Talking of bird's nests.....

Recently we were at Karen's house in the Glasshouse Mountains. She has a young Poinciana tree in her front garden. this is what we saw in the tree...................



This is a Pee Wee's nest -
the babies are quite advanced. This nest is made of mud and dried grass. Its proper name is "Pied Mudlark"

This little nest belongs to the Willy Wagtail or "Pied Flycatcher"
The nest is made of Spider Web and lined with soft leaves. It is the size of a small teacup and has four babies in it!!

Sadly there is a tragic end to this story - the very next day when Karen and Peter visited the tree, the Willy Wagtail's nest, babies and all , was gone!! The culprits proved be to be some Crows. The parent Willy Wagtails kept returning to the tree, searching and searching for their nest and their babies - Peter then saw them actually chasing Crows away from the tree a day or so later. I haven't heard if the Pee Wees survived or not.

More Kangaroos!

Here goes: Wow!!!! it worked - this is a kangaroo peacefully grazing on the foreshore at Toorbul - not even bothered that I was only a few feet away!

This mother and joey are really posing for me - right on the front footpath, in someone's front garden!!


This little family are happily grazing in a garden.

They are not worried that I am taking photos.

Further back from the shore is a bushy area, with mangroves, and this mom and her joey posed beautifully for us!!

It is hard to believe that we are only a short distance away from a big highway and a bustling city!!

This is such a peaceful place, we often come here, sit and relax, have a swim, do some fishing. I bring my knitting of course, and sit under the shady trees and listen to the birds! This is the last time we were there - look at the rainbow lorikeets that were above us, nesting!

They love the gum trees - when the old branches break off they leave big spouts or holes in which the lorikeets, cockatoos and galahs build their nests. The small white branch you see right behind the two lorikeets is open at the end, forming a "spout" ; this is their nest and we could see the baby's head poking out - could not get a decent pic of it though!

So you want to see Kangaroos??

I know a lot of my overseas friends are intensely interested in our kangaroos - and I have had questions like" Do you have kangaroos in the streets?" and "Do you find kangaroos get in the way of your car?"

Well, I live near a big city, Brisbane, and no, we don't have kangaroos in our city streets, nor indeed in our suburban ones. There are still little pockets of bushland in some of our outer suburbs where it is possible to see the odd kangaroo, we saw some in a small piece of parkland surrounding a new housing estate just last weekend. But we do have a little seaside village not 25 miles away from us, Toorbul, where kangaroos do indeed roam the streets, foreshore, and people's gardens quite freely!

Here are some pics we took recently - we always take our overseas friends here - they are always amazed and get fantastic photos!!











The above picture is in someone's back yard, in front of someone's backyard banana plants, the right hand one is a front yard overlooking the sea - the roos are only mildly interested in us!!


As you can see this mother and baby are right in front of someone's front verandah - and not the slightest bit worried !

The town has rules about their kangaroos - they take precedence over everyone and everything - dogs are not welcome, we take ours and keep them on a leash, or in the car. Away from the houses, there is a lovely tract of bushland and woodland, and there are literally hundreds of kangaroo family groups there.

It is such a delight to see them, and Toorbul is only a mere 40 miles or so from the City of Brisbane, and about 20 miles or so from where we live.

I will now create another post because Blogger doesn't want me to add any more pics to this post!! So dear reader, more to come - continued in our next episode..........

Brisbane River and Southbank

Took a Victorian friend (no, not that old, she just comes from Melbourne, Victoria!) out on the City Cat the other day. We got some great photos - Brisbane has such a lot to see and we haven't covered half of it yet!

Now where does this look like we are? New Orleans?? No - it's Brett's Wharf, in the Hamilton reaches of the Brisbane river!! The good old Kookaburra Queen was undergoing a bit of maintenance, and was doing a few manoeuvres , reversing and turning etc, while we were waiting for the City cat to dock. For those who aren't aware, the Kookaburra Queen is a pleasure boat, catering for parties, wedding receptions etc .

We took the City Cat to Southbank and got some great photos of the Bougainvillea Walk - still has some years to go before it really is covered with Bougainvillea though! But you can see how spectacular it is going to be one day.

This is me (on the right) and my friend of 38 years, Edna. Note the knitting bag in my hands!! Poor Edna arrived for an 8 days holiday in Brisbane, from Rockhampton on August 23rd, in agony with a trapped sciatic nerve. 10 weeks later, she left to visit her daughter on the other side of Brisbane before returning to Melbourne! We have enjoyed her being here - we have a lot in common, we both knit and crochet and Edna does the most spectacular cross stitch I have ever seen. This is her latest creation - it has taken her 18 months (I think)

Yes folks - this is CROSS STITCH! a reproduction of the McCubbin painting of the Shearing Shed. What a talent!

There are a lot of native ibis here at Southbank - they are very tame and will take food out of your hands - grand daughter Caitlin loved this. In fact, the ibis are becoming a problem in all the public places here in Brisbane, they really are not afraid of humans, and because they get used to being fed, they congregate in large numbers wherever people picnic!

We had a lovely day - Edna could only manage a couple of hours - so it was back on the City Cat and back down the river, and home!