If you do not expect the unexpected you will not find it, for it is not to be reached by search or trail. ~~ Heraclitus

It’s been an age since I added any new content to my blog or visited any of my blogging friends (again!) but I am still around, still writing, and still trying to fit too many activities into the limited number of hours within each day.

Over Christmas and the new year I am taking a break from university study. I still have another month before my next semester begins, and now the chaos of Christmas is over I can collect my thoughts, attend to long overdue chores, and get my life back on track again.

This afternoon, I downloaded photos I’d taken during the past three months. As always, some photos turned out beautifully, some were blurred, and there were a couple of unexpected images.

I decided to share one surprise photo today.

We live on quite a long block of land and way down the back, in our next door neighbour’s yard, is a beautiful Jacaranda tree. Every spring, the tree treats us to a beautiful array of lilac flowers, so when it was in full bloom in October I zoomed the tree into focus when I could see what I thought was a common crow sitting on one of the tree’s branches.

I hadn’t looked at the photo until today, and to my surprise, the bird which I thought was a crow is actually a Spangled Drongo (Dicrurus bracteatus). 

A distinctive feature of the Drongo is the fish-like tail – very unusual in a bird. In all the years I have been taking photos of my backyard feathered friends this is only the second time I have seen and photographed a Spangled Drongo.

The features of the bird are not very clear in the photo, other than the deep black colouring and the fish-tail, so I have added a link for if you wish to take a closer look at this unusual bird. I’m sure you will enjoy the beautiful flower-foliage of the Jacaranda tree as well.

I don’t know when I will get back to regular blogging, but I have a tentative New Years Resolution for 2019 – to add a new post once a week.

Can I keep my resolution? Only time will tell.