Chestnut Teal

Location: Budgewoi Lake, N.S.W., this week.

Sharing with Wild Bird Wednesday

Not literally 'Wild Birds' but you might also enjoy the close ups on yesterday's post
Barn Owl and Grey Goshawk

Barn Owl and Grey Goshawk

'A' for adorable barn owl; you make my heart melt.

How special to see so close

Owned by Mark Culleton, seen at his fantastic Birds of Prey Flight Show at O'Reillys Retreat, Lamington National Park, Qld.

 Grey Goshawk (White Phase)

Four years ago Mark was talking with Peter Gunders for ABC Queensland, video here 

Sharing with The Bird D'Pot

the Booyong walk

   

amazing buttress on the Black Booyong

  Wonga Vine

 this beautiful stone wall leads next, into the Mountain Gardens.  

Are you ready for this?

A surprise awaits ...

uh-oh, wasn't quite expecting this huge python!  

When discussed  later with staff, it had already been seen by others too and concensus is that it's so sluggish because it's having difficulty digesting whatever it's eaten.  Judging it's size it's thought it may have taken a pademelon.  Pademelon's are a small marsupial related to wallaby and kangaroo.  

With the colder weather now, that's not good and could potentially be fatally detrimental. 

It was pretty much at this point that I decided it wasn't so important afterall to continue on through the botanic garden....

Australian Brush Turkey

Unfortunately these might come under the love them or loathe them category.  If you live near to a bushland setting and these birds are about, they can invade neighbourhood gardens and create ... well, let's say, chaos.  That's the rumour.....

If 'we' left gardens as a natural setting like this, nothing would appear out of place.  Excepting maybe a heat-generating incubation mound measuring up to 4 metres (13 feet) wide, to hatch their eggs.

...reading in part: Little survivors, parent birds do not recognise their chicks when they hatch and play no part in raising them.

how neat that vertical tail fan

crossing pathway ahead on the Booyong walk (O'Reilly's Retreat, Lamington National Park, Qld).  More on 'the Booyong walk' tomorrow.

Australian Brush-turkey fact-sheet from Birds in Backyards

Five birds; Lewins Honeyeater, Scrubwrens, Logrunner and Eastern Spinebill

Lewins Honeyeater on Australian native, flowering Grevillea

cropped; I loved the pollen dots on his head

White-browed Scrubwren 

Late in the afternoon, the rain-forest floor was heavily shaded, so flash was used for this Yellow-throated Scrubwren snap

same again, flash needed to be used for these Log-Runners.  Well camouflaged aren't they?! Scratching away with great intent, late in the day still.

Eastern Spinebill

All sighted near O'Reillys Retreat at Lamington National Park, Qld

Morans Falls

Lamington National Park, Qld

it was somewhere in the depths of those trees to the right of this photo where I'd stood for the waterfall photos.  Now late in the afternoon, and time to meet with our group 4-WD pickup

before the lights go out

time out for natures bounty

a mixed bag post with vistas, birds and skies....Lamington National Park, Qld.

Misty morning and Grass trees.  Xanthorrhoea sp., are a long time in the making; this taller one pictured is a dinosaur since it's claimed they grow just  6.35 mm (1/4") in a good year.

White-browed Scrub Wren

Satin Bowerbird's bower; some bowers had more items around them than others.  It is said that the Bowerbirds will steal from one another's bowers, naughty boys.

 See this u-tube from ElliotBurch13 for courtship display

looking from up high, down into the valley

Eastern Whipbird

not the best of shots but gives good overall impression; loving the olive colourings and handsome looks.  Have never gotten so close to these birds before; this one is obviously tourist-attuned.

Comment from FigMince has reminded me to add Birds in Backyards fact-sheet and on the right-hand side is a voice recording - the male first, which is responded to by the female

wonderful lichen decorations on damaged limbs; matters not where they grow.

nearing the end of one day

so different to the next ...

sun setting over the mountains

Sharing with Skywatch Friday

Let's go the Treetop Walk

Nine suspension bridges ahead, up to 15 metres above ground.  First section had been constructed in 1936, being the first of its kind in the world, here at O'Reillys Retreat in the Lamington National Park, Qld.

 Extensions were made in 1987 to avoid walkers having to back-track to return.

Hi Sarah!

looking down from deck 30 metres above ground now into a fig tree

and upwards

Grey and Rufous Fantails, Golden Whistlers and Paradise Riflebird are said to frequent this location.  Small birds could be heard and partially seen, but no clear identification or photographs of.

with camera facing to the canopy, light floods in , but here, the wonderful mosses and lichens overhead

and birds-nest ferns