Nature in Carwoola at the end of June

Late this afternoon I went for a wander round the block to see what is happening on the day before carbon gets priced.   Quite a bit of interesting stuff was evident.

Frances had expressed a desire to draw a Goodenia flower if such could be located.  She had abandoned her own search as the weather was as cold as  ...  something very cold.  I didn't find any of that genus (a slight surprise as I was sure I had seen in the recent past) but I did find this Acacia gunnii glowing in the afternoon sun.  That is pretty much on schedule as A. gunnii and A, genistifolia (the latter is not on our block) are the early species in this area.

 It was a major surprise to find this Leucopogon fletcheri in flower.  However out of the several thousand specimens on the block only this single plant was blooming.  I guess that is competitive advantage being tested: this plant either gets a small jump  on the others for having seed ready earlier or the next heavy frost kills its flowers and it does do as well as its many neighbours!

 It is very pretty however!

I turned over a small rock to find a fat skink had voted that the best way to deal with Winter was to turn down the metabolism and snooze for a few weeks.

 At that point the peace of the area was completely gone as a flock of 30 Yellow-tailed black-Cockatoos arrived and got to serious chat mode.  Rather like a bogan on a mobile phone (although the cockies generally have more sense).  This image is interesting in that it does show how strong light can cause the yellow in the tail to appear almost white.  Fortunately the nearest White-tailed black-Cockatoos are some thousands of kilometres to the West!

 Here is one contemplating whether to scone me with a green pine cone.  The pine cones took a lot of punishment during this visit.

 A couple of group photos.

I didn't catch any of the birds in flagrante delicto (and I find that 'delicto' translates as offence or crime so is quite appropriate) with respect to taking a dump. There did seem to be more of the circular scats around after their visit than before so I take this as circumstantial evidence of their culpability in that matter.

The next morning, July 1, just before sunrise the entire flock of 30 turned up to make a noise in eucalypts around the house.

At least the calls were harmonious in comparison the Mad Monk babbling about his imaginary side-effects of the carbon tax.

Here is a close-up of a single bird

 ... while this pair were passing stuff back and forth just before I took the shot.  I don't know if this was courtship or feeding an indolent young bird.