Category: Nature

Mr Squirrel is catching a little sun, oblivious of the pandemic that the humans have to deal with.

The new spring blooms on my camellia are serious competition for roses, as far as looks go. As for fragrance: no match at all.

I ventured out of the house with my camera this afternoon, and found this American robin (Turdus migratorius).
The ‘late’ bird was looking to catch a worm, and sure enough! it found one in the dirt next to the sidewalk.

Spring has arrived here in the North.
As of this hour, Earth’s Northern Hemisphere is starting to tilt towards our sun.

P.S. This year marks the earliest start to spring on the Gregorian calendar in 124 years. How so? Well, it’s complicated.

I had three of the beautiful blue-feathered Steller’s jays (Cyanocitta stelleri) in my backyard today.
For a while, they sat quietly inside my laurel fence (the second photo), and then got out and flew away.

I went hunting for spring flowers and blossoms this afternoon, just up to five or six blocks around my house.
All I know is that the gorgeous pink one is a camellia, and the bright yellow one, a dandelion weed flower.

I found these daffodils in Volunteer Park today.

Below is a cute picture of two abandoned bear cubs found on Dept. of Natural Resources-managed land.

The tweet does not give the location where they were found, and it could have been anywhere except in central Washington State.

A hummingbird visited my backyard today, attracted by my cold-hardy mahonia’s bright yellow flowers.
(There was a little more snow on the ground on Monday morning, but not enough to make too much trouble on the city’s streets).

Alright .. one more picture of the pink and gray cockatoo called the galah.
This one was in an eucalyptus by the tennis courts here in Bull Creek.
It is steadying itself, while sharpening its beak on the hard bark of the tree trunk.

This beautiful eucalyptus tree is by the tennis courts here in Bull Creek.
I am still trying to identify the specific name of it. The term ‘eucalypt’ includes some 900 species in the three genera Eucalyptus, Corymbia and Angophora.
And where is its bark?

In almost all types of eucalyptus, the bark dies every year. It comes off in flakes, curls or long strips. This might be the tree’s way of shedding harmful mosses, lichens, fungi and parasites that live on the bark.

Here are the pink and grey cockatoos that I had mentioned in the post of Thursday, Dec 19.

Here is the New Holland honeyeater.
They are found throughout southern Australia.
I found a picture of one on the wall at the Stockland shopping center, and the real McCoy in the Ron Carroll Reserve green space.

I ran into a flock of western corellas (Cacatua pastinator) across from the little shopping center here in Bull Creek. The white cockatoos were eating the seeds of a cypress bush and did not mind me too much, as I came closer to them to take some pictures.

By some estimates the number of these birds have increased tenfold in the greater Perth area over the last 20 years. The city council is mulling how to control their numbers, and has called on bird lovers to refrain from feeding them, as a start.