God's Wondrous (Australian) Creations in Our Back Garden!
Decided I would share for the first time a very small sample of God's unique Handiwork here in the world's driest continent, and also the world's smallest continent and largest island (about the size of the United States).
All the photos were taken from our dining room where we can look out at the patch of Aussie bush we planted in our back yard 14 years ago. Everything below is uniquely Australian, found only here. Enjoy!
A 'cute-as' male Superb Wren hopping and bopping in the grass looking for small insects. Body is about the size of a ping-pong ball. Add a head one end and a tail the other, and there ya go! Interestingly the 'oh-so-obvious' tail that is always up in the air has only half the number of feathers compared to other birds!
Looking West to a nice sunset and natural Eucalypts (Gum trees) in a neighbour's acreage block.
Another of our very tiny birds. This time one of our many species of Honeyeaters. This magnificent male Scarlet Honeyeater is no bigger than the Wren, but a quite different shape. He is getting nectar out of the Grevillea flowers using a longish curved beak and a brush tongue.
For a long time godless scientists seemed to be ignoring what I figured out ages ago: that our Honeyeaters automatically carry pollen on the feathers of their face from one flower to the next - thus pollinating without need of bees! God is smart!! Now they've finally caught up and are acknowledging this.
One of our many spectacular parrots, this spectacular, fast-flying, and noisy Rainbow Lorikeet is also getting nectar from a different Grevillea. No long beak this time, but still with a brush tongue to slurp up the nectar. What fascinates me is that no damage of any kind is done to the flower. Did I say that God is smart?
Our lovely Swamp Bloodwood, one our many Aussie Eucalypts. This species is small enough for a garden, has large flowers and even larger seed-pods called gum-nuts. We bought it to get red flowers (very spectacular), but it turned out to be this attractive pink, so all is a-okay. All species of Eucalypts have NO petals on the flowers, as you can see on the flowers here.
This is commonly called a bottle-brush, I guess for obvious reasons! It's one of our red-flowering Callistemon, much loved by our Honeyeaters - especially the Scarlet - because of the copious supply of nectar each flower spike produces.
Of all the nectar-producing native Australian flowering shrubs and small trees we planted in our yard, this Grevillea is the one the birds come and visit most of all. A small shrub that flowers all year and is called Peaches and Cream, our visiting wild birds have definitely voted it "Most Popular Nectar-Producing Flower"!
GOD IS NOT ONLY SMART, HE IS TOTALLY BRILLIANT!!! "Just can't help lovin' You, Lord!"
- BM
