Creature catch up

Some of you may have noticed that I had a bit of a hiatus from blogging.  And although it was hard to find the time to post about the things I was seeing, I never stopped taking pictures.  Life can get busy but when you stop seeing the beauty that’s all around you, it’s time to slow down.  So, my apologies for the absence but here are a few pictures to get you caught up.  And remember, although this is an entomology blog, beauty comes in all shapes and sizes.

 

Shield Bug

Male and female Rhinoceros beetles

Bee on Mock orange bush

 

Spangled Drongo

Male and female Galahs

First ever close up of a crow

Female Rhino beetle giving my nose a hug

Red-eye bug nymphs

My brave girl holding a Cotton Harlequin bug

Seriously big dragonfly

It’s a birds life II

So, I posted recently about the cockatoos that have become a permanent fixture in the back yard.  You can see that post HERE.  Well, recently we had the new addition of another breed of cockatoo, the Long-billed Corella.

Long-billed Corella

My husband had mentioned there being “pink-faced” cockatoos in the backyard.  Since he’s really not that interested and doesn’t pay much attention to this kind of stuff, I assumed he was behind the times and was seeing the Galahs.  Then I wandered out the next day and saw these guys!  I ran back in for my camera and yelled that there were new cockatoos in the yard.  Well, after seeing the look he gave me, I put two and two together and said, “Are those the ‘pink-faced’ birds you were talking about?”

They were and let me tell you these guys are not nearly as scared of an excited chick with a camera as the other guys.  Or, maybe the other birds had passed along that, although extremely annoying, I was completely harmless.

Needless to say, I was able to get a few shots and at one point had all three species dining together.  Not the greatest shot but here they are:

Three cockatoo species dining together.

It’s all very exciting now with a total of 10 different species of bird coming to feed twice daily.  I’m going to have to come up with a way to fund the bird seed!

And now, I will leave you with some shots of all the birds. I love getting shots of them with their wings out and in flight so there are a few of those.

Enjoy!

And this cheeky guy hanging upside down.  I thought he was tangled but he let go and flew away perfectly!

It’s a bird’s life

Well, today I’m going to post about my birds.  I know this is an entomology blog but I love all of God’s creatures.  Add to that the fact that I’ve been in Australia for a little over five years and have never, and I mean never, been able to get Galahs (called Rose-breasted Cockatoos in America) or Sulfur Crested Cockatoos (called Lesser-sulfur Cockatoos in America)  to come within 50 yards of me.  I’ve tried, but they ain’t havin’ it, as we say in the States. You can’t get a Crow here to become tame, they’re just too smart.  The Cockatoos and Galahs (although extremely smart themselves) I believe run more off fear.  In the fight or flight spectrum, I reckon they lean way towards flight…pun intended.  But Crows, I think they’d come up, tap you on the shoulder to get you to turn around, take your food and then be gone before you knew what was going on.

Anyway, long story short, my dear mother-in-law gave me a bird feeder/bath for Christmas and I’ve been using that (and my bird mojo) ever since to try to wrangle in any bird I could.  Now, the neighbour here must have some of his own mojo (or great bird food) because a huge flock of cockatoos have seemed to set up camp at his house.  So, I saw my chance and have been keeping my feeder stocked in the hopes they’d make their way over.

The Galahs showed up first and I knew it was just a matter of time.

Galahs

Galah’s

So, today I heard the unmistakable sound of the Sulfur-crested Cockatoos outside.  I asked my youngest daughter to run and look (I was feeding the baby) and see if there were any “white birds at the feeder”.  She ran over and said, “Yes, Mom, there’s (paused to count) five of them!”

And oddly enough I was able to get within twenty feet or so of the feeder and snap a few shots.  Here’s one of my faves.

Sulfur-crested Cockatoos

Here’s another I took as one flew away.

So, now I just need to work on getting these guys to trust me so that I can get some even better shots.

Here’s a list of all the birds that I currently have coming to feed on a daily basis:

*Galahs

*Sulfur-crested Cockatoos

*Magpies

*Magpie-larks, also called Peewees

*Grey Butcherbirds

*Noisy Miners

*Crested Pigeons

*Blue and Green-faced Honeyeaters

*Rainbow Lorikeets

Grey Butcherbird

Magpie

Rainbow Lorikeets

Blue and Green-faced Honeyeaters