Tag: baby magpie

Australia · birds · clouds · colours · Mount Warning · native Australian birds · rain · subtropical weather · summer · Tweed Valley

Well, I did wish for rain …

Joanne8 Comments

They do say “be careful what you wish for,” don’t they? Whoever “they” are, they could be onto something. After quite a lengthy dry spell, and a couple of days of drizzle, tonight we have torrential rain.

I can hear the TV cutting in and out in another room, as the heavy rainfall messes with transmission. I think I’d better type fast, just in case we lose power.

The rain didn’t seem to dampen the spirits of the usual morning breakfast crew, who all arrived bright and early asking for a morsel of food. The kookaburras looked like they were all having a bad-hair day, while the others, baby Magpie, the Pee Wee, and my little Butcher Bird, Hoppy, with the gammy leg, all appeared wet, but quite composed.

The valley looked quite magnificent this morning, with crisp green fields, and patches of white cloud dotted across the brilliant blueness of Mount Warning. It looked so gorgeous that I thought I’d take a walk down to the back boundary to get a photo of the uninterrupted view.

I even got as far as pulling on my gum boots and going outside. A sprinkle of rain won’t hurt me, I thought. I had only walked a few steps past the edge of the veranda though when a heavy downpour sent me scurrying back to shelter. And would you believe the maximum temperature today reached 20°C? I spent the day wearing jeans and a jumper ~ in December!

The white on blue looked so good today, I just had to zoom in on the mountain, even though I had to take the photo standing close to the house.

Maybe tomorrow the rain will ease up a touch, even if its just long enough to take a broad view photo of the valley for Silent Sunday. 🙂

Australia · clouds · garden flowers · in my garden · Mount Warning · native Australian birds · palm trees · subtropical weather · summer · Tweed Valley

Rain!

Joanne12 Comments

After quite a while – three weeks? four maybe? I awoke this morning to signs of rain.

Exhibit A – One drenched kookaburra atop a wet glass balustrade –

Exhibit B – Little Hoppy, my butcher bird with one gammy leg, waiting in the dryness of my back veranda for breakfast –

Exhibit C – My yellow and white frangipani, growing close enough to the house to allow me to take a photo without going out into the rain, with tiny beads of moisture captured on the leaves –

Later, baby magpie visited. The rain was light but consistent, and by the looks of the baby’s dry feathers, I think he may have hidden himself away amid tree foliage to escape the unfamiliar (to him) sight of rain –

And finally, Mount Warning. Just kidding. 😉 Actually, there was no sight of the mountain today, it was hidden behind the rainclouds. 🙂

 

Australia · clouds · gardening · in my garden · Mount Warning · native Australian birds · palm trees · photography · spring · Tweed Valley

A Day That Sparkled

Joanne11 Comments

About a week ago we had a couple of days when storms and blustering winds hit us each afternoon. We even lost power Saturday before last. During the chaotic weather, our palm trees took a bit of a battering, and since then we have lost a few of the lower leaves. Where once I had palm leaves dancing in the foreground as I took photos of the mountain, now all I have are tall, bare palm trunks. The leaves are still growing in the lofty heights of the tree, they just don’t appear in my photos any more.

So today, the first photo I took of the mountain features a cluster of palm trees, just for something different.

There was some rain about this morning, not much, but just enough to make the valley sparkle. Some days, rain can have the opposite effect, making the valley appear dull and lifeless under a veil of grey mist. Today, the valley looked magnificent.

I had the usual morning crew here for breakfast, and if kookaburras are not photogenic enough, the light of the day added extra pizzazz to their appearance.

Here they are, getting stuck into some beef pieces for breakfast. They always dominate the feeding table, even though I assure them there is plenty of food for everyone.

Little baby magpie has become a regular visitor every morning too. He/she usually visits with both his/her parents now, but I’ve noticed the father usually feeds baby.

Later this afternoon, I went for a walk down the back to admire everything we achieved during the weekend in the garden. After putting the cut branches of our fruit trees through the hired mulching machine, we have several large piles of mulch which will come in very handy around the garden.

I took my iPhone with me down the back, and just for fun I thought I’d take a photo of the valley from our rear boundary, just to see if the quality of the camera is okay. I rarely think to take photos with my phone camera, so it was an experiment for me. This is the result –

Between the fantastic light of the day, and the magnificent cloud formations, it was probably a safe bet that the photo wouldn’t look too bad. 🙂

Australia · Mount Warning · native Australian birds · spring · Tweed Valley

Spring-like weather returns

Joanne17 Comments

Today the weather, and the appearance of the valley, is completely different to yesterday.

This morning started out fine and sunny, with the ranges and mountain looking crystal clear, as if washed clean by yesterday’s sudden heavy shower of rain. I would have taken photos early, after the sun had risen and cleared the night-haze from the valley if I had time, but I had plans to meet my daughter at the shops. We had to have an early start as she needed to take baby Eli home by midday in time for his nap.

By the time I arrived home, the haze had set in again, although we didn’t reach the same high temperatures as yesterday. Later, I watched out for another beautiful sunset, but unfortunately Mother Nature must have been resting tonight. So today’s view over the valley is more subdued than yesterday.

The baby magpie visited again this morning with his/her parents for breakfast. It’s such a skinny, long-legged bird, and the sweetest little thing. ❤

A kookaburra made itself comfortable on the fence this morning and stayed there for quite a while. It seemed to have its feathers fluffed up, and looked so content that after a while I took some meat out to it, even though I had already fed the usual crowd. Usually when a kookaburra is looking for food, they wait in the palm trees and not on the fence so close to the house as this one was. It flew away as soon as I went outside, which was out of character as well. I know that kookaburras are territorial, so I wondered if perhaps this is a bird from another territory. If only birds could talk, it perhaps could have told me!