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....