

times, my little dog and I enjoyed the walk.

Hardly a sole on the beach apart from us.

The view from West Beach down the coast 

towards Glenelg and Brighton.

Enjoy your world while you still have a place in it or recognise that you have one.

TODAY'S FLOWERS - Zygopetalum Orchids again

Another of my Zygopetalums is just starting to flower.

This one has much darker markings and a slightly 

different scent.

It has rather short spikes so I had to hold the leaves back

to get a shot.

Enjoy your flowers while they last!