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Welcome to this occasional blog. All comments are welcome. If you haven't time to read the blogs, then scroll to the bottom of the page and check out my podcast of each blog.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Brahminy Kite

Morning
This morning a Brahminy Kite swooped low over the traffic crossing the Ron Camm Bridge.  She hovered for a moment then swooped away, upstream.

Claire Wood
Daily Blog:  http://JustClaireWood.blogspot.com
Longlines Blog:  http://longline8.blogspot.com

Masked Lapwings/Plovers

In the Wet Tropics we do not lack for sources of water.  Rivers, creeks, lakes, swamps are in abundance.  Masked Lapwings, or plovers as they are commonly called, reside on almost every footpath, park or paddock in the area.  Our street's resident plovers took advantage of the afternoon's rain and afterwards bathed, with much shaking of feathers and ducking under the surface, in the shallow gutter that lines the street.  


email:  JustClaireWood@gmail.com
Daily Blog:  http://www.justclairewood.blogspot.com/
Longlines Blog:  http://www.longline8.blogspot.com

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Swamp Hens

Afternoon
The swamp hens near the golf course were leading their chick across the floodway this afternoon.  The parents with their red combs and purple heads contrast with the chick, all leggy and half grown looking, but still a soft downy pitch black.

Claire Wood

email:  JustClaireWood@gmail.com
Daily Blog:  http://www.justclairewood.blogspot.com/
Longlines Blog:  http://www.longline8.blogspot.com

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Spangled Drongo

Morning
Yesterday morning a Spangled Drongo was perched on the lowest limb of the paperbark that overhangs the driveway.  This is a bird that truly does not deserve its name.  Irridescent black and green with a graceful forked tail and red eye, the "spangled"part of the name fits, but what cruel person decided on adding "drongo"?  This bird spends a lot of time in the  foliage in the garden, perching, still and intent, for minutes at a time before swooping across to another branch, presumably catching an unwary insect in flight.

Claire Wood


email:  JustClaireWood@gmail.com
Daily Blog:  http://www.justclairewood.blogspot.com/
Longlines Blog:  http://www.longline8.blogspot.com

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Geese at the Gooseponds

The Gooseponds: Morning

On Wednesday morning, during peak hour, the geese that live on The Gooseponds crossed Malcolmson Street.  Traffic came to a stop as, one by very slow one, each goose (or gander), in turn, stepped from the footpath onto the road, hesitated, then paraded across the road to the southern section of The Gooseponds.  Two young ganders engaged in a hissing fight in the middle of the road, further slowing up the flock's progress, while the traffic jammed back to Mt Pleasant in one direction and to Evans Avenue in the other.

Claire Wood

email:  JustClaireWood@gmail.com
Daily Blog:  http://www.justclairewood.blogspot.com/
Longlines Blog:  http://www.longline8.blogspot.com

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Corellas

Sunset: Bucasia
Each evening a flock of corellas rockets overhead, a joyous, raucous, enormous flock.  As it wheels against the light, the undersides of hundreds of wings reflect palest gold in the last rays of the sun.

Claire Wood
email:  JustClaireWood@gmail.com
Daily Blog:  http://www.justclairewood.blogspot.com/
Longlines Blog:  http://www.longline8.blogspot.com

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Bush Stone Curlews

Halliday Bay

Beneath a cloud sodden sky that softened the afternoon light two bush stone curlews sat on the footpath under a small shrub regarding each other.  Perfectly reflecting each other's pose in elegant sinuousity.  From beneath a neighbouring shrub a third bush stone curlew regarded the world through large night time eyes.

Claire Wood

email:  JustClaireWood@gmail.com
Daily Blog:  http://www.justclairewood.blogspot.com/
Longlines Blog:  http://www.longline8.blogspot.com