Photo Friday - Outdoors

Hi Friends! Time to share some pics I've taken over the last few weeks with a Photo Friday post! Since I haven't done one in a while. Funnily enough, all of these pics are Outdoor ones! Who said I was agoraphobic and didn't get out much!? lol!

First some beach pics from my area: These were all taken on dull cloud covered days, where the only signs of life on the beach were some hungry seagulls.

Through the last few weeks we also have done some gardening work, and here is a caterpillar critter I came across, and had to get a pic of. Caught it in our Gardenia bush;

Google says this is a black gardenia bee hawk moth caterpillar, so will turn into a Moth. 

Here is a fly I was trying to get a close-up of - it's always fun to test the camera settings out, as long as your subject keeps still!

 

Here are some flowers from our Garden as well; Firstly Frangipani (Plumeria) flowers:

 

And some other flowers that come from 1 potted plant, which sprouts up with multiple colour flowers all from the one specimen. We believe it is called a purslane.

 Summer is fully underway here in Oz, with lots of hot humid weather, bright glaring sunshine, thunderstorms, and extreme heat and humdity across the country. We always keep our outdoor bird bath in our garden filled up, to help the wild birds beat the heat!

Here are just two visitors I've seen about lately, making use of the fresh water in the heat of the day; These are Magpie Larks, otherwise known as PeeWees. 

and last but not least -

 a pic that isn't very clear because I had to zoom it up even after I took it - but hopefully it gives you an idea! 

A blue-faced honey eater, which is a bird I hadn't ever seen before! It was very beautiful! A bright Blue face as the name suggests, and an almost golden olive green coated backm with black head, and white underbelly! Really impressive and the pic doesn't do it justice.

Here it was contorting his body about on a Bird of Paradise plant;

 So that's it for this Photo Friday, I hope you liked seeing my pics from around my home and town, Thanks so much for stopping by! 

Photo Friday - Bird Watching and More

Hello Friends, Thank You for the warm helpful comments on my previous post. It has truly helped and I appreciate it greatly! I'm just plogging along here, busying myself each day. This weekend is still going to be a tough one, but I will get through it.

I have still been taking some pics, so I figured I would share some here for a post...

With it being summer here, there have already been many bushfires burning across the country, and some still do! There is one burning about an hour away from us, out of town. Which Yesterday made for a very smokey smoggy haze over our town! It was pretty bad, and I had a sore throat from it, and was coughing. As were my parents. Can you imagine how bad it would be closer to the fires? When we are an hour away and we got just whatever the wind blew through? Just awful! 

Here is a photo of just up the road from our house, we live in a mountainous area, with lots of hills and valleys, here is a view down the valley looking across to some hills and mountains, where there is a small farm and house... it is usually beautiful and clear to look out at! But all you could see was the smoke;

 

Thankfully the smoke cleared yesterday afternoon.

With the season warming up, we're noticing lots of creepy crawleys about! Some not so nice (like spiders!) but some that are nice to see. We have noticed many Lady Bugs or Lady Beetles about the place lately...  When I picked some Frangipani (Plumeria) flowers, and some Gardenia's from our garden, there was a Lady Beetle on them, which made for some pretty photos:

 I just love ladybugs so much! When I was a little girl I remember often looking for them in our hedge that surrounded the childhood home, and often collecting them in a jar to watch for a little while, which I always released them back within an hour.. But I will never forget once I had a few collected in my bug jar, and came inside to show Mum, and fell over on the hard laundry tile... and yep, you guessed it! The jar broke and we had a dozen or more ladybugs loose, and we even had a few about the house for a few days after that, as well! LOL!!! 

Also through the week me and mum did a bit of shopping in the big Plaza Mall we have here, and also had a snack in the food court... What I really love about the food court is the fountain in the middle of it, with some wonderful statues of Brolga's an Australian Crane bird:

 

 

Speaking of birds, we have had more feathered visitors in our yard - 

This time some gorgeous Indian Myna Birds:

 

They were very inquisitive, even sitting on the window ledge where I was taking photos of them out of my window (that's why there's a bit of blur/ripple effect in these pics)

I just loved their beautiful yellow eye mask!

 and here is another beautiful specimen which is called a speckled drongo...

 

His wings really were a really shimmery green/blue, and his eyes were a piercing dark red, very stunning to see as he groomed himself on our fence!

I'm really loving that we are getting so much bird life about this year! We added in some native trees and a bird bath, plus not having the dog anymore (RIP) has probably also helped that.

Here is a type of bird that we see every day, just a common spotted dove, or sometimes called a pigeon... They are quite kind of coy, but make the cutest coo-coo sound, and bob their heads when they are trying to woo a lady friend ;-) 

Here is a pic of a Willy-Wag-Tail on our clothesline, too;

I hope you didn't mind seeing my bird pics, I do so love birds and especially love seeing the native wild ones popping in our yard!

I'll leave you with two arty pics I took, and wish you a grand weekend, and many thanks for stopping by and all your lovely comments and friendship!

 

 

Photo Friday - New Additions!

 Hi Friends it's Friday here, so its time for:

 I have some news to share along with some of my photos today, we have two new additions to our pet-family... Two Budgerigars or Budgies as we call them, often called Parakeets in other countries:

Meet;

 

Laurel and Hardy

Laurel is the skinnier, brighter green one on the left, and the chubbier darker green one on the right is Hardy... Of course named after famous comedy duo. 

 

Long story short, we went into our Pet Supplies place, to get some more bird toys and feed... and I looked at the few birds they sell, cockatiels and parakeets... Usually I just look and continue on!

But I became taken watching a lovely bright green one playing so intensely with the toys in the cage, then noticed another chubby one making noise, like he was talking... Then noticed it bopping its head at me.... I watched them for ages, and finally snapped out of my hypnosis with them, getting what I came in for... But I couldn't get them out of my mind!

The next day I decided to take Mum to see them, and became smitten with them as well!

We watched how they interacted with eachother, and the other birds in the cage, and they were really sweet with eachother, and so playful!

We went back home and thought and thought... and we just couldn't get them out of our minds!

So we had to get them today! 

They came home, and they have been so active, cheerful and loving:

 

 Look at them grooming one another! Its the sweetest thing to witness! 

I am quickly becoming a crazy bird lady, absolutely loving my feathered friends! This brings our bird-count to 4, and a total of 5 overall pets...

1 Galah, 1 Cockatiel, 2 Budiges, and 1 Cat.... You would think it would be a recipe for disaster! But the cat is very good at keeping away from the "bird room" and we tell him "no" when he does come in the room (supervised), so he knows they are not "prey".

So they are settling in beautifully here, and I just love them!

Hope you liked seeing them, too!

Here are some other photos from my week:

This was a bird on our roof, I believe its a type of Heron bird.

 

 and here are two Spotted Dove Pigeons that we get coming into our yard, 

making use of the birdbath we put in:

 

Here are some pics of a wild Mulberry tree we came across during one of our walks -

 

Cool berries:

 

and some other tree, which I just loved the branches of:

 

and a cool Philodendron plants leaves:

So that's it for this weeks Photo Friday, I hope you liked seeing my pics, and meeting my two new feathered friends!

Thanks so much for stopping by!