Bookwyrm's Lair

We left home at a bright and early six in the morning on Thursday for our flight to Christchurch. Due to the accumulating rain, we didn't get to see much of Brisbane as we took off, but the clouds over the Tasman Sea were pretty and fluffy. And then we reached New Zealand.

( Lots of pictures )



( More pictures )

Yesterday, Mom, Dad and I took a holiday. I'd just finished my last exam, Dad had finished his marking, Mom was mostly through her marking. So we drove up to Bribie Island.



We started out on the western side of the island. This is looking north-west, up the Sunshine Coast (on the mainland). You can just see the Glasshouse Mountains. You can also see full-rigged sailing ships in the clouds :)

( Many pictures... )



[These pictures and a few more]

At my local major intersection, there are trees on each of the corners and on the pedestian islands. These trees are the favorite roosting place of flocks of rainbow lorikeets.


(As is usual with birds, the more colourful one is the male)

There must seriously be thousands of them there at sunset, when the flocks all fly from tree to tree chattering their heads off. It's deafening.


(One of the less-busy but better-lit trees)


Anyone who's spent any time by the lakes at UQ or over at Dutton Park has certainly heard the sulphur-crested cockatoos, if not seen them. There are quite a few of them there. They're quite distinctive birds. Bright white, very large. And their screeches will get your attention if their plumage doesn't.



In Enid Blyton's Adventure Series there is a sulphur-crested cockatoo named Kiki, and she has been known to temporarily deafen baddies with her imitation of a train whistle in a tunnel. Until I first went to Dutton Park and heard the cockatoos there, I thought that was a literary exaggeration. It isn't. But they're funny birds, so it's okay.