lirralirra

I was able to return to the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne this week, after so long it seemed almost surreal.

It was a hot day and I took more images of butterflies and bees than I took of birds but I especially like the pose of this New Holland Honeyeater as it peered intently into the Kangaroo Paw blossoms. If there were some greens with the reds and yellows in this shot, it could look quite Christmassy.

I sat on one of the tracks while I waited for a friend to arrive; it was very relaxing. In front of me and to my right were these yellow ‘daisies’. I should have photographed the name of the plant. To my left were the white blossoms in the image below. It was fascinating to see the different species of bees that visited the flowers.

The bees were moving very rapidly, often spending less than a second at each blossom. The plant above was a mass of white flowers but only the flower in the image had a clear background behind it. I watched that blossom for a very long time hoping that it would be visited by a nectar-seeker, it was worth the wait.

It was interesting to notice that the yellow flowers to the right of me were visited by butterflies more often than the other patch of the same flowers.

Birds are quieter in the heat of the day, they conserve energy by foraging earlier in the morning and in the late afternoon. They also conserve energy by not singing or calling if the temperature rises high. I conserved energy by sitting on the track, blossom-watching instead of bird watching – I hope you don’t mind.

Happy birding, Kim

~ Facebook page Kim Wormald – lirralirra
~ Facebook group  Ethical Bird Photography