BACKYARD BUGS, BUTTERFLIES AND BEES!

Look closely around your garden and you might be surprised at what colourful critters are residing or visiting.  

These are Cotton Harlequin bugs and they love hibiscus. The orange are females and here one has laid a LOT of eggs.

The males are smaller and perhaps even more striking as you see above.

I love blue banded bees. They make such a loud buzzing. Here one almost seems to be comparing its beak with the tomato flower. 

This honey bee has collected quite a bit of pollen from what I now class as a weed, Seaside daisy, which has gone berserk in my garden. Once you've got it, it's a hard job to get rid of it.

This is just one of a few ?house flies? that were seemingly pollinating the daisies. They don't look like hover flies which love those daisies.

A female orchard swallowtail was resting up.

 Sleepy small green banded butterfly must've slept in. It didn't fly off when I came close the other morning.

Another of the small blues, a white line-blue. 

This small and slightly tattered brown butterfly was more colourful flitting around but I was too slow to get a shot with the wings open. Some kind of skipper I think.

I present the Splendid Ochre butterfly. Quite small but cute isn't it?

MARY CAIRNCROSS RESERVE VISIT...

Recently, I returned to Mary Cairncross Reserve very early in the morning with a friend. The idea being there'd be fewer people around to spoil shots. 

This is the view from the Cafe there where we had a much-needed coffee at the end of our visit. By then the light was better but not by much. It was very gloomy along the paths although I managed a few decent snaps of some of the wildlife. I promised myself I'd go back when the weather is sunnier. It's worth the visit.

A little juvenile scarlet honeyeater enjoying the pink evodia at the entrance to the Reserve. His head will be bright red when he matures.

These Wonga vines have a strong visual impact. Nature's sculpture. The vine below has had to be strapped up as it had fallen across the path.

One of the pathways showing various fig trees along the way.

I spotted this galah high up in a dead tree. It spotted me too.

This tiny critter is an antechinus of some sort.

These are brown gerygones and were a "first for me". Tiny little birds.

Another first was this russett-tailed thrush. Its camouflage is so good I was focussing on clumps of leaves at one stage instead of the bird. It certainly has picked up a good breakfast.

Of course, due to the nature of the rainforest and the recent wet weather, lots of fungus was spotted.

A little grey fantail was flitting around with several others.

We saw a few pademelons and initially thought this one was ill but when it heard noises would raise its head and then go back to sleep. Cute little things.

There was a shallow pond on the grounds full of dark tadpoles but these two caught our attention.

Rufous fantails are notoriously hard to photograph in low light because they rarely sit still but here we had a captive audience as they were sitting on a nest. I couldn't get a decent shot of one of the many yellow-throated scrubwrens, just too quick.  Next time!

PLATYPUS FROLICKING IN MALENY...

There has been mention in the media recently about dwindling numbers of platypus. Not sure that's true up here in Maleny as it seems there are more than ever. On Sunday, I saw five different animals on my walk. It's unusual not to see at least one and it's lovely when visitors finally get to see one in the wild. Platypus are sometimes hard to spot because of their colour and the fact that they're smaller than you might expect. Enjoy some of my recent videos and photographs...

This guy this morning was floating for quite some time which astounded me. So often they dive immediately. I believe it was actually eating. They save food in their cheek pockets and then consume it at once until they start again. You can see just before it dives there is a lot of unwanted food coming out of the bill.

One of my favourite photos, looks like it's wearing a headress as it powered through the weed.

That's an eel swimming below this animal and it was estimated to be at least 1.8m long. The platypus wasn't bothered by it.

They often swim with cormorants, as one stirs up the mud the other takes advantage and gets more food. They don't seem to annoy each other so it would appear to be more reciprocal.

This guy was just hanging around in the creek. Unbothered by people hanging over the railings talking and looking at it.  

I believe this one is a juvenile. It was very active and swam quite close to where we were watching.

Just love the patterns in the water when they swim through reflections. I like to think of it as Platypus Art.

One of the few photos I've managed with two animals in the one shot. They don't swim too closely together unless they're mating. That is, probably, also the only time really you'll know if you're looking at a male or female. The male will swim closely behind the female and then grab her tail in his bill for a while before they mate. The female will often have a little bald spot on her tail for that reason.

You can see a bald spot on this animal's tail so, probably, a female.

I was surprised to learn that they get ticks when I saw this one scratching away. I never thought ticks would survive under water but I guess the platypus do spend a lot of time in burrows or even on land.  I've seen photos of them climbing dam walls and lounging on rocks grooming.

I wondered what this one was doing and it wasn't till I got home I could see it was eating, chowing down hard on something like a yabby.

If you look closely at the back of this animal, there is a scar. That's believed to have been caused by some rubbish it swam into when young and whatever it was (maybe a hair tie or band) finally deteriorated and left that scar. We've recently seen evidence of another with a band around its neck. People are so thoughtless when it comes to littering. Death to litterers I say! Hopefully, when there is another survey it will be caught and the thing removed.

I have many hundreds of photos of them diving.  I'll have just focussed and they dive! Aaaargh. Luckily, they're around often enough for me to get the shot next time. It's also one reason I've started taking little videos.

STRUGGLE STREET...

Life is a real struggle for some and these are a couple of examples I've noticed of late...

I noticed a tiny umbrella tree with a stranglehold on a palm tree, at least 5 metres up. Who will be the victor I wonder and how long will it take? 

When I first saw this wasp, I was seeing him from the back as he walked up a door and it  looked like some intestines had come out or something.  

By the time I returned with the camera he'd moved and the true story was revealed.  These photos are not as clear as I'd hoped due to low light and a moving subject. So I rushed out to see if the murder was over with a view to getting a better shot, but he's now moved on with his meal and no sign of a green grub on the deck. I think the wasp was the victor here.

... to the victor belongs the spoils.