Wild Bird Wednesday: Bath Time

The Blue-faced Honeyeater is a large black, white and golden olive-green honeyeater with striking blue skin around the yellow to white eye. The crown, face and neck are black, with a narrow white band across the back of the neck. The upperparts and wings are a golden olive green, and the underparts are white, with a grey-black throat and upper breast. The blue facial skin is two-toned, with the lower half a brilliant cobalt blue. 

Juvenile birds are similar to the adults but the facial skin is yellow-green and the bib is a lighter grey. This honeyeater is noisy and gregarious, and is usually seen in pairs or small flocks. It is known as the Banana-bird in tropical areas, for its habit of feeding on banana fruit and flowers.

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Urangan Pier, Hervey Bay, QLD

Urangan Pier is a historic pier in Urangan, Hervey Bay, Queensland, Australia. It is one of the longest in Australia and stretches for almost one kilometre into the ocean.

It is a former deep-water, cargo-handling facility originally built to facilitate the export of sugar, timber and coal. The pier, served by the extension of the railway line from Pialba, was used for the transfer of cargo between rail and ships. It was built between 1913 and 1917, originally to a length of 1107 metres (1.1 kilometres).

The pier was closed in 1985, and 239 metres of it was demolished. However, due to public outcry, 868 metres of the pier was left, and the land was handed to the Hervey Bay City Council.

By 2009 the last 220-metre section of the pier had been fully restored, and the original timber pylons had been replaced with steel pylons with a plastic covering.

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Brisbane City Night Lights: It's Been A While

While night time long exposure is possibly my favourite genre of photography, it has been quite some time since I have been out with my camera in Brisbane city at night. I think it's been close to 12 months now, which is an age for me!
In fact I have barely been out with my camera at all over the last 5 months!

Here are some night city images I haven't yet shared, taken along the Brisbane River, below Kangaroo Point Cliffs, about 2 years ago...

These ones were taken the same night, at Wilson's Outlook in New Farm where you get a great view of Brisbane's iconic Story Bridge with the city behind.

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S P R I N G

"Came the spring with all its splendor, all its birds and all its blossoms, all its flowers and leaves and grasses."
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


Spring brings with it the promise of:

New Life

New Possibilities

New Experiences

New ways of viewing the world

Beauty appears in places where it seemed life had temporarily left...

Spring is a time of:

Renewal

Growth

Hope

 A time when colour dances across the landscape.

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Duranbah Beach, NSW

Duranbah Beach, officially known as Flagstaff Beach, is the northernmost beach in New South Wales. Located in the Tweed Shire, Duranbah Beach is situated between the mouth of the Tweed River and the rocky headland Point Danger which also marks the Queensland-New South Wales border.

The following images were taken a while back (in Jan 2013 to be exact) while enjoying the view from Point Danger.

Duranbah Beach is well known by surfers for its surf break and large swell, it is recognised both nationally and internationally as having a powerful, high-quality surf break for both surfers and bodyboarders. Big surfing events have been staged there including the "Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast", a worldwide professional surfing competition which is held here or around the headland at Snapper Rocks depending on the conditions.

My beautiful youngest daughter, Bec (now 23).

My husband, Michael, enjoying the view.

An Eastern Water Dragon on the headland.

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Wild Bird Wednesday: Australian King Parrots & Sulphur-crested Cockatoos

Mount Nebo is a mountain approximately 18 km North West of the Brisbane suburb of The Gap in Queensland, Australia. It is part of the D'Aguilar Range which includes other mountains such as Mount Pleasant, Mount Glorious and Mount Mee.

At the "JM Jones Tearooms" on Mt Nebo, the trees are full of Australian King Parrots, Sulphur-crested Cockatoos and Rainbow Lorikeets. The tearooms provide cups of Sunflower seeds to feed the birds.

Male Australian King-Parrots are the only Australian parrots with a completely red head. Females are similar to males except that they have a completely green head and breast. Both sexes have a red belly and a green back, with green wings and a long green tail. King parrots are normally encountered in pairs or family groups.

Female:

Male: 

This cheeky male decided he would rather eat off my husbands hat than his hand.

The Sulphur-crested Cockatoo is a large white parrot. It has a dark grey-black bill, a distinctive sulphur-yellow crest and a yellow wash on the underside of the wings. Sexes are similar, although the female can be separated at close range by its red-brown eye (darker brown in the male). This is a noisy and conspicuous cockatoo, both at rest and in flight. Young Sulphur-crested Cockatoos resemble the adults.

They are intelligent, very loud, mischievous and are often regarded as pests.

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