Nature's Place

I did get a shot of one in flight as it passed overhead. But I can’t find it now. Ok, enough about the one that got away.
Down by the island ferry terminal to Coochiemudlo, these pelicans do show up and roost on top of very tall lamp posts and power poles.
I’m not there often enough to get more than the lazy part of the day, as they preen themselves, keeping their cloth in the best of nick for their daily doings.
It’s a common enough scene in nature, from the smallest to the biggest, they tend to their best functioning by preening etc, which tends to their appearance.
Not unlike us … Ok, maybe not all of us, all the time …
© Mark Berkery … Click on those pictures for a closer look …
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… and visiting anew.

He got used to me appearing with the camera.

Allowed me closer after a while.

The big singer, little bird, has been practicing in the mirror again. Though he seems to have other things on his mind first thing of the day – maybe he found a mate after all that song.

She wasn’t unduly disturbed by my presence.

More relaxed after a while, but still alert.

I went outside the other day, to do what I do, looked down and there next to me was an unexpected guest. Python, with a big belly, snoozing while her digestion did its work – I think so.

You just have to follow this one around the flowers.

Eventually he shows his best side.

And a little colour, a darkling beetle on a red strawflower. Such a wonder, could something insignificant be so adorned. Or it’s not insignificant at all.

Ever alert for anything new in her space.

But once she’s satisfied there’s no danger she’s unstoppable in her instinct to finish the nest.

The red eyed bee is about again. Caught her exiting the nest site from provisioning it for her young, then sealing it up with chewed eucalyptus leaf.

Just a few of the recent visitors to house and garden.

Life goes on.

© Mark Berkery … Click on those pictures for a closer look …
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Not great pix but, some better than others. … Starting with this one because it’s the one I wake up to recently. He, I suspect, comes along first thing in the morning and sings to his reflection in the car side mirror or window. He often leaves imprints of his wings on the windscreen, excitable fellow. A gentle creature though, big voice.

A much smaller bird, a honey eater, half the size of the one above, comes in a group to the birdbath almost every day – a family I think now, having seen the pic below.

Looks to me like a youngster harassing his mum for something to eat. A very common sight these spring days. She leaning away a little, letting them get on with it.

And there’s dad, keeping his distance. You can see our nature reflected in nature. As if nature is intrinsic to us, us to it. Who’d a guessed …

Another honey eater on the same branch, looking down at the birdbath. The same bird that was nesting in that tree when I arrived here, but moved on when the nest was damaged. Another family that visits regularly, for a regular clean bath …

Pied Currawong, one legged, a big bird – big as a crow. Gets about all right but when it comes to ground or branch work he’s a little handicapped. A very cautious fellow, understandably.

Bad hair day. Mum, looking a bit ragged maybe. But still very photogenic, with the right light and background.

And here’s why she’s looking ragged, if she is. One of her youngsters crying out to be fed. And what mum isn’t run ragged by the kids.

This is another kid – known here as a Joey (baby wallaby), but fending for himself, mum long gone it seems. He’s a very approachable little one, trusting.

Joey, baby wallaby again, growing up, looking healthy. Saying hello …

And then the butcher bird comes along. She has young to feed as well. Takes a little fruit or grain or meat now and again, whatever is going sometimes.

Stopped on the water tank for a few minutes. Listening out for who knows what … opportunity.

Caught napping, nearly bed time with the sun about to set – but the Stone Curlew is also nocturnal. Shooting through the long grass. She’s got feathers on her eyelids. Very fashionable, or fashion setting?

I could almost yawn …

Oops, did I wake her? Maybe, but she didn’t move, just wary of company at sunset.

I am lucky here, having a place on acreage that’s surrounded by nature’s characters coming and going with their families in this springtime.

I look out my sliding glass door or window and I see green, I hear birds all the time, and if anyone is hungry they let me know. I’m not one to refuse to feed the nature, and not the only one around here.

We have already intruded on them and denying them is an unnecessary complication of self. Apparently the experts now agree, so we can all stop feeling guilty or confused for feeding the wildlife. Silly isn’t it, the nonsense that prevails sometimes.

Sticking to quality ingredients and moderation won’t induce illness or dependence.

Just like us, if we’re careful, in a crazy world. Hmm …

© Mark Berkery … Click on those pictures for a closer look …
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Maggie is Aussie short for Magpie. This one on the water tank, nice background, light was good – soft. … A shot in two or three hundred. Then a fellow at the market asked if I had one. So it got printed, glad it did.

They don’t stop still for long, always bobbing about. Hard black and bright white, difficult to get acceptable exposure. … The other side of the bright red eye, an injured eye.

Two in a row. Something must have grabbed its attention, to keep it still for more than one acceptable shot in quick succession.

Love the smokey backgrounds on these – no post processing needed. … Know what you want and shoot for that, usually by eliminating what you don’t want – a long procession of redundancies. Such is life.

This pied magpie is sometimes on the stool outside my door in the mornings, waiting for a bit of my breakfast maybe. Occasionally warbling a complex song to the sky.

I consider the magpie an intelligent creature, communicative to people. Not that other birds aren’t intelligent, but in their own and different ways. All are embraced in this space.

There’s a society of birds where I live. Different tribes or families with their distinct sensible form and character, behaviours and place in the pecking order of things. And whatever the conflict, they never go to war.

It’s interesting to watch them go about their business, and how they sometimes make my business theirs. When I’m eating for instance, but not only. They do like fresh water, as the place heats up.

In the breeding season the Maggie can be threatening to some people, though not to me. I think they can pick those who can be harassed, and harass them. It’s the vibe.

So watch out, if you’re afraid of the Maggie he’ll know. If he comes for you be contrary, look up and raise your arm up to the sky. That will confound him.

Or make a friend of him, or her, at other times.

One of the colourful characters of Oz.

© Mark Berkery … Click on those pictures for a closer look …
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* If you’re interested in buying a picture or two see this page – Pictures of Bees and Frogs for sale.

It’s a tough life being a bee. Born to find a new place, winds blowing this way and that, never know what’s coming. But never a worry either. … And work to be done.

She had started this nest long before I saw her at work. Coming and going for the green stuff she’s working into the nest entrance. The last part of the job for this nest site.

Once she’s at work she tends not to see me. But when my presence, or form, changes her map of her location much she comes to investigate me. So I just tell her all is well.

And she hears me and goes about her business unconcerned. It’s nice to get along with the wild things of nature. It is our nature after all.

Until the very last she was putting just green stuff down on the nest entrance. But the final layer included some bits of dirt and debris that effectively broke up the appearance of a discernible hole covered over. Camouflage, another of nature’s little survival skills.

Today while sitting on the verandah I noticed some activity around one of the old bee hotels. Thinking it might be an old, or new, orange tail resin bee moving back in I got the camera to have a closer look.

But it wasn’t an old bee, it was a new one. A new red eyed red head bee. I’d never seen this one up close before. It’s a resin bee, and that’s chewed up leaf its working to seal the nest entrance with.

Native trees with such new workable green leaves after the recent rains would probably also have other characteristics. Eucalypt resins are known for their medicinal properties.

Isn’t it amazing how parts of earth nature fit so beautifully with other parts. And all the parts make up the whole of the earth.

And the whole earth nature is a part of the solar nature, then the deeper cosmic nature.

All the parts fit perfectly together, from the stars to the bees.

Everything in its place …

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It does suggest something holds it all together, some principle or other, something unknown. Maybe even unknowable.

Now what could that be … mmm?

© Mark Berkery … Click on those pictures for a closer look …

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Shy little fellow.

*Click on the pictures for a proper look … and click again

The punk rockers of the garden.

Some come for a bath, others for a bite to eat. Little Joey was dancing around the garden, delighting in being alive, in the senses.

A pied magpie comes to the door in the mornings, stands on some box’s looking in. It often lands on the table I have set up to do some work on. Last night I painted a board for the market stall and left it on the table to dry. I told the magpie not to shit on it, and what do you think it did? 

A delightfully colourful day.

© Mark Berkery … Click on those pictures for a closer look … and click again.

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