Dragons, Cockys and Starlings

As the more observant may have noticed Cameron's birthday cake was curiously unadorned with icing figures - this was because Jen (not our neighbour another Jen) had been ill and was not able to make them in time.
Never mind the perfect excuse for a second (smaller) cake...

This time it features characters from How to Train Your Dragon - Toothless and Hiccup
Much appreciated by Cameron it was too

Our flock of feeding Sulphur Crested Cockatoo's has increased from the family of three to at least six....

although the new arrivals are not as tolerant at the moment and tend to look from afar until you are not close before coming in to feed.

As in UK a feature of the autumn are the flocks of starlings that we get, they are migratory and leave to winter in PNG.
At the moment they are feeding on the fruits on all of the palm trees in and around Yorkeys

The flocks are not as large as those in the UK and as you have probably noticed they are also not of the same species - although the European Starling is an introduced pest in parts of Oz.
These are Metallic Starlings

stunning birds!

One of the joys at this time of year are the sunsets - during the summer and spring the skies are invariably clear which does provide some stunning colours can be a tad uniform; at this time of year there are plenty of clouds to offer variation and I end up taking far more shots than normal. Here are a few from the past week or so
Even without the sun the sky still offers some great pictures

 And one with the sun

I tried to take a panoramic shot from the roof today but the pictures were very poor so will have to try again tomorrow before I give the ladder back to Allan