LIFE BOTANIC...

Another walk around the Noosa Botanic Gardens at Cooroy on Lake MacDonald yielded 2 waterbirds I hadn't seen there before.  These magpie geese were resting up in the favourite resting spot of the regular pelicans and ducks.

The usual suspects sans ducks and 4 guests.

They rest with their eyes open it seems, or perhaps they are just ultra aware of me blundering around in the undergrowth looking for the perfect shot.

Far off on the furthest side of the lake I spotted this bird and when I zoomed in realised I'd not seen one before. Turns out to the a Jabiru or Black-necked Stork.  With no way to get over there I had to be content with this slightly unfocussed shot.  Nevertheless, I was happy.

Strolling around the gardens, I spotted this handsome, orange dragonfly cunningly camouflaged against some rusty looking dying flowers.

This damselfly was much harder to spot and it was even harder to get a decent shot because of his size. Too much 'traffic' in the background to focus properly but, again, happy to see him and his brilliant colours.

Speaking of brilliant colours, the Iris growing near one of the ponds are spectacular at the moment and you can see how blue they look in the close up below. There are clumps of mauve, white and cream coloured ones in other parts of the Gardens.

Also in this floral collection is a white waterlily found amongst all the purple and pink lilies, a pretty pink lily of some sort and flowers of the large Brazilian potato tree. 

This Australasian Darter or snake bird was sunning itself above the lake and showing his plumage off to advantage.

I just love taking photos of pelicans with their beak buried between their wings as they rest. Again, keeping an eye on me.

There are several examples of grass tree in the Gardens in varying states of growth. On the left with this fairly small tree taken from above, I almost feel as if the photo is in 3D; perhaps I've finally working out the focus? and on the right the flowers of a more mature tree with visitors. None seen that had the thick trunks we are used to seeing in the bush.

SPRING FEATHERS AND FLOWERS...

I enjoyed another lovely walk through the Noosa Botanic Gardens after work yesterday and was pleased to see a lot more in the way of flowers now that Spring is upon us. My pelican friends were keeping an eye on things too...

This sweetie posed nicely before continuing his ablutions with some other birds sharing the pipe.

Bougainvillea must be about to flower everywhere although I must confess I've not noticed it in such abundance anywhere else recently. The rusty pink of this example was truly beautiful.

I didn't notice until afterwards that there was a little grebe in the foreground of this picture (you have to look hard) of a purple swamphen foraging on the edge of the pool.  Purple waterlilies and the tiny water snowflake lily are showing off.

This gymea lily was only a little over my head thanks to my being on the amphitheatre and it growing up from the bed below so was able to get much closer than one can normally. 

 I heard the eastern whipbird a long time before I saw it of course due to their distinctive call.  This was the best photo I could get in the gloom of evening the previous time I went to the Gardens. They are nervous and flit around quickly so I'm very happy with the snap. I didn't hear any at all yesterday but there were lots of kids running around the spot.

As I walked to the car I passed under a sausage tree and noticed flowers on the ground. Having never seen the flowers before I was thrilled. Most were on the ground with only a few on the tree.  Lots more to come though judging by the number of buds.

A WALK IN THE SUNSHINE...

We had quite a bit of rain last night but today the sky was blue and cloudless. I decided I'd take a walk in the Maroochy Botanic Gardens to see what I could see. It's a great spot for a picnic with many seating areas. The 82 hectare site is broken down into different areas like wetlands, sculpture gardens, moss garden with marked walks. Lots of flowers and greenery of course there. Lots of people too. Note to self, next time go much earlier and during the week if you want peace and quiet.

 Away from the screaming kids, shrieking girls and loud cricketers & golfers (next door to the gardens) I did manage a couple of snaps of birds.  In the gloom of the rainforest area they haven't turned out as well as I'd like. The first is a turtle dove of some sort which looks very different to the ones I see around home [edit Oct 2020: Older and wiser me knows it's a bar-shouldered dove and a white-browed scrub wren]. Top right is a tiny wee little bird which was leaping around in the undergrowth and generally being uncooperative (no idea what it is).  A small yellow wren or similar flitted around tantalisingly close sometimes but managed to avoid my lens. At least the  wicker whipbird sculpture sat still for me. 

Of course, there are lots and lots of sculptures scattered throughout. There's also a python which can give you a fright the first time you set eyes on it. You'll have to go see them all for yourself.

 On the left is Phaius tancarvilleae a large swamp orchid which is almost ready to flower. They are quite beautiful and well worth the trek out there to see them (in my opinion anyway). Top right is the Rusty Kurrajong and a pretty little ground cover which is probably a weed.  :) 

I think the top white flower is a geraldton wax but I could be wrong. Same shape but different colour. The bees didn't care. On the right is hardenbergia which is out everywhere in the bush at the moment.  Below are violets, on the right is the native violet which doesn't have a fragrance and I thought the one on the left was some exotic, endangered plant but apparently I was looking at the wrong label.  That's one thing I was disappointed in;  lots of plants not labelled.

WINTER BLUES...

 Now that we, here in normally sunny Queensland, are about to be in the icy grip of winter, it wouldn't be unusual to get the winter blues.  I decided to look on the bright side of those blues, so to speak.  Perhaps, you could say, the purple side!  

The native violets or viola banksii, above, are on show at a park on the top of Buderim.  No perfume but very beautiful.

Another sort of violet is my nodding violet or streptocarpella which is putting on a winter show at the moment. Again, no perfume but very striking.

Athough more famous for fabulous flowers, I think the seed pods on crepe myrtle or Lagerstroemia indica make a striking pose against a winter sky.

Rosemary is flowering as well at the moment with a sweet blue/mauve flower.

 This tiny little flower is comfrey and is much loved by the bees. 

 

Winter sunsets can be quite spectacular but I chose this one because of its wintery feel.  Brrrrrrr...

FEATHERLESS FLORAL THEME...

I recently returned from a quick trip to Victoria where I stayed with friends in the Macedon Shire, north of Melbourne.  My friends have put a lot of time into their gardens and are just now reaping the reward for the year.  Unfortunately for me, I was a week or two early so missed their magnolia tree flowering although it was trying very hard to oblige.  This shot of one of the buds in the early morning is a favourite from the trip and was taken on my last day.

My friends had planted tulips in pots and they do say a watched pot never boils, although in this case, it was never flowers.  Again, on the last day, this one was beginning to open.

I don't think I'd ever seen, or at least noticed, the hellebore rose before my last visit to Victoria.  Perhaps we have them here in Queensland though. I must take more notice because I thought they were delightful. I had to almost contort myself on the ground to get a decent shot of them though as their heads hang down.

The fruit trees on the property all have daffodils planted at the base so when the trees flower (very soon), they'll be doubly colourful.  There was a daffodil festival in Kyneton at the time but the daffodils there seemed very few and far between so not sure just how good the festival would have been. We visited the day after the Festival and saw lots of green daffodil foliage with flowers about to open; perhaps I wasn't so much early as the flowers were late.

Like here in Queensland, wattle was out everywhere at the time, and these two examples caught my eye. The magnificent tree on the right was a very unusual colour and the brightness of the other was very pleasing.

Did you notice? Not a bird in sight....

GARDENING FOR THE BIRDS....

We recently discovered Maleny Botanic Gardens where Pam and I went for an interesting walk through their gardens and partook of some Devonshire tea.  The above flowers are  two of only a few I can name (begonia and echinacea although I could be wrong on both counts) because disappointingly, for a botanic garden, we couldn't find any name markers on any of the plants which is a shame. In some places the plants were competing with weeds (they weren't named either)

 These 3 beauties were quite striking...

...as are the views from the poinsettia in the grounds.

  The gazebo has a great view (the vista above was taken from beside it) and is a pretty structure ideal to enjoy afternoon tea.

There are lots of different spots that would be perfect for wedding shots and, indeed, they are a wedding venue.

These two are fine examples of cycad and there are a lot of them around the place.

The grounds are inhabited by lots of different birds, and these are a few who came to see what we were doing.  Mr Peacock did not cooperate and put his tail on display unfortunately.  The tame American turkey spent most of his time trying to get into the office.

 There is a very large aviary on the grounds (there is a charge for entry) and the keeper is very knowledgeable about the 350 parrots, finches, doves and other birds in there. I include this photo to show you how big it is.  Most of the birds are not natives although there are some natives like galahs and cockatoos.

 A couple of the finches for your viewing pleasure.  Such beautifully coloured plumage. I don't know their names, sorry.  The keeper did say but one needs to have a tape running, very good memory or be frantically taking notes.

 I do know that this one is a red-cheeked cordon-bleu finch thanks to a friend who used to breed finches.  I did think she was joking at first.

There are a number of macaws and they are quite tame as you can see from this photo of Pam and friends.  I dare-say they love visitors because they get lots of treats from the keeper so they won't bite or get too frisky.  

I imagine a bite from one of those beaks would be very painful; 2 blue & yellow macaws on the left and a scarlet macaw on the right.

 I'm not sure if either of these is a native parrot but they're very sweet and extremely colourful.  While we were there, all the birds would suddenly fly off as one and it was because there were hawks flying over the aviary.

Looks like this bleeding heart dove from Philipines has been injured doesn't it? There are nests all over the place and that pink dove looked quite happy in hers. I pointed out the 2 baby doves on the ground for the keeper. She hadn't noticed them before and got quite excited to see them.

 After meeting the birds, we went for another walk and found these gnomes who appeared to have lost their way in the garden.  I think they're meant to be Disney dwarfs as there was a Snow White nearby.

Pam having a rest amongst the flowers.  Lots of resting spots along the way.

 Another of the little resting spots by one of the lagoons, complete with dovecote.

 This one came complete with..... a statue.  We didn't make it over to see exactly what it was.

While we were eating and drinking I noticed a face on the back of Mt Beerwah.  The front of Tibrogargan has always been likened to an ape face of course, but I'd never seen Mt Beerwah from this side before.

There are several waterfalls and lagoons, although a couple of them are overgrown with weed.

I think this well was broken because, so far, my wish hasn't come true....