AN UNEXPECTED DELIGHT...

A couple of weeks ago, during one of my walks along the Maroochy River, I posted about the flowers of the casuarina tree.  When I read about it I realised what I had snapped were male flowers, so I went looking for the females and was delighted to find some.  These look newly opened with some buds beside them. They are unexpectedly pretty (and difficult to photograph as they are hidden by the branches).

[edit 16/9/15: Ian from Florez Nursery blog has enlightened me, again. He suggests that this flower is from a mistletoe species which attaches itself to casuarina trees. See his comment below.]

 These look almost spent but are from a different tree so perhaps they grow differently on that tree?  Or perhaps as they age and mature, they grow outwards... [no, these are the real deal, see above]

These are the male flowers I posted before, totally different as you can see.

About the best I could get in the way of close up, wind being my enemy along the coast.

A SLIP OF THE TONGUE....

 Perhaps he was limbering up for his next meal of honey? Nevertheless, I was privy to a bit of tongue lashing from this brown honeyeater yesterday as I sat quietly in the garden, with my camera.  He then managed to delight me further by flying straight towards me, then seemed to hover for second before landing in a pot of basil above my head, none of which I captured, being too caught up in enjoying the spectacle until he took off out of sight.  

This is the same species of bird where I documented their nest in the shrub out front and subsequent hatching of 2 chicks a couple of years ago.
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Shortly afterward, while hanging out washing, I heard rustling in a neighbour's tree and rushed inside for the camera; just in case.  I was rewarded with this juvenile king parrot, not sure if male or female as both have the same colouring until adulthood when the male becomes a redhead.  It was difficult to capture because of the thick foliage and the cat insisting on jogging my arm looking for a pat (I was kneeling to get a view through the bushes).  Then the neighbour's dogs' barking chased him away.

Here is an adult male from a previous post.
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And to round off the weekend, a pair of pale headed rosellas came to visit, although they may have argued because this one flew off shortly afterwards.

RAIN, RAIN HERE AGAIN...

 I refer to what I call Rain Trees not actual rain, because we haven't had any of that for a few days amazingly, although I hear we will get more next week, maybe.  No, the pesky Rain tree, Golden Rain Tree or koelreuteria formosana is out everywhere at the moment and although I have posted about it before, this is the closest I've gotten to the flowers so thought I'd post again.  

I think they look a little like blushing pixie faces as they age, but then again, I do have an over active imagination...

And they turn into these seed pods which remind me a little of bougainvillea and contain a number of round black seeds which promptly sprout up wherever they like when they fall;  no doubt the reason they are considered a weed.

IT'S MURDER ON THE DANCE FLOOR...

At the top of the Hanging Rock formation in Victoria, I snapped this little guy as he took a breather from the dance floor.  It must be murder out there, look at the state of his wing.

I tried to get a shot of them all dancing but the best I could manage was the shadow of one, close up below. That fancy flutter work was too quick for my camera.

LAMB'S FRY OR JUST THE BACON?

Well it does look a wee bit like liver doesn't it?  :))

The underside...... I believe this Tasty Morsel is a Ganoderma.

It's growing off the side of the stump that was a Fiddlewood tree.

ON WINGS OF A BUTTERFLY.....

Quite proud of this shot I took of this Blue Tiger Butterfly in our own backyard.

It very graciously sat still long enough for me to focus and shoot. Something that doesn't happen often when I have the camera in my hand!  :)