The Peaches and Cream Grevillea grows well in Essendon and seems to max out at around 2 to 2 1/2 m.
Not sure if indigenous to Eastern suburbs though and Bunnings does sell it.
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We’ve grown that too in Vic. Abundant flowers that last a long time.
Ignoring that that’s clearly the name of a Bond girl, not a plant, this is a very shady spot and a couple of websites say it needs full sun.
But the council nursery is a good call, there’s one closer to me than Knox, will pop down on the weekend. You’re a gem.
Black-shouldered Kite, Coolart, hunting with its partner over the Merricks Creek. BH has been fretting she hadn’t seen this raptor this year after regular visitations last year, and then the pair turned up yesterday, much to her relief.
Drop dead gorgeous bird.
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Magnificent
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I get them at my place from time to time. Pretty little critters - i can’t imagine trying to photograph one though, they flit about like nobody’s business.
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In Eltham, the only place I ever see a red wattle bird (one of my favourites, that is displaced by the aggressive noisy miners), is where there are good numbers of callistemons. Of course, noisy miners will like them too, but the wattle birds and other honey eaters love them. I like a lot of grevilleas and Banksias too.
The little ButcherBirds haven’t appeared the last few evenings, but the two lorries are still about and ive always liked the presence of Wattle Birds (“cluck clucks”, as my kids have termed them for 20 years".
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Crimson rosellas look so unbelievably scabby until their adult feathers grow in.
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Not a very good photo but for 3 years I’ve been waiting to see this one. I can hear it most days, but it camouflages so well in the forest area. For a long while I thought it was a cat crying! Today he popped down to have a drink out of the bird bath, so I grabbed a short video on my phone. If you’ve never heard a Green Catbird it’s worth googling it.
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Bit of a surprise today with a wedgetail circling quite low around the boronia cricket club oval when i was walking the dog. Quite light in colour so must have been a young one, but jeez, the 20-odd ravens mobbing it looked like sparrows in comparison. They’re biiiig birds.
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They are! We’ve lived rurally for most of our lives so have had the pleasure of seeing many at low altitude….and on fence posts, in trees etc. It always cracks me up that so many small birds attack them yet the eagle simple ignores their annoyances.
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Yellow-throated Miner - near Sea Lake yesterday.
This bird pretty much looks and sounds and acts like a Noisy Miner but it’s not. BH suspected it was something else but had to load it onto a full screen to be sure. It’s generally a bit smaller with a grey crown and a small yellow neck patch, and the white undercarriage is the clinching diagnostic. BH’s site experts picked it straight away.
Basically secret birders’ business. Only found in the North West of Victoria, but widespread in Oz.
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#Little Crow, Mildura Centre Shopping Centre-Dan Murphys carpark. Entered the dregs yesterday of a 4 day, 20 bird plus trip to the North West, including a number of lifers, but it was never going to be truly successful without a Crow. Light was running out and we were scouring the most likely venues and cursing when we only saw Ravens, which is what is mostly seen in Vic, even though many people call them Crows (Basically you only see Crows in the Mildura area and I’m well into my 7th decade and only learned this last year.)
Likely venues? Not the banks of the Murray or the Mallee National Parks, where we only found Ravens, but the carpark of Central Mildura Shopping Centre. Did several laps of the carpark and saw mainly Magpies, and we were both really tired and decided to give up and head out into Mildura’s version of peak hour. As we entered heavy traffic a largish black bird landed on the railings of Hungry Jacks. I told BH but she was already unbuckled and flying out of the car camera in hand, and ■■■■ the traffic. Eventually found her shaking her head outside Dan Murphys where the following pic was taken. She thought it was a Crow but wasn’t sure the pics provided sufficient evidence. Confirmation only came when she uploaded the pics to her laptop.
Firstly she noted that the tail didn’t extend beyond the length of the primary wing feathers, which is mostly the case with Ravens. And then she actually squealed when she saw the key diagnostic signifier, the white base of a Crow’s neck feathers are white, whereas a Raven’s are black, clearly visible in the pic. The site experts confirmed it almost immediately.
My highlight of the year so far.
PS BH is only the 3rd person on her site to record a Crow this year.
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Some of BH’s pics from our NW trip.
White-breasted Woodswallow – Ouyen
Nankeen Night-Heron - Lake Hattah
Black-tailed Native-Hen - Hattah. AKA Turbo Chook
Red-capped Robins – Yarrara. The adult male was camera shy.
Collared Sparrowhawk – Kings Billabong
Rufous Whistler - Kings Billabong
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@GRR I lived at Kings Billabong for 5 years, we sometimes canoed on the billabong and lived one street back from the billabong.
There were gorgeous birds around there, thanks for reminding me.
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Nice score- I’ve usually had to hang out at the Mildura tip to see Little Crow in Victoria- this is a far more classy way to do it 
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my crappy record shot below: