As I looked down the side of my drive I could see that the callistemon trees were in flower - and this in spite of it being barely a week since the big hail storm! I planted two kinds of these trees - one with red flowers and one with creamy colored flowers. The red flowered kind looks much more spectacular but the flowering this year has been rather spasmodic up here. (For a really spectacular display of red flowers go and look at
Diane's blog and her wonderful header photo.) Anyway the birds seemed to like the cream flowers this last week. I even saw some Rainbow Lorikeets come down for a brief visit.
The cream flowers looked best up against the blue sky.
Most of the birds I saw on the flowers were Brown Honeyeaters. These birds are tiny. The book says they are 12-16cm and they seem to be able to reach any way they please to reach the flower they
want - all while hanging by a 'toe-nail'!
There were quite a few birds fluttering around and at first I thought they were all little Browns but then I saw a flash of yellow and realized there were also White-cheeked Honeyeaters. The book says they are a little larger16-19 cms but I could see little difference up in the trees.
Now a couple of days later and most of the flowers have fallen and there are few birds up there.
For more views from around the world visit Our World Tuesday.
Yes the cream flowers look great against the blue sky. The photos of the birds are great. You have much nicer birds than we have down here. The noisy Miners chase the others away except we do have some blue faced honey eaters. Thanks for linking my blog to yours. Hope you don't get any more hail.
ReplyDeleteWow those honeyeaters are quite the little acrobats! You got wonderful pictures. The flowering tree really is lovely against your bright blue sky.
ReplyDeleteAs an avid birder, I enjoyed your beautiful portraits of the birds! When we lived in Tucson, Arizona we had two red (what we called) bottle brush...they look quite similar to these white ones!
ReplyDeleteGreat photos of the honeyeaters.
ReplyDeleteHello, the blossoms are beautiful. Wonderful birds and photos. I love the White-cheeked Honeyeater. Great post! Enjoy your day, have a great new week!
ReplyDeleteAwesome flowers and wonderful photos of our feathered friends!
ReplyDeleteHappy Day to you,
A ShutterBug Explores
aka (A Creative Harbor)
Fabulous bird shots.
ReplyDeleteThose honey eaters are very lovely. I do like the Whit -cheeked especially. That's a very clever adaptation, hanging by their toes - reaching the parts others aren't able to do.
ReplyDeleteThe yellow on them in the black and white stands out and is very pretty.
ReplyDeleteSome years ago I used to frequent a plant nursery which had a red flowered callistemon. That one was growing in a large greenhouse. The main stem was in the middle of the building and trained straight up to the roof. Then it was allowed to branch out in all directions. It was like walking under a beautiful red spotted umbrella.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your images, Mick. The Honeyeaters are great looking birds! Love your cream colored blossoms and snuck over to Diane's site to see the red ones. Both are beautiful!
ReplyDeleteHope you survived the storm with no damage. Have a great week!