Snap Happy Birding: June 2012

27 June 2012

Seagulls

Location, Soldiers Beach this week, and I was hoping to see the whales migrating north to warmer waters. There were a couple 'way out' when I arrived, so my priority was to have my camera set up ready to start taking photos. Hat and sleeveless vest on, tele-conversion lens screwed onto my camera, and settings switched to accommodate. Now with camera and binoculars hanging round my neck, I stand for a moment looking at those car-keys, making darn sure they end up in my pocket before I close the boot. Now, I can go watch for the whales.

Well I did (look), but then they had gone, and no more came. Should've been there yesterday! There were lots I'd been told, with dolphins too, and close to the shoreline! Oh well; I enjoyed a good few hours, alongwith many other spectators, hoping to get lucky anyway. No doubt word had spread.

There's always a seagull though, so before I left, I wandered up and sat on the grass to take some snaps.

a little too much sunshine on a winters day becomes a little ... mesmerizing.

And then a Willie Wagtail appeared, just to make my day.

Sharing with World Bird Wednesday

25 June 2012

a special toast?

Somehow five years have almost whizzed by since I started blogging. This morning I happened to notice in passing, the number 499, being how many posts I'd clocked up. So I felt it timely to make an announcement!

Tried to locate the very first post but only got back to 2009 and then too much wading to go back "older posts" page by page to find it, so I didn't. It doesn't really matter, but I do know that my blog has changed a lot in the past two years.

Carole's Creative Corner was given that name originally because I was dabbling with various paper-crafts mainly, some stitching projects, graphics play, oh and lots of flowers from my garden; and sharing images through this blog. At least that's how I remember it all started. Then I was zentangling (see label) ........until I eventually found I really wanted to spend much more time with my camera.

Blog posts now are definately focussed on whatever it is that I can get to, with the view of taking snapshots to share, and in that pursuit I get a lot of enjoyment. Thanks to friends too, who might happen to accompany me on occasion, and suddenly find I'm not walking with them anymore! Where is she .. they look behind and I'm only just ten steps back perhaps; lining up another pic.

Thanks to each of you who have become friends online, and continue to pop in with some sweet and enthusiastic comments; I really appreciate your visits to my blog; here's to the next 500?

24 June 2012

Another Aussie Icon; the Wattle

Photos taken over this weekend in two differing locations nearby. It's our floral emblem, and according to Australian National Botanic Gardens website there are some 1350 species of Acacia found throughout the world and close to 1000 of these are to be found here, in Australia. During any month throughout the year, there is said to be some wattle variety in flower, somewhere.

Green and gold; they're our national colours; our Olympic teams proudly represent their country, wearing green and gold.

Differing foliages on differing wattles; and while these above may appear more silvery/blue, other wattle leaves may be decidedly green, ovate, or even fern-like. With so many varieties, there's got to be some unique characteristics displayed.

Notation: in case you missed Aussie icon post previous to this; you might want to check out the kangaroos here

Sharing with Mellow Yellow Monday

Mozilla browser has issues

If you've visited some blogs today, you may have gotten a yellow screen with 'Fraudulent Web Page Blocked' You attempted to access: .........this web page is a known fraudulent web page etc.

This happened when I went to access at least two sites this morning; including my own; that concerned me! My annual subscription with Norton was showing everything secured, so I felt reasonably confident there was nothing serious happening.

Contacted Norton and was told it was an already identified Mozilla issue at the moment. Nothing to do with a virus at all. That a 'spike' was overtaking Mozilla Firefox browser; we are reporting these issues.

I've no idea what a 'spike' is but I'm definately reassured all is fine with my own blog and am leaving this here in case others have encountered the same issues (if using Mozilla Firefox).

Now I'm interested do you have a preference for Internet Explorer, or Mozilla Firefox, as your browser? Should I necessarily go back to Internet Explorer? This is the first problem I've come across with Mozilla in the past two years I guess, since I changed over to it.

Aussie icon; the kangaroo...

Kangaroos frequent an area nearby to where I live, and even though my drive there yesterday was in search for wattles in flower; I could hardly pass up on taking these snaps for you.

Can't you tell, it was the most perfect Winters day to be out and about

Missing your mates? They're down the back there see ..

wondering if it's the right moment to cross the road...those are watsonias growing wild along the roadside

Sharing with Camera Critters

23 June 2012

Weekend Reflections in Sydney

Sharing with Weekend Reflections

22 June 2012

Skywatch Friday; another sunset over the bay

Can we ever tire of a scene like this? Different days, different times of day, different moods, differing reflections, or none at all. It is always, restful to the soul ...