WORKPLACE WONDERS....

 I've posted before about the creek that runs behind the building where I'm employed and how wonderful it would be to just sit on the balcony for 8 hours instead of going inside to actually work.  Much more entertaining anyway.  I take photos all year of the birds, insects, fish, turtles etc that entertain me; above is the first dragonfly I've managed to snap of the multitudes that zoom around.  He must have been tired.

  Yesterday I got to sit at the window that gives me a view down the street of some nesting osprey on an antenna which is at least 600m away.  On the left is one of the better shots (I have more than a hundred) of one coming in to land and scaring off a crow.  I was even privy to a bit of love making, and was actually snapping off the camera through the window from my desk while talking on the phone. This photo is a bit grainy because I was further from the (dirty) window and they'd have been moving about a bit which doesn't help the focus.

Here they are a little closer.  One day I worked out that I could probably see them from the shopping centre.  I went up to the top floor but anywhere I could see out a window, they were blocked by trees. In the end I took these from the walkway behind the shops and although I was closer, they were higher than my first floor vantage point at work. Would love to see if there are babies but I guess if I sprung them mating yesterday, then the babies have gone?  These birds are very entertaining. I've also watched them come back back with fish which they promptly rip to bits on the edge of the "nest". The ground below the antenna would be littered with bits of fish.

A good day yesterday because as I was getting into my car, I noticed a butterfly landing on some lilly pilly. I make up a calendar each year for the office and have limited the photos for it to only those things which we see around our building so this slightly tattered butterfly was quite a bonus.  

      There are fish in the creek and I'm told by the lads at work that these are mullet.

And someone thought that these guys might be lung fish, but I'm not sure. Always thought they were eels.  The photos I've seen of lung fish are not exactly the same and is a bit hard to tell looking down on them.

There are always ducks on the creek and the Pacific Black Duck would be the most common.  I was watching this one have a bath and couldn't resist the flashing iridescent green under the wing.  Almost a fan dance!

 We occasionally get pelicans fly in, of course it's not that far from the sea and I daresay they enjoy the variety of food.

A lot of my colleagues thought these little guys were just ducklings but I've asked Mr Google and discovered they are Australian grebe.

 Another bonus yesterday while I was at lunch. I was lucky enough to get a shot of this beautiful rainbow lorikeet enjoying his lunch of melaleuca or paper bark flowers. They don't come around a lot and are usually at the back of the trees, lost in foliage.

Another regular visitor are the egrets and this one was caught flying away. Bit glary because he is sooooo white.  Not at all grubby looking like the ibis which nest in the trees across the creek.

Looks like there will be lots to choose from for this year's calendar eh?