Rainbow Lorikeet

Check out this cute little fellow, a rainbow lorikeet feeding on the flowers of this palm. These little parrots can make a lot of noise when they want to too, especially if there are lots of them around. I quite often hear these birds on my morning walks, as they feed on the bottlebrush flowers that line the nature stips of our neighbourhood. I usually hear them before I see them, as they blend into the trees well with their colour. This pic was taken on my recent time away.

Bottlebrush

Continuing our walk along the coast, watching the whales & the dolphins play in the water, I managed this pic of one of our native bottlebrush . As an Aussie, I am ashamed to say I don't know much about our Australian native plants, but I think that may be about to change. I did know that there were differnt types of bottlebrush plants, but in my reading this morning, I have found out that there are many different types of bottlebrush. This one was only a small plant, whether small by nature, or small because of age I am not sure. It's leaves are different to the leaves that are on the bottlebrush on our nature strip. These leaves were much shorter, & consequently looked a little fatter, while the leaves of the one on our nature strip are much narrower & longer. How the flowers emerge are also different. The fine fillaments on this one emerge from a stem, while the fillaments of the one on my nature strip emerge from the base. Mmmmm...................... an interesting difference.