Travel Tips

This bob-tail, about 30 centimetres (12 inches) long just appeared in our garden the other day. They have a reputation for having a viciuos bite if disturbed, don't know if it's true, but we didn't mess with it, they've got a big mouth and jaw.
It walked slowly accross the patio, gave me a fright by turning and hissing at me when I got close, disappeared into the shrubs and was never seen again.

In Novenber we noticed that a pair of Australian Brown Honey-eaters were nesting in the weeping fig in a pot right by the door to our back varandah.
We had a peep in a few times when the parents were not around, using a mirror as they're high up, but hadn't been able to see much.
Today they are just big enough to see in their little feathery bed, so I just held the camera up and managed to get this photo.

This is the first lacewing I've seen. It sat on the leaf of the passionfruit vine for a couple of hours.

The magpies came to forage when the bricks from our fallen wall were cleared away. I had trouble getting the camera to focus on the magpie and not the fence.

Little lizards run about all over the walls of the house as soon as the weather warms in the spring.
These lizards are quite harmless, my son used to enjoy trying to catch them when he was younger, but rarely succeded as the are very fast and can run up walls.

I'm not sure what sort of lizards these are, can anybody tell me?

These doves are very common, they make the most pathetic little nests, just a few twigs. The nests sometimes fall apart and the eggs are lost.

We made the mistake of feeding them. All of a sudden there were nests everywhere, and they were making a terrible mess all over the pavers. We don't feed them any more and we get just one or two nesting in the garden most years.

Butcher birds are aggressive predators. This one is probably after my frogs. they also eat lizards and other birds as well as grubs and insects.