Kookaburra's back!

The kookaburra family has returned! They'd been away since the kiddies had come back from their 2 week school holidays. (Aussie kids have that 2 week break after every 10 week term. They have four 10 week terms, with 2 weeks between and an extra 4 more weeks more for a total of six weeks off at Christmas. It really makes more sense than what we do in the States with our huge Summer break!)

But back to the birds. They seem to like hanging out around the soccer goals on our field (second and third photos). One even allowed me to take his picture on our fence (first photo)! (Usually they like the eucalyptus [or "gum"] tree.) The birds always make me smile as they look like they are happy with their upward curving bills. They seem to like the worms and grubs in our field, pouncing down upon them (photo four) before swooping back up to eat them in the tree or on the soccer goal. Below I have included a YouTube video that lets you see and hear them "laughing" so you get a taste of what we hear here in Australia. It reminds me of jungle sounds from the old Tarzan movies!

I have also included other photos of the flora in bloom here in the dead of winter. We have some trees here (I don't know what they are called) that are just covered with tiny yellow blooms that look like pom-poms (photos five and six). In photo seven, the purple flowers are probably weeds. But they look so pretty clustered under a shade tree. And these last flowers look like crab apple. I saw one of the rainbow lorikeets sucking up their nectar; when I returned with my camera, I scared it away! It would have been an award winning shot! The delicate blooms with the colorful bird was so pretty!