Garden Guests Diary, Wildlife 11 March 2010

The disappearance and downsizing of Australia’s backyard in major capital cities is placing increased pressure of Australia’s native birdlife. Ann-Maree Colborne, CEO of Gould Group, Australia’s oldest environmental education organisation formed in 1909 with Prime Minister Alfred Deakin as its first president to protect native bird life said, the decade of drought has seen a major increase in birds migrating to the city in search of water and food.

 Garden Guests Diary 6 March 2010

I see these birds often in my garden but they are so wary of me that I don’t even come close to pointing my camera lense at them.  Today, this juvenile came down and was perched on our pool fence with a couple of noisy miners.  I took these shots …

 Garden Guests Diary, Wildlife 26 February 2010

Looks as if these critters were enjoying an early morning drink from the dew drops on the allamanda flowers. I am particularly pleased with the macro photograph of the ant and it’s my sharpest one yet of these tiny, tiny insects who don’t stay still for long and are not terribly cooperative when it comes to being at the end of my lense!

 Garden Guests Diary 1 February 2010

The weather in Brisbane at the moment is extremely humid but over the last couple of days we’ve had heavy rain which has cleared the air and today was quite bearable and very blustery. When the sun manages to sneak out, there is a moist, golden glow in the air which I adore for taking photographs and the wet foliage is lush and tropical.

 Garden Guests Diary 20 January 2010

As this massive bird matures, his host crow parents are coming down to our garden a little bit more often, frantically looking for food for their adopted offspring.  To my utter frustration, the channel-billed cuckoo was in my garden twice today screeching for food but as soon as I crept …

 Garden Guests Diary 20 January 2010

I’m gradually getting to know all of the plants, trees and flowers with whom we share our garden and this lillypilly  tree is beginning to flower and bear fruit.

 Garden Guests Diary 18 January 2010

For the past week or so my my husband and I plus the neighbours have been hearing and talking about a new bird which we have not been able to identify until now! At first we thought it was a baby crow as it seemed to be with the crows …

 Garden Guests Diary 17 January 2010

This afternoon, I happened to witness the whole family of magpies visit our yard and the two juvenile magpies were down at the same time which I had not seen before. What follows is a series of shots with my sense of humour thrown in as titles!

 Garden Guests Diary 16 January 2010

We knew that soon we would be introduced to the new offspring of our resident magpie pair, “Toenail” and “Skitsy”. Sure enough, we heard the unmistakable “feed me” squawking nearby and there he was, one of the two chicks, demanding to be fed.

 Garden Guests Diary, Wildlife 20 December 2009

It was my half day at work and such a beautiful autumn afternoon which made me want to be outdoors so I took myself off to local bushland which I had wanted to investigate for a while. About a ten minute drive from my house, this pocket of nature is …