Thursday, January 1, 2009

It may be a New Year but,



some are still up thier old tricks!

Lorikeets still avoiding the camera, today by flying over the fence to this tree in a neighbor's backyard. I dont know what sort of tree* it is, with its odd blooms coming straight out of the bark along the branches. But the flowers are very popular with nectar feeding birds like the Lori's.

The pic is also a good example of the fuzziness of hand-holding the zoom lens (Canon's zoom EF 75-300mm 1:4-5.6 III). At full size its a bit clearer than it appears here, but not by a satisfying amount. (The extra fuzziness is due to the compression I use to speed download for you). The tripod or even the monopod would have improved this, but the bird wasnt going to wait for it. Dang.
___________________

*
Blogging Mate Areeiro of Glimpses of the Marginal has identified this tree for us! Its is an Moreton Bay Chestnut, Castanospermum australe. For more information, check out this link for it at check out this link at the Australian National Botanical Gardens site. Three Cheers for Areeiro!!!

4 comments:

sandy said...

wow, what a gorgeous bird!!

Have a wonderful new year, Lavendar...

BetteJo said...

Would you just look at all the color in that photo?? The queen of color likes it. Very much.

Anonymous said...

Hehe, never give up on the Lorikeets. They cannot be always attent to hide from your camera. And you've been chasing them around so long now, that they should see you as part of the furniture by now ;-) As for the tree, I'd say it is a Moreton bay chestnut (Castanospermum australe). When flowers come straight from the stem you call that cauliflory. This is often the case in species where you have heavy polinators such as mammals and birds to make it easier for them to reach the flowers...

Lavender said...

Sorry for the delay folks!!!!

Sandy Same to you Sandy! :)
I feel so rich whenever these birds visit the garden, flying jewels!!

BetteJo Thank you your Majesty!! :) Hope I can bring you more in 2009!

Areeiro You are correct! Well done Areeiro, I googled Moreton Bay Chestnut and confirmed your ID, BRAVO!!!!
Also many thanks for introducing the term 'cauliflory', thats a new one for me, and I LOVE learning new things! Youre a champion!