After an extremely dry almost 3 months leading up to October, 6 inches of rain in October & a couple since, way above average, has shocked our flora into vivid activity.

My 150 Metres of Cadagi gum wind brake around the south & west side of the house looks like it has snowed, so covered with white eucalyptus flowers is it. Many others nearby are the same. Then add the Jacaranda, silky oaks, [grevillea Robusta], the callistemon & bougainvillea, & the whole area is a riot of flowers. I have not seen the like in 27 years.

Eat your heart out Brisbane, our hundreds of metres of river bank in orange gold fire of silky oaks in flower leaves your "River fire" fireworks for dead.

All this has brought the honey eaters in droves. I never realised Lorikeets liked bread crumbs, but today they found the bread crumbs I spread on the front lawn for the top knot pigeons, & a few others. There were at least a hundred, but it could have been even 3 times that squabbling with each other & the rest this afternoon. There were at least 5 sub species, with colourings I have not seen before. My regular topknot pigeons sat in the hibiscus looking on bewildered.

They jump around far to quickly to count, but what a display. We are now watching the TV news, but hearing it is impossible, with so much din of Lorikeets.

Like you, Hasbeen, I enjoy the wildlife.

Australia is a very beautiful, but cruel environment though, mostly semi-desert at best, where fauna and flora are opportunist, but die in millions when the dry returns, which it does and for years.

Dear Hassie,

Your place sounds beautiful.

My brother lives in Byron Bay next to a Nature Reserve
and he's been describing the amazing bird-life near
his home. He's known as the "bird-man" in his area
because apparently the birds love him.

Living near a large park in Melbourne we too get
a wide variety of birds from cockatoos, parrots,
kookaburras. wattle-birds, of course magpies, and
quite a few others whose names I don't know. It's
good for the soul to be able to walk to parks, or
drive to the nearby Dandenong Ranges or to the
Yarra Valley or Warrandyte bushland and enjoy mother
nature.

We are blessed with so much in this country.

We've lost our verandah because Willy Wagtail is back for the 3rd year with a nest in the same spot and snips us if we walk there. The peewit keeps banging on 1 window even through wire-netting and king parrots eyeball us and demand food, now , despite the wagtails. Walking around is a worry with roos lying about and risk of tripping over them. There's a red line and they've been warned.

nicknamenick,

For interest, where might you hail from that you refer to the Magpie-lark as a 'peewit'? SA? Oz colloquial, peewee is common maybe?

Have you noticed a variation in the colour pattern around Oz?

Willie Wagtail - anyone listened to their moon songs? It is not the only songster at night and the night songs are different.

Under 3mins and worth a listen,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y