Garden Bits and Bobs

We are having a run of days that can only be described as "drecht with a difference downunder" - they are grey, overcast and often wet, very similar to summer in Aberdeenshire I hear you all cry, with one key added ingredient namely warmth. The day time temperature is a very pleasant 27 degrees which isn't bad for winter if you ask me, the night temperature is a remarkably chilly 19-20 degrees so fans off and Tish and I are back to the normal routine of fighting over who gets the sheet / blanket......

In between the showers we do get some bright spells which has given us the opportunity of continuing our on going battle with the Cairns Birdwing Butterfly to try and get an "open wing" shot of the males. Our normal efforts either end up with cracking views of the underside of their closed wings or half glimpses of the top side a bit like these ones

you can start to see the colour scheme but its hardly a great photo.
This weekend there was a female with her two suitors feeding on some flowers about three foot off the ground which gave us the perfect opportunity to get some better shots. By putting the camera onto motor drive I took dozens of pictures most of which were rubbish but I did get these slightly better ones

and this one which is far closer to what I wanted

A more unexpected visitor to the garden was this ibis, I see them flying over daily but was not expecting this...