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A Bird in the Hand vs Two in the Bush

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  It is Aussie bird count week . The goal is to for as many people as possible to complete 20 minute bird checks wherever/whenever they can to help obtain a better perspective on local birdlife. At this writing, over 5.5 million birds have been counted nationwide. When the fires came through here a few years ago, much of the bird life disappeared. We are happy to say it has been a good week for seeing birds in the bush! The best counts have been with our binoculars vs the camera so we actually have fewer images than normal. I love this one of the little spinebill. To me, these little honeyeaters resemble hummingbirds. They have a similar (but less intense) flight pattern and make a similar buzzing noise because of it. The long beak seems as good at snatching birds as it is at getting nectar.  We have been trying to get to different parts of the farm at different times of the day to see what we can find. We have identified a "new to us" honeyeater - the white-naped variety and...
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One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish!

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  We took a half-day fishing charter to celebrate our anniversary! Kristy Madill found us a charter and joined us, as did Scott's brother, Justin. We left early in the morning. I figured the picture above was nicer for the showcase pic than the one showing our "red fish" or even the yummy snapper dinner we had that night! Our freezer now contains fresh frozen snapper,  morwong, flathead and the little red nannygai. I can't quite convince myself that the flathead qualified as "blue fish".  [If you didn't get to read that book/have that book read to you in childhood, you might be lucky. We read it almost daily.] We hired the whole boat so only hooked each others lines every 10 minutes or so! Everyone caught a few keepers and several that got thrown back.  Our skipper did take us closer to the whales for a look, as well as finding as good fishing spots. The seals and the whales were having a relaxing day. While we saw a few breaches, the whales were mostly ...
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The boys are back and there's gonna be trouble

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  The bottlebrush bloomed and the birds arrived en masse. Friday morning Scott came to get me - I needed to see what was going on in the "formal garden". We have two of these trees in the garden and the nectar-eating birds were busy. The initial pair of rainbow lorikeets permitted some birds to join them but many got relegated to other trees. The satin bowerbird seemed to be okay picking cherry blossoms to either eat or to decorate his bower: The yellow-faced  (below) and Lewin's honeyeaters were not too cowed and stayed sipping nectar The silvereyes occasionally popped over but mostly stayed in the pencil willow  This cutie popped up in the bay tree We saw an old friend! This was the first time we sighted a scarlet honeyeater on our farm.  The welcome swallows were buzzing around  as were the red wattlebirds We heard the gang-gangs fly past- no pics.  Our usual garden tenants, the crimson rosellas, were not to be seen that morning. They were back this morn...
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Big Bad Banksia Men and other scary stories

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  I have kept these pictures of the Potato Point Big Bad Banksia men (and women) on hold for awhile.  I have been waiting on the right post. I guess today is it! It has been misting for the last couple of days, the garden is still in seedling stage and we don't have a lot of other updates. So you are getting a taste of growing up Australian.  The banksia men star as the villians of the Gumnut baby stories and are always plotting to capture the children. We had the book Snugglepot and Cuddlepie  for the kids. Picture chubby toddlers wearing eucalyptus gum nuts (image below) on their heads and not wearing much else As it is children's story, the banksia men are thwarted in their bad behavior, often by Mr. Lizard, a goanna so fast he isn't afraid of the banksia men or snakes! In reality, the banksia start as delicate bird-friendly flowers    As do the gumnuts Photo by Leon Brooks, gumnuts-flowering The goannas are often up a tree, trying to not be noticed And ...
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Its fleece was white as snow

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  Our first lambs! One white, one not so white. With the floppy ears, the white one more resembles a pup or a calf. Neither resemble Dad. Or Mom, for that matter.  Our second set of lambs arrived before I finished the post. Dora had bright white twins that look just like her It was cool and misty last night but the first set were full of milk and totally relaxed  this morning. The other 3 ewes still have big bellies. But, for that matter, so does the ram. The ram ("Pauncho") is hanging out with Dubya, for now. The two seem to have bonded.  Pauncho even found some special shade on a very hot day Dubya was actually calling to the ram when we were in their paddock the other day. Friendship does not include sharing grain but sharing hay is okay.  Love has been in the air all around. The blue-tongue lizard found a fellow- for a short while at least. Apparently the males are a love 'em and leave 'em type. The lizard is on her own for the 4-5 months before she gives bi...
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