A Gallery of Spring Flowers


With the warmer weather, Spring flowers are beginning to pop up everywhere. This gallery of photographs contains native species which are already included on the A -Z Species List through previous posts. All of the photographs below were  taken over the last two weeks. .    

A New Artistic Venture


In recent months I’ve received quite a bit of support for my photographic work, including my recent post about tonal landscapes which was reposted by Ian Lundt on his  Australia’s Best Ecology Blogs Facebook page (31 August). After much thought, I’ve decided to set up an online shop on Redbubble to make my photographs available all around the world in … Continue reading A New Artistic Venture

Battered Butterfly


Yesterday I had my first opportunity to use my macro lens to photograph a butterfly. Consulting the field guide, I think it could be a Yellow Admiral (Vanessa itea). Despite its battered state, the butterfly was flying from one plum blossom to the next without trouble. I wanted to take more photographs but just as the … Continue reading Battered Butterfly

Orchid Colonies


Some Australian Terrestrial Orchids grow in colonies, and this year we are fortunate to have a couple of reasonably good-sized ones. After photographing the solitary Waxlip Orchid the other day, I thought I would try to find more Waxlip Orchids yesterday, but only found two more.  Last year we had so many of these.   I … Continue reading Orchid Colonies

A New Mob: Ructions in the Ranks


I’m not sure what is happening in the Kangaroo world, but we’ve had quite a bit of change lately, with a new mob showing up on occasion.  For more than a year, we have had a fairly stable population of Eastern Grey Kangaroos, with rarely more than three here at a time.  Mostly, this has … Continue reading A New Mob: Ructions in the Ranks

Smooth Parrot-Pea (Dillwynia glaberrima)


Last week I posted a photograph of an unidentified pea flower, which was subsequently identified by John as a Smooth Parrot-pea (Dillwynia glaberrima). As John mentioned in his comment, Dillwynia species of plants have a few distinguishing characteristics, and once I was alerted to these, I couldn’t resist looking up the Smooth Parrot-pea in Enid Mayfield’s … Continue reading Smooth Parrot-Pea (Dillwynia glaberrima)

Narrow-leaf Bitter-pea (Daviesia leptophylla)


This is the first Bitter-pea I’ve noticed on the property, but it has probably been growing here in other years.  I think I have been so focused on Orchids and more showy flowers, it was easy to overlook these tiny pea flowers. Firstly, because they are so small, held on slender stems, and secondly because … Continue reading Narrow-leaf Bitter-pea (Daviesia leptophylla)

A Swamp Wallaby Sighting


Since the sad February drowning of the female Swamp Wallaby, I haven’t seen any Wallabies around – until this morning!  This one came up and over the wall of the dam, which it skirted, and then up to the house to feed on a patch of cape weed leaves.  However, it didn’t hang around for … Continue reading A Swamp Wallaby Sighting

Pea Flowers


One of my projects this Spring is to work out how to identify the many different species of wild pea species.  I have tens of photographs of pea flowers from last Spring which I’ve been unable to identify because I didn’t photograph the leaves or the calyx well enough. Both of these features are important … Continue reading Pea Flowers

Ornamental Plum Blossom


We have so many eucalypts and native plants with unobtrusive flowers,  it feels fantastic when the ornamental plum tree is in full blossom.   A real burst of colour which attracts both birds and insects. This week, two Red Wattle Birds have been feeding from the blossoms every day.  I’ll post the bird photos tomorrow.  Today I … Continue reading Ornamental Plum Blossom

Disputed Habitat: Pacific Black Duck vs Australian Wood Duck


  This morning I awoke to a wonderful surprise, a Pacific Black Duck with approximately eight ducklings (it was difficult to count them from a distance).  I’d not noticed a nest, so I don’t know if they were breeding on our property or a neighboring one.  With such young fluffy ducklings, they had obviously walked … Continue reading Disputed Habitat: Pacific Black Duck vs Australian Wood Duck