Start the week...

....with a cyclone warning for Tropical Cyclone Zane, luckily the current forecast track is for it to miss us too the north but the scuttlebutt around the water cooler (well outside Cameron's Prep class) is that at this time f year they often pass to the south of the forecast track which would mean over us!
That said at this time of year it is unlikely to be serious but there has been a definite increase in rain and a strengthening of the wind

The winds have forced the local Welcome Swallows and Australian Swiftlets down as well although getting any decent photos is a complete nightmare
Welcome Swallow

Aus Swiftlet

On Monday Tish had to attend a training course at work so I used the time and went to try and get a better picture of the Mangrove Robins that (unsurprisingly) live in the mangroves at the north end of the esplanade.
Whilst none of the pictures were great they were an improvement on my earlier attempts

As we are moving into winter here most of the waders have headed north to breed so there are far fewer around on the mudflats at the moment.
This does give you the opportunity to concentrate on some of the local breeders such as these Red-capped Plovers

and Masked Lapwing (for the Dr Who fans among you don't they remind you of the Ood?!)

There are a few migrants around including this group of three Grey-tailed Tattler and one Terek Sandpiper

On closer inspection the second bird from the right (a summer plumaged Tattler) was wearing a very fetching blue flag on its left leg..

which it apparently was given in Hokkaido sometime since 1997!

Natural Tattoo...

We were having a cup of tea at Alans yesterday after he had helped make the gutters safe when he showed the children a rather neat trick...
This fern

well more accurately the underside of this fern

when pressed against the skin creates this rather cool tattoo effect

which washes off very easily

Red-tailed Black Cockatoo's

Having been successful last month in getting some cracking pictures of Australia's smallest parrot (Double-eyed Fig Parrot) I have been trying to get some decent pictures of one of its largest the Red-tailed Black Cockatoo. Despite being over 50cm tall they can be remarkably hard to photograph, probably due to their annoying habit of sitting at the tops of trees.
This week the local population of about 18 birds has been feeding voracio...

Sorry minor hiccup in narrative - we are having a bit of a late storm tonight and there has just been an exceedingly loud bang from outside the boys room so I have put on my water proofs and been to investigate and half the guttering has collapsed!

....usly on the Casuarina Pines near the local play park. I have been up there a couple of times but you have to be careful taking pictures around an area where children play - usually try and take our three as cover but still.
I have managed to get decent views of most of the birds and there seems to be at least four full adults with the majority being immature birds.
Most of the time the views you get are similar to this..

looking up from underneath.
This is an immature bird - easily told from the adult by the fact that the red in the tail is actually more yellow and is heavily barred and the birds black feathers are still obviously tipped with white giving it a faint barring effect across its body.
The adults stand out as being very glossy black and their tails are a much deeper red

Not the greatest of pictures but you can at least compare the tails of these two with those of the immatures..

This set were almost good but the shutter speed was not quite fast enough to keep them in focus properly

I will eventually get a picture of one of these in flight that I am happy with...

Anzac Day

Today is a Public Holiday as it is Anzac Day, commemorating the Gallipoli landings and all Australian and New Zealand service men who have died for their country.
As all the schools are closed for the day Yorkeys Knob School held their service yesterday which I was able to attend.

The picture were taken with my phone and the quality is not the greatest.
Yesterday was also the childrens Cross Country - a far cry from the horrible weather I remember doing it in, that said I was not too impressed that it was being held just after midday when the temperature was the hottest (over 30 degrees). Long distance running is never a popular choice in our household but they all competed and what more can you ask.
When they were back home and Tish had emerged Xanthe got to play "make-up the zombie" - note these were TISH'S words NOT mine....

Tish then showed Xanthe how to do it:
Before

After

During the morning the children went down to the play park whilst I did a few things around the house.
As it was a holiday there were several other children around the park so when I went and joined them I was not able to take many pictures - well just this one

Yellow Potter Wasp..

...well I think this is what it is, it is certainly a mud wasp species.
I was sitting outside on the deck this morning when I noticed a rather large black and yellow wasp flying around - a good inch in length.

It seemed to be carrying something and was very interested in the fan blades on one of our outside cooling fans. It buzzed around ridiculously fast and was virtually impossible to get any decent flight pictures with either of our cameras, these are the best that I managed

as I got more shots and looked at them on the camera it quickly became clear that she was carrying a ball of mud. Further investigations were called for and I went and got our step ladder.
On checking the upper surface of the fan blades I quickly found the source of her interest

she is building a nest, by holding our old Fuji camera with a LCD screen I was able to get this shot of her with the mud ball

Over the next couple of hours she was a regular visitor, but not wanting to disturb her at first I only managed these rather distant shots of building in progress

I wanted to try and get some better pixs so I moved the ladder closer and waited. After a very short while she was back and came to inspect me, she got so close that I was completely unable to get the cameras in focus. I did manage to get some better shots

When the nest is finished she will lay one egg and feed her larva live food - more photo opps me thinks!