Garden Orb-Weaver Spider

Garden Orb-Weaver Spider (a very full one)

The resilience of mother nature

Our Mrs Blackbird is a real battler. Early in spring she was attacked by we don't know who and broke her right foot as you can see. That has not stopped her from building three new nests and rearing successfully a total of 5 babies and believe it or not she has just completed building another nest in one of my chain cacti (Christmas cacti in northern hemisphere) pots.

Apsley Falls, Oxley Wild Rivers National Park NSW

On our travels, we stopped over at the Apsley Falls campground. Picturesque with impressive views of the river gorge. Well worth a visit if you're ever driving the Oxley Highway between Walcha and Wauchope.

The first night we were there, we had a nocturnal visitor. This old possum spooked us to start with when he tipped the grilling tray out of the camp stove (we suspect to get to the toast crumbs).

An Australian magpie (and his mates) came to check us out.

Butcherbird.

Frog Hilton (aka The Water Tank) at Dusk

The nightly line-up on the water tank eagerly awaiting darkness to search for food.

Nesting Australian Native Crested Pigeon

We have a pair of Crested Pigeons that nest around the property, though usually in a more dense tree than this. Australian Birdlife refer to the nest as delicate, but that's putting it politely. Their nests are more a mess of a few twigs that takes them a short time to construct. Both parents share the incubation -- we often hear the bird on the nest calling for his/her mate to change over. Because there is always a bird on the nest, they don't suffer the egg predation other birds do. Though I'm sure they only breed to feed the local raptors. :(

Yellow-faced Honeyeater Nest

Just after Christmas, we discovered a nest with three Yellow-faced Honeyeater nestlings in the Chilean guava tree in our fruit tree ‘cage.’ Hidden deep in the foliage, the nest is suspended with spiderweb and various threads between two branches. We didn’t want to disturb them, so waited until they had fledged before taking photos.

Brown Treecreeper, Kara Kara National Park VIC

Brown Treecreeper at Kara Kara National Park: