Fairy-wrens

I take frequent short trips down to the Mullens foreshore but unfortunately it is not a part of the bay often frequented by shorebirds. It is always beautiful no matter the weather.

I also find the trees that dabble their stems in the water - mangroves - very beautiful.

The other day I took this photo looking north along the shore. The boat would be well up on dry land when the tide went out - and I hope the fisherman had some luck after standing out in the water for so long.

A couple of weeks ago several bloggers posted photos of  Fairy-wrens on this meme. I waited for others to show some of the other very colorful Fairy-wrens but since no one did I went back into my photo archives so that all the overseas birders could get an idea of the variety of such birds you can see.
These first birds are the ones that were posted a few weeks ago - Superb Fairy -wrens. For some reason I have never seen these birds right in my area. According to my birding books they should be here! I saw these ones on a trip out west my sister and I took a few years ago at a place called Mitchell.  I have included photos of the little brown females - which I find difficult to ID.

The only blue colored wren that I have seen right in my own area is the Variegated Fairy-wren Malarus assimilis.I have frequently seen this bird on the bushy walk out to Inskip Point but it likes the more dense shrubs and is not easy to follow or to photograph.  The colors are especially bright!

The Red-backed Fairy-wren Malarus melanocephalis is fairly common around here and I took these photos out at Inskip Point and at Bullock Point.

For more scenery  from around the world visit Our World Tuesday

and for more birds visit Wild Bird Wednesday

Honeyeaters

I enjoy all the bird song that I hear in my yard. However, seeing and photographing the birds is much more problematic. Sometimes you can get lucky and the other morning while I was watching out the window I saw that the callistemons were flowering again.  It had been so dry that the first flowers hadn't lasted very long but some good rain showers had brought the flowers out again. It looked like a flock of little birds were enjoying them and they were all dancing up in the top of the trees. It was very early so the light was perfect!
First here are the callistemon trees and flowers.

There were little birds up in the top of the trees and definitely enjoying the feast! There were more creamy-white flowers and more birds up there but it was the wrong angle for me to get photos so I tried for the ones that came down the tree among the branches. The birds were White Cheeked Honeyeaters - and they are tiny!The book says 16-19cms

I really wanted some photos with sky behind the birds so I moved over to the tree with the red flowers which was not so tall. Ah! Much better photos!

There were also little Brown Honeyeaters. They are about the same size. 12-16cms

For more scenery  from around the world visit Our World Tuesday

and for more birds visit Wild Bird Wednesday