Category: All Creatures Great and Small

A place to write about and post photos of all creatures feathered, furred or scaly.

Sharing A Bed

Cindy and Polly napping together

Cindy already has a couple of beds. One is permanently in my room where she sleeps at night and another, older bed is in the back room as she likes to nap there sometimes. I bought another for her earlier this year but it turned out to be just a mat, not well padded. With the move coming up I thought I’d buy another one that was a bit softer as like me Cindy is starting to feel her age a bit.

I ordered a generously sized bed, probably a bit bigger than we needed but Cindy likes to stretch out so I thought it would be nice for her and since it came yesterday she seems to like it.

This evening Polly decided to investigate it and she obviously approved of it too. Not long ago I heard very loud purring and looked down to see that she had climbed in there with Cindy. I took a couple of photos but they were spoiled by the flash reflecting their eyes. I looked again a bit later and they had both gone to sleep. Plenty of room for two.

Snapshot Sunday

Teddy is Tired.

It was very late one night and I thought I ought to get ready for bed so let the dogs outside to do their business and went to the bathroom to wash and clean my teeth. I went back to the bedroom to set my alarm for the work the next morning and turn down the bed covers as I always do every night. Both of my dogs had come back inside but Teddy had already curled up and gone to sleep on the end of my bed. In fact he was out like a light very quickly as I  had heard both of the dogs come back inside. I thought that Teddy looked rather cute so I sneaked out of the room practically on tippy toes to get my camera. He must have had a really big day because he never as much as flickered an eyelid. He was still in blissful dreamland dreaming his doggy dreams. He did open his eyes when he heard the camera go off.

Toby was tired too and also ready for bed but he was awake when I came into the bedroom but he looked very comfy curled up on my bed.

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Sometimes my cats come in and get on my bed too and there is no room left for me. They do this more in the colder months. I don’t know where they expect me to sleep! Never mind though. There is something comforting and reassuring about having the animals close by during the night. I never sleep as well without at least one of them. Have a great Sunday.

A Night at the Museum

A Trip to “The Queen Victoria Museum” or QVMAG

While I was on holidays with my friend Phillip we decided that we would go to the Queen Victoria Museum in Launceston to see the dinosaur display. We had seen a poster about it on a wall while we were shopping in Launceston one afternoon. When I told Vanda about our plans she mentioned that they were having some special night openings that we might enjoy. This appealed to us as we like going out at night and let’s face it there isn’t much to do anymore unless you like current movies or fine dining. Phillip and I are not into either so it’s a band if we are fortunate enough to find one or a pub meal and the pokies. We embraced the chance to do something out of the ordinary.

Years ago now we had wanted to see a display of dinosaurs and jumped into our car to go to one we thought was in a place called Mount Monster. It was a long drive and we did not see any signs pointed towards the dinosaur park we had heard about. We drove on several kilometres and no dinos to be seen anywhere. We would have been happy with just one in the end but we had to abandon the idea entirely. After driving what must have been close to one hundred kms from Adelaide it suddenly hit me that they had really meant Mount Monster was some ruddy great hill and not a dino park at all like Phillip had been told by some friends. Well we had a nice drive and a laugh about it at least. The day was not wasted. So fast forward nearly thirty years and we finally got to see some.

Well I have to say we were both very impressed. The dinos moved and roared and really looked authentic. They even blinked. They had done a wonderful job in creating them and making them move. Below is a slide show of the dinosaurs. I apologise for not knowing the correct names of the dinos. I did not write them down.

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There was a lot more going on at the museum apart from the dinosaur display. There were telescopes outside and we were able to view Jupiter and Saturn. I was amazed that I could actually see the rings around Saturn when it was billions of miles away. The astronomers said they were hobbyists and were only too happy to answer any questions put to them about their interest. It was a full moon too so we were treated to the beauty of the moon as well since it was a very clear night. It was freezing queueing for the telescopes so we went to the cafe inside the museum afterwards and treated ourselves to hot chocolate and cake.

Other things going on were lectures on the stars and science and planetarium shows. I would have loved to have seen the Apollo 11 display but it was not on that night and since Launceston was 113 km from my house I did not want to drive back again as we had already been there for shopping and the casino. I should say that all of this was for National Science Week and was well worth the long drive there and back. Below are some images of the program I saved from the event for anyone who would like to see what else was on at the museum during National Science Week last in August of this year. I think you can just about read the little writing on the program.

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The Plover Family: Next Generation

I am so used to the squawking and shrieking of the Masked Lapwings (plovers) who like to feed in my driveway that I don’t pay too much attention to the noise most of the time. At this time of year, I do check on them occasionally because I know they usually produce their chicks in late winter. It seems to be a family tradition that when the babies are old enough they are brought to my garden to be shown their territory. I wasn’t able to photograph last years chicks but I did see them a couple of times.

Yesterday, in the late afternoon, I was sitting in the lounge and I thought that they were making a lot more noise than usual. It occurred to me that it might mean they had new chicks so I went to have a look out of the kitchen window. There were Mr & Mrs Plover both standing in the middle of the drive looking at me and squawking their heads off. I looked around and sure enough, there was a chick fossicking around in the grass nearby. They usually have more than one and after observing them for a short time I believe there are two. It was a chilly afternoon and mum went to sit on the grass where I think she was sheltering one under her wings. Later on, the other one crept in as well.

I had time to get my camera and put the 100-300 mm zoom lens on to take some pictures. They are not great because of being taken through the glass but if I had opened the window they would have been off as fast as the babies could be made to walk.

I think that these chicks are younger than the ones I photographed last time, they are quite small. It was quite funny to see mum and dad so close to the house and looking towards the window. Were they warning me off or announcing the new arrivals so that I would see them I wonder?

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: 3 Items or the Number 3

Threes

This week I decided to use (mostly) pictures of birds. I was looking through my archive searching the number three and found I had pictures of three ducks and three goldfinches so I decided to see if I had any other groups of three birds. I admit to cheating a bit with the Galahs.

Three pigeons in the city.
Three finches feeding
Three ducks who wandered into my garden.
Australian birds mug.

Garden Visitors: European Goldfinches

For some reason, birds seem to really like my driveway. I see more birds out there than I do in the back garden where there are more trees and plants.

I happened to glance out the kitchen window on Saturday afternoon and to my surprise, a flock of birds were hopping around in the drive. I dropped what I was doing and hurried to get the camera and fit the long lens.

European Goldfinches in my driveway.

I didn’t want to open the window and scare them away so I just shot through the glass. I took a lot of photos hoping that I’d get some good ones.

Front view
Side view
back view

They are European Goldfinches, described in my bird book as a feral species found around towns, farms and settlements in Australia. They gather in large flocks in autumn and winter and feed on seeds.  They are quite common, I’ve seen them in the garden before but never a whole flock.

Goldfinches eating seeds in my driveway.

Some of them even hopped closer and started to search for seeds right in front of the window. They stayed quite a while before something startled them and they all took off.

Further Reading:

http://www.australianbushbirds.info/infc/carduelis_carduelis.html

https://www.animalwised.com/how-to-tell-a-male-from-a-female-goldfinch-195.html