Wrapping up 2020 - a rainbow lorikeet feast!

There were a couple of earlier posts that cover several chunks of the end of 2020. One I referred to at Rocky Creek Dam in the last post. Here is another that will take you to a series of posts capturing our visit to CasaBelle in Bellingen just after my retirement. What a treat that was!

What is left is what is included here. A few water birds, then a very clear focus on the rainbow lorikeets that are very active in our yard most of the year, but more so in the spring and summer. A gorgeous way to end another fantastic year of sharing my good fortune photographing our birds and sharing some of that journey for your enjoyment too.

First three photos are in the swamps west of Ballina. Each shows a different part of the wonderfully diverse environment catering to the variety of birds that might be encountered here.

Black-winged stilt wading in the weedy shallows

Little pied cormorant atop a trunk overlooking the swamp

Purple swamphen wading in the mirrored shallow waters.

And now for the ubiquitous rainbow lorikeet. Starting with a pair feasting on a fallen avocado. Provides a different perspective on "smashed" for sure! Clearly something they savour. Perhaps it contributes in a very healthy way to the sheen of their plummage 😀!

Next is a loner peeking from deep in the monstera foliage. I chose these two photos as they offer very different personalities of the lorikeet. First a "mean, don't mess with me!" glare that contrasts almost completely with the curious and happy to be seen profile of the second. Same bird 😊. Never a dull moment (and many more to follow) when these fellows are active!

The next two photos offer a trio making lots of noise perched among banksia seed pods. Not only do these offer a wonderful texture for the scene, they also contrast nicely with the splendid and always bright plummage the birds carry. The second photo especially shows the two birds in the foreground with their beaks open in mid-squawk Noisy as well as mischievous!

The next sequence of four shows a pair perched on a dead trunk offering a variety of poses, culminating in the striking symmetry captured in the fourth photo. The rich colours and lustre of their breast and head pallette is a real feature of these photos, and further highlighted against the deep dark green leaves that background the birds. I will be very surprised if you do not dwell on this sequence for a while 😁.

As a final treat I return to the earlier avocado theme ... what I found amazing out our kitchen window this day was the lorikeet hanging upside down eating the avocado on the tree. I had seen them devour the fallen fruit plenty of times, but never the fruit hanging on the tree before. Acrobatic AND greedy - no sharing this time!

The end of 2020 also marks the end of my time using my Panasonic Lumix FZ200. This camera, as you will have experienced by following (or even just sampling) my blog, has served me very well. It has been my tool of choice to explore and capture the world of birds that I am sharing.

Why the end?

I retired in November, 2020. As well as other treats at such a momentous time, I upgraded to the FZ300. It will be my tool moving forward to continue on this ever-evolving and fascinating journey with birds; my way of getting into nature as often as I am able. I look forward to it. I hope you will continue to check in every now and again and enjoy some of the wonders nature offers us to savour.

Stop every now and again ... take a look around, take it ALL in ... stop talking ... watch, listen ... watch with your ears, listen with your eyes and tread lightly ... be surprised by what you are missing 😉.