I visited Noosa Botanic Gardens again for the first time in 6 months since retiring. I was absolutely thrilled to spot a bird I'd never seen before and managed to get a few snaps of it. Mind you, birds I haven't seen before would number in the millions and a few fairly clear snaps from the 40 or so I took is probably nothing to brag about but I couldn't wait to get home and find out what bird it was. Meet one of the Rainbow Pittas...
"Are you lookin' at me?" it seems to be saying...
I used a bit of patience and then stalked it around a dry creek bed as it hopped around, carefully avoiding crunching on leaves and twigs, so as not to startle it. Low light in the forest area meant I got lots of blurred shots and perfect shots of where it had been a split second before. It was very interested in fallen quandongs but normally feeds on insects. Maybe there was some hiding in the fruit.
This shot shows the chestnut stripes on its head nicely and what looks like a bit of weed clinging there as well.
"Are you still here?"
I took the hint and moved on to the pond...
... where it was apparently dragonfly time. I'd never thought about what dragonflies (or damselflies) ate and hadn't even noticed that this one was chowing down on something when I took the shot. The bug it's eating is more colourful than it is.
This one (no more than 4cm long) is a male dragonfly I gather after watching the large numbers of them mating. Of course they could be damselflies. After reading up on them, I am confused as these look like damselflies with the closed wings.
The males all had the bright blue bottoms and they grab the females by the back of the head to start the process.
It's up to her to curl her tail around to find the penis. A very complicated mating dance and I've since read somewhere that the females will often pretend to be dead to avoid having to mate. I'm sure we can human females can relate to that!
I only found two tiny, wee frogs at the pond and this be them. They sat very still and were not frightened off by my lens shoved in their faces.
Hopefully, I won't leave it so long to return.
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