Mainly seasonal matters

At this season one of the key matters is the breeding of the pair of Tawny Frogmouths that reside on the property.  I am pleased to report that today I got the first sight of a chick.
Although the adult has a rather strained expression I am confident that the white shape is a chick, and not a particularly firm sample of guano.

For more professional - and excellent - information about Tawny Frogmouths see Stuart Rae's blog.

Also seasonal - possibly slightly early - is the flowering of Kunzea parvifolia.  I really think that, when looked at closely, this is one of the most attractive native flowers.
In the area of exotic plants the White irises have produced some flowers.
COG went on a walk today that started on the banks of the Murrumbidgee.  There was a very good - and seasonal as the snow melts - flow of water past our spot,  A Masked Lapwing was enjoying the site from a mid-river possie.
This image of a Crested Pigeon from later in the trip, is not seasonal, but just a snap I like, so I thought I'd share it with you.
Warning: herpetophobes should not read the rest of this post (unless of course they are also masochists).

Birds are of course somewhat related to reptiles.  This is definitely the season when one starts to see reptiles.  We have seen a quite large (~1.5m) Red-bellied Black Snake (Pseudechis porphyriacus) by Whiskers Creek a couple of times but it has not posed for a snap.  However this afternoon an Eastern Brown Snake (Pseudonaja textilis) was around our top shed and hung about long enough for me to run back to the house and grab the camera.   The first image shows about half the length: my guess is about 1.25m in total).
 This one shows the detail of the head pattern.
To moderate reader's views of my sanity I will point out that my camera has a 24X zoom,  I was at least 3m from the snake, and not annoying it in any way.




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