Goodbye beautiful garden

All good things must come to an end, and its time for me to leave Canberra and move on.  I am sad to leave Canberra and very sad to leave the Botanic Garden where I have had so much fun exploring and taking photos.  We will be staying in Australia - we are moving to Brisbane, to start an exciting new life in the sub-tropics!  I hope I can continue my nature blogging in some form from there - watch this space...

Thanks to the people who have taken an interest in my blog and all the lovely comments.  Taking an idea from Red's Australia blog, here is a round-up of three of my most memorable posts from the past  year and a half...
My most popular post

Bowerbirds lovemaking in the lovenest

 My most viewed post by far is my 'David Attenborough' moment where I captured the Bowerbirds lovemaking in their love-nest.  I spent many lunchtimes seeking out Mr. Bowerbird and watching quietly as he chugged and whirred his way around the bower.  My video camera skills are very amateur without a tripod but what an amazing thing to see and I was so excited to share it on my blog.  


My most beautiful post

Lovestruck Galahs

I think my most beautiful story is the Galah love story post.  I looked up one day and two Galahs were kissing and cuddling on a branch above me, they really were so sweet.  I got some great pictures of them as they gave each other little pecks and cooed.  Extremely cute.




My personal favourite post

A Brush-tail Possum in the red spotlight

I waited a year to go on the 'Twilight Adventure' in the Botanic Garden last August, and I wasn't disappointed.  It was such a privilege to go into the gardens at night, there is so much to see in the bush after dark!  The best moment was a close encounter with a Tawny Frogmouth, such a strange night bird.  I also discovered many more Kangaroos are in the gardens than I thought, and caught a glimpse of a Sugar Glider.


These are just a few memorable moments, others include watching the baby Wattle birds grow, a soldier beetle mating frenzy, cute bathing parrots and the challenge and reward of trying to photograph many fast moving little birds like the Eastern Spinebill, New Holland Honeyeater and Spotted Pardalote!  Watching the seasons change in the garden and the wonderful colours and aromas of the beautiful flowers (at least, those that don't give me hayfever) has been fantastic.  I was really chuffed that my Cicada photo was a finalist in the ABC 'summer bugs' competition, and I recently discovered that this blog featured as 'website of the month' in a recent issue of the ABC Gardening Australia Magazine!  Such a wonderful two years, thank you ANBG, I will miss you.

Rosellas growing up

I love the Crimson Rosellas Platycercus elegans, they are cheeky, colourful parrots who make the sweetest little chirps, like a squeeky toy.  There are always plenty in the gardens.  At the moment Ive noticed a number of young ones who are making the transition to adulthood, so their feathers are changing from green to red. According to Birds in Backyards, "Young Crimson Rosellas have the characteristic blue cheeks, but the remainder of the body plumage is green-olive to yellowish olive (occasionally red in some areas). The young bird gradually attains the adult plumage over a period of 15 months."  I got some nice shots of a young one in this 'puberty' stage, as well as a beautiful fully fledged adult male.

Science week coming up!

Science week is coming up and that means the Twilight Adventure will be back at the Botanic Gardens, horay!  I had a great time on the adventure last year , so sign up early or you will miss out.  Details of bookings for this years Twilight Adventure are on the ANBG website here, along with a range of other Science Week activities.

Here is a shot I took on my adventure last year of a Tawny Frogmouth, there are lots of other pictures on my blog post.