B – Banksia species and birds in my garden

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There are many species of Banksia found in Australia. They are easy to grow and care for so are found in many gardens. They are also very attractive to birds.

They are named after Joseph Banks who journeyed with Captain Cook in 1770. Joseph collected many species to take back to England to explore more about these unusual plants.

Below are those I have taken in my travels around Australia but in particular in Western Australia. If you know their scientific name, please leave in a comment below.

Banksia species

The image above was taken on the Donnelly River Cruise near the Windy Harbour area of Western Australia in October 2012.

Banksia species

The image above was taken in Albany near the whaling station in October 2012.

Beautiful banksia

The above image was taken at a house near where I live in Tasmania.

Birds in my garden

You will find images of many of the birds that visit my garden throughout this A-Z challenge * but here is a list of my most common visitors.

  • Magpie
  • Eastern Rosella *
  • Musk Lorikeet *
  • Galah
  • Kookaburra *
  • Noisy Miner
  • Grey Butcherbird
  • Yellow tailed black cockatoo *
  • Sulphur crested cockatoo *

 

April Challenge

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#AtoZChallenge 2023
Please check out the April Blogging from A to Z Challenge
#AtoZChallenge
a-to-zchallenge.com

About 4 years since I have written in this blog. So I have decided to take part in the A-Z challenge during the month of April. My theme will be

Animals and plants from my travels

I do a lot of writing about genealogy and family history but this month I will concentrate more on this blog and look through my Flickr camera roll for photos of plants and animals.

Hope you enjoy the images as well as the descriptions I will include.

Wherever you see reddish coloured writing in the post, click on the link as it will take you to other websites with more information on the topic.

 

We have arrived on NI

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Model of Cook's Endeavour

Inside the main dining room at the South Pacific Resort where we are staying, is a scale model of Captain Cook’s ship Endeavour. I noticed it had been on show in the foyer of the Grand Chancellor in Hobart many years ago.

Before arriving on the island, we had to go to Brisbane International Airport and walk kilometre after kilometre from the entrance to get our boarding passes, then through passport check and baggage check, out through the duty free shops and finally along more kilometres to get to our gate. The flight was full and only a few bumps on the way. Another long queue to check passports and quarantine when we arrived on the island.

Homeward bound

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Heading home via Woomera, Port Augusta and Mildura

We followed much of the orange and purple tracks on bottom of map

 

Around Coober Pedy

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I had been to Coober Pedy a couple of other times in my travels. It is an opal mining town and usually looks deserted. That is because people live and work underground where it is cooler during the day.

Entrance to Coober Pedy showing the big winch built there for opal mining

 

 

William Creek to Coober Pedy

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Changing the flat tyre

William Creek is a tiny town with 6 inhabitants and a dog. It is in the middle of the largest cattle station in Australia, Anna Creek station.

We had been warned the night before that there were a few bull dust traps and we might not get the bus through. A couple of road trains had to be pulled out. Wherever there is a dangerous part of the gravel road, red flags are put on the side to warn travellers. But before we could leave William Creek we had to change a flat tyre on the bus.

Flight over Lake Eyre

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I had booked this trip over a year ago, so was very lucky to be flying over the salt lake at a time when the water was flowing down into it.  In February 2019, there were terrible floods in Queensland. The waters from this gradually moved down into the Lake Eyre region of South Australia.

Looking through the cockpit with our female pilot on the left.

 

These show the waters flowing into the lake from the northern area of South Australia.

 

 

 

Marree to William Creek

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Marree is where the Oodnadatta and Birdsville Tracks intersect. We headed west on the Oodnadatta Track to William Creek which is the place for flying to Lake Eyre using WrightsAir.

Sunrise at Marree

 

Port Augusta to Marree

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The following photos show you what it was like travelling through the Southern Flinders Ranges through to Lyndhurst at the end of the sealed road and on to Marree on gravel road.

Mosaic mural on wall in Port Augusta

 

Thursday morning 28 March 2019

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My photos for the first three days were on my iPad, which suddenly on Wednesday evening died on me. Hence these photos are now from the card in my camera.

In Port Augusta, we first visited the Wadlata Outback Centre which gave us a great idea of what the land was going to be like where we were travelling over the next week.

 

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