Hovering in mid flight,
reaching speeds of 60 mph,
with a tongue that is longer than their body,
the only bird in the world that can fly backwards and upside down,
weighing about a tenth of an ounce,
and battling for turf and territory daily with their lethal spear beaks,
hummers are flying,
works of art,
with attitudes!
Cheers to you from The Holler Hummers~
I thought it might be time to post some more Holler Hummers.
Hummingbirds in your backyard,
make everyday brighter.
They accompany me on my gardening rounds,
and buzz the camera when I am taking their photos.
If the feeder’s empty,
they swarm my office window until I get up and fill them!
They are quite persuasive,
for such wee tiny critters, weighing only .11 ounces!
Cheers to you from The Holler’s ever entertaining colibris~
This gorgeous pair of red tailed black cockatoos was photographed at the Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary in the Yarra Valley in Victoria Australia during our February trip.
There are five sub-species of red tailed black cockatoos in Australia, with two sub-species under serious threat.
Healesville Sanctuary is dedicated to the recovery of 27 threatened native Australian species.
It’s animal hospital treats over 1500 sick or injured native animals each year, and it has an active breeding program for threatened species.
Although I was able to photograph other black cockatoos in the wild during our February trip, these were the only red tails I was lucky enough to see.
Cheers to you from Australia’s iconic red tailed black cockatoos~
For more on Healesville’s important work see:
https://www.zoo.org.au/healesville/habitats/main-track/australian-wildlife-health-centre/
Quiet beauty.
For difficult days.
Fragile.
Strong.
Like you,
and I.
Orchids grow,
in volcanic rock.
Beauty blooms from fire.
Cheers to you and keep on blooming~
Sticking his tongue out at you!
Actually, don’t be offended. It was at me not you.
There were joey’s too!
Like babies everywhere, they spent their time eating & sleeping.
While the parents kept vigil.
Adults are well equipped for both fight & flight.
Cheers to you from Australia’s normally quite polite roos~
I was watering The Holler flowers,
daydreaming, not paying attention,
when out of the corner of my eye, I spied,
baby Hunca Munca and her three little brothers,
desperately climbing and clinging to the fountain grass.
I had inadvertently flooded their nest!
Needless to say, I gave watering a rest.
Cheers to you from all the living creatures at The Holler~
Note: For more about Hunca Munca see, “The Classic Tale of Two Bad Mice,” by Beatrix Potter.
The Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney Australia are an urban bird paradise.
I found this pair of magpie larks singing and dancing happily in the park.
The name magpie lark is a misnomer as these handsome birds are neither magpies nor larks, but are members of the giant monarch flycatcher family.
Magpie larks are musical prodigies who sing co-ordinated duets together, timed by the metronomic movements of their synchronized dancing. See: http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160803-the-strange-reason-magpie-larks-dance-when-nobody-is-looking
Cheers to you from the magical birdies of Oz~
Scaly-Breasted Lorikeets,
are easy to hear,
but hard to see,
they blend in so perfectly with their arboreal home!
Cheers to you from the well camouflaged lorikeets in Oz~
Quarantine is good for hiking up to places where no humans are!
This is the Laguna/Borrego Escarpment close to The Holler.
It is the ridgeline of the Laguna Mountain Range in Southern California. The Pacific Coast Trail runs through here and you cross it coming up.
You are looking down from the ridgeline onto the Anza Borrego Desert, parts of which are below sea level.
Butterflies are up here enmass because the wildflowers are blooming.
The hike up is strenuous, but good exercise, and the views make it the perfect place for a quarantine picnic.
Cheers to you from a lonely view~
This red head,
blue cheek,
friendly baby,
will grow into,
a pure scarlet beauty.
Cheers to you from the baby rosella in Oz~
