Day 2 at The Croft

Quite the treat to be able to relax between the front and back deck and enjoy being so up close and personal with the birds. Without a sense that we need to be out and about "doing something" ... Deb happy to be lounging in the pool with the big floaty ring while I peer through the lens with each new sound or movement in the foliage ... as mentioned in the previous post, a variety of birds were enjoying the seeds of the Himalayan magnolias that were shading the back deck from the afternoon sun. The seed pods open to reveal the red seeds and they certainly signal feed time to the birds ... enjoy the offerings below ... 

Silvereye working through the seeds

Olive-backed oriole with seed

Silvereye with seed observing me

Varied triller with seed

Varied triller selecting next seed

Silvereye with its prize

Silvereye wondering what's next

Silvereye swallowing seed

Young olive-backed oriole checking the feast out

Eastern rosella cautiously grazing

Eastern rosella feeding

Not everything was in those himalayan magnolias! Here are some other settings ... first an even clearer view of the delicate and fragile structure of those dragonflys.

Next, contrasting a figbird (with the blackhead and red eye surround) with an olive-backed oriole (olive head and red eye).

Next two photos offer a new bird for me - the restless flycatcher. Once again, a blue tinge is evident in some lights to what otherwise seems a black and white bird. Aggressive little fellas these.

Finally for this second of three posts on our stay at The Croft is a set of the red-browed finch. These guys were taking advantage of a bird bath at the bottom of the timber frame on which they are perched. The crimson flowering shrub offers an exquisite background complementing their olive and red feature plummage.

Winter wanderings (May/June 2020)

Not too much activity during this period, but the few outings provided some good examples of sometimes elusive birds, one new one to me, and two that are plentiful and not at all difficult to get up close and personal with. So some natural settings and some studies in their natural environment with just a really nice light to set off their special beauty.

Enjoy.

Bar shouldered dove

A shining spangled drongo

This was a new find for me. Up a farm access road on the western edge of Emigrant Creek near (the original) Cumbulum I noticed this varied triller with a caterpiller being tenderised for consumption. Quite a treat to capture these images and witness this behaviour - for the varied triller too 😜!

Late one afternoon on the river bank in Ballina (up towards the ferry) there were some silver gulls lurking. The images shared show a "darkening" afternoon casting a deep blue over the calm river waters in the background - in the third photo of this study a small wave even conveys a sense of menace in the peacefulness of the setting, the final three accentuate the clean beauty of the white plummage in the poses). The rocks and green grass in shadow provide excellent texture to contrast the simple pallette provided by the gull. The eyes are a striking feature to me.

Young magpie - right profile

Young magpie - left profile