Thieves!

We were away for two days and came back to this!

My lovely Apricot crop. From my single tree.

The red wattle birds are constantly barking and calling to each other up the back where the tree is and if there is an upside it is that they are cleaning up the fruit on the ground quite nicely.

I went out and picked all of the remaining low lying  fruit. Less than 20 pieces, In this case the birds got over 90%. I think I have enough almost ripe fruit for a jar of jam which is what I really, really wanted to make with this fruit. Lesson learned. Next year we will net.

Red Wattle Bird

These are our most prolific visitors at this point in time :)

Read Wattle Bird

I was on the ground trying to take pics of the lavender and this bird didn't see me when it first came down :)

I had a good position and line of sight from my shrubbery to get some shots with full zoom. 

Red Wattle Bird

This photo is not upside down. The Silver eyes, however, are.

Doing what they have to to get a taste of the sweet Maple Flower nectar.

The flowers have pretty much finished now these photos were taken last week and the week prior.

As you walked towards and under this tree it would be humming with the buzz of all the bee's overhead, the flowers are so tiny they would probably not otherwise be obvious. They do make a pretty contrast to the fresh green though :)

Royal Visit

Early Yesterday, he sat at the utmost top point of the Fig tree.

Male King Parrot

She, I'm thinking she as it is early in their breeding season, though it may be a juvenile, sat at eye level close by in the Persimmon Tree

King Parrot

They both kept a watchful eye on me and let me get quite close but I could tell they were nervous so when I knew I had some good images I lowered my head, slowly walked away and let them be. Beautiful Birds.

Eastern Rosella

Up very high on Friday Evening.

Red Rumped Parrots

These birds were having a drink on Thursday evening and back on Friday morning. There was a pair of them and a second male.

Blue Wren

The birds are coming back!

I saw an odd unknown ( to me) bird on Tuesday, I was watching its behaviour through the kitchen window and its eating habit was different and it kept picking up various plastic things would hold them for a short while then drop them. I grabbed my bird book and found it was a female or juvenile Satin Bowerbird. I was wishing I had made an effort to get a picture.

This little guy and his Jenny can be found in the garden most days never far from one another :)

Male fairy Wren - Blue Wren

Yellow Faced honey eaters ...

... came to visit this afternoon.

its a gorgeous winter day here.

Yellow Rumped Thornbill

Last week this little guy visited and enchanted me with its beautiful song.

Its a Yellow Rumped Thornbill who was fossicking around for some lunch ; )

Watchful Silver eyes

Fairy Wren

Saturday 11/06/11 was a glorious Sunny Day plenty of small Birds visited the garden and this was one of the Fairy wren's eagerly and expertly looking for food.

Olives for Kings

The first King parrots to visit us for a short stay. There was a group of three with one quite clearly a male who departed shortly after I arrived. The male is bright red right up his chest and into a hood. I got a few good pics of the other two. One appears to perhaps be immature.

Winter bought some Visitors

Some Yellow Faced Honeyeaters stopped in for a bath this morning there were a few Silver eyes amongst them too a smallish flock. 

Yesterdays visiting flock was a motley crew consisting of Silver Eyes, a Fairy Wren an Adult Eastern Spinebill, Brown Headed Honeyeaters and what I believe to be a pair of  larger White Plumed Honeyeaters.

By our front Door

Lost and Found ... a bowl mainly containing socks, a bright Yellow golf ball and a pink X not seen in these photos.

The white Sock still has the wooden peg attached. There are 4 socks in total. All of these items were found in our garden beds and we assume deposited there by Currawongs.

I did not notice the spider in the terracotta pot at all until I loaded the photos onto the computer!

Winter is upon us.

The severity of the frosts these last few nights means that there are volumes of leaves falling to the ground each morning so I wont have this glory to view for much longer, the other maple is almost totally bare already.

The bird life now consists of plentiful Currawongs an odd flock of passing silver eyes and their associated hanger ons and I have noted a few more Red Wattle birds passing through than what have been here for a while. Oh and of course the Rosellas I have been photographing recently.

All the hanging water sources look like this each morning and its not much fun cleaning them out.

The crack in the bird bath finally became weaker and it will not hold water now, we have an alternate solution in the works and aim to repair the birdbath trying to protect its visual integrity as it has sentimental value to my Partner having been in his Bird loving Grandfathers garden.

Crimson Rosellas

There were 5 in the yard at once which is a bit unusual. Three flew away when they saw me getting too close.

Of the two that stayed the one higher in the tree is the mature bird showing only Crimson and blue plumage.

he lover one is young, still showing a lot of green. The Adult was picking rose hips from an overhang behind.

Wednesday ... some birds!

I think by Wednesday I was starting to get more familiar with the focus ability and procedure of the camera.

We came home from the shops to a flock of silver eye in the maple and a couple of fan tails with them by the back door, I rushed in to get the camera happy to have finally the chance at some little birds. 

So I found that little birds don't like the sound of this camera and they moved to more sheltered spots which led me to the Eastern Spinebill. Despite the busy location the camera could still hone in on the moving subject.

   and captured the flight beautifully despite the terrible view I had and angle it was taken from I have highlighted it here in colour as the photo is so busy.

The bird has its beak in a flower and is hovering in flight feeding.

Silver eyes were captured with a soft texture not typically apparent in my other photos.

Nice to see them feeding in the camellia rather than a fruit tree for once :)

Using a much heavier camera, such as this, to photograph swift busy little critters would definitely take some practice.

Tuesday - Bee's...

 . . . a Black Bird and a Camellia.

Some nice detail captured in the Bee pics from a further distance and that beautiful macro action removes distraction from the background. Quick enough to capture flight.

Nothing really special here most of these blooms face the fence, hence the odd colouring behind.

This black bird is reach out and touch it real! Very Crisp image with good depth. It was fossicking fallen Olives like they were moving, then running away with its treasure and swallowing them whole.