The Tawny Frogmouth chick is growing at an enormous rate as you can see by the latest photo taken this morning three days after the last one was taken. It is actually looking at us now and very aware of what we are doing.
The little white plumed honey eaters come along in a noisy little mob and sit in the tree higher up swearing at them, but Dad sits firm and just makes this soft throaty noise to warn them off.
At right is a photo of one of the Holm oaks which is flowering prolifically with these wonderful catkins and the tree is full of bees....it is so good to see so many bees this year, the lavender bushes too, are full of them..
The photos don't really show up the lovely pale yellow colour of the catkins, the sun seems to bleach them out. It will produce a host of acorns this autumn which will mostly fall into the pond,sadly and make a mess. The Holm oak is an evergreen tree and in America they call it the live oak.I think they originate in the Middle eastern countries, correct me if I am wrong.... They give wonderful shade in our hot climate and I now wished we had planted a lot more. They are slow growers of course....
On the right is a close up of the catkins
The catkins below are on the Walnut tree and the bees were busy in them also. It will mean Walnuts this autumn ....if we can keep the Sulphur Crested Cockatoos off, the blighters sneak in early in the morning and can do a lot of damage and reduce the already meager crop to barely a couple of kilos...
The walnut tree has also developed die back , sadly, it does have to compete with all the gumtrees it is in close proximity of......and we all know gumtrees suck everything dry.....
Mither, he is certainly growing quickly, bit like a Ridgeback pup, double in size each week so it seems.
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