Our great southern migration

  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 ...

  I had forgotten this children's song but once I saw the start, the lyrics came back. Since the reference may be too old for many of you, it talks about spring and, most importantly, how the prettiest tree has the prettiest nest on the prettiest branch you ever did see.  And the Green Grass Grew all around. Our green grass is visible but only just. We have had very little rain and El Nino may make it a real struggle for green. However, the birds are still joining up and making nests.This little brown thornbill is attempting to wrangle a cobweb into nest material. Sticky business! We have nesting pairs of a variety of birds. It seems our little scarlet robins found another location and ditto for the satin bowerbirds (at least so far). We definitely have nesting magpies and nesting wedge-tailed eagles         The others are joined but we haven't found their particular nests yet. Our pair of king parrots is hanging around the backyard And the juvenile crimso...

  Nuisance #1. The Masked Lapwing These plovers are all over the place and are always vocalizing. The noise is a high pitched caw . They are always concerned or finding fault and need to voice their opinion. They are great at having cute little chicks but this means more vocalizing. I see them on rooftops but mostly on the ground and yelling. They do fly (obviously) but I don't see them flying enough to readily recognize them.  I didn't get any good pics of this years chicks but here is one from last year While mostly shorebirds, we have seen them a fairways inland! Nuisance #2. The Magpie A magpie alert map exists. They apparently come in different forms, including aggressive swoopers. We saw one of these in Canberra. It was dive bombing a lone cyclist. Seems to be another good reason to wear a helmet (from the magpie alert site ) This one was on the headlands near Potato Point, demanding snacks --or blood?  The peewee (magpie lark) shares coloring but not attitude! Nuis...