Name that butterfly!

Recently I have seen some very beautiful butterflies around CSIRO so I thought I go and see if I could spot some in the gardens.  There are plenty of LBBs (little brown butterflies!) around - particularly this 'Common Brown' one, Heteronympha merope.  The first picture is the female, the second the male, interesting that the female is more striking than the male, in nature it generally tends to be the other way round!

I aslo saw this butterfly, it is a white butterfly but appeared greenish when closing its wings against the light.  It behaved in a very interesting way, moving quickly then hovering like a hummingbird next to the flowers rather than landing on them to get the nectar.  I can't identify it from a quick scan of the web, any ideas anyone?!

A wet week in the garden

Well, as many parts of Australia will be far too aware, this has been a very wet week.  Fortunately I was able to get to the gardens one day and found that the birds were loving all the water!  Here are some colourful Eastern Rosellas Platycercus eximius having a great time in the little pool.  First one had a good shake, then the other, then they both did, so they ended up looking very dishevelled!

 

I manged to get a nice shot of a Crimson Rosella who was watching the antics nearby but preferring to stay dry.  I also managed a picture of an Eastern Spinebill, though sadly its a little out of focus or it would have come close to a decent picture of one of these birds that I always have trouble capturing as they move so fast!

Finally, at long last I also managed to get a shot of a Gang-gang Cockatoo Callocephalon fimbriatum for this blog!  I heard the familiar creaking call and spied one in a tree, however it is a female or perhaps a juvenile (it looks rather young and scraggly in the first photo), apparently young birds are similar to the adult female, with young males differing by having a red crown and forehead and a shorter, less twisted red crest. So, a little disappointing its not a male but I will keep an ear out and hopefully one day I will get a picture of one in the gardens on here for you (though before long they might be heading back up to higher altitudes - they are more common in Canberra in winter).