Hi All
I'll start with the bird news. At the summit: a male Golden Whistler in a classic "calendar" pose - how beautiful they are. I walked there early as I had an itinerary-type morning and caught most of the birds going through their first "morning" trills. Others seen/heard: pardelotes, thornbills, grey fantails (lots), wrens, spinebills, "clogs" and yellow-faced honeyeaters, a host of beautiful Adelaide rosellas (one almost looked like a "crimson"), a flock of RBFs ("it's HER again"), and a happy bundle of babblers.
Last evening, I had a (Superb) blue wren come in for a drink at the bird bath, then it proceeded to swim across it. It wasn't sure if it liked that depth, so it flitted over to one of the other baths (I have 5) for a second swim! I'll run out of words before I can describe how cute that was. I think it's a juvenile male wren, but at dusk it's hard to tell, but I've named him "Kier-wren Perkins"...(with apologies to our great Aussie swimmer).
Today was Big Men in Kilts, viz the "Highland Gathering" at Mount Barker oval run by the Mount Barker Caledonian Society. Yes, we had the Strongmen competitions (how do they do it?), the massed pipe bands (terrific), highland dancers, more bands, Scottish country dancers, haggis tossing, archery, creative anachronism, camels (!), archery, Celtic music, and the knobbly knees competition. And of course a host of wonderful stalls (of course I came back with a couple of things) and eateries - and my first Scottish square sausage bun with scone (like a pancake)! Delicious!
The writing: mush this week. Hitting the restart button.
Happy writing,
Bo
And now a few pics from the "Highland Gathering" at Mount Barker oval, 19 February 2012
I'll start with the bird news. At the summit: a male Golden Whistler in a classic "calendar" pose - how beautiful they are. I walked there early as I had an itinerary-type morning and caught most of the birds going through their first "morning" trills. Others seen/heard: pardelotes, thornbills, grey fantails (lots), wrens, spinebills, "clogs" and yellow-faced honeyeaters, a host of beautiful Adelaide rosellas (one almost looked like a "crimson"), a flock of RBFs ("it's HER again"), and a happy bundle of babblers.
Last evening, I had a (Superb) blue wren come in for a drink at the bird bath, then it proceeded to swim across it. It wasn't sure if it liked that depth, so it flitted over to one of the other baths (I have 5) for a second swim! I'll run out of words before I can describe how cute that was. I think it's a juvenile male wren, but at dusk it's hard to tell, but I've named him "Kier-wren Perkins"...(with apologies to our great Aussie swimmer).
Today was Big Men in Kilts, viz the "Highland Gathering" at Mount Barker oval run by the Mount Barker Caledonian Society. Yes, we had the Strongmen competitions (how do they do it?), the massed pipe bands (terrific), highland dancers, more bands, Scottish country dancers, haggis tossing, archery, creative anachronism, camels (!), archery, Celtic music, and the knobbly knees competition. And of course a host of wonderful stalls (of course I came back with a couple of things) and eateries - and my first Scottish square sausage bun with scone (like a pancake)! Delicious!
The writing: mush this week. Hitting the restart button.
Happy writing,
Bo
And now a few pics from the "Highland Gathering" at Mount Barker oval, 19 February 2012
