I like clouds, I often just sit in the garden for a few minutes when I'm out there watching them change shape and drift along. I'm rarely up in time for sunrise ones though ClaraSue!.

I've sent an email to a website, hopefully I get a reply soon.

Some bright colours on a pile of rocks which stretch out to the river. Not sure what their use is, I think its for fishermen because I often see people fishing on them. You can see the rocks I mean on my photo of the city on the "Picture My Record" thread.

A Timaru sunrise over the houses.

Daniel, it is a darter and it is a male (the females have white bellies). The white streak on their head is a distinguishing feature of the Australian darter (Anhinga novaehollandiae). Cormorants and darters belong to the same family Phalacrocoracidae.

If you want to see the differences between the most common cormorants in Perth (the little black cormorant, the great cormorant, the pied cormorant, the black-faced cormorant and the little pied cormorant) and the darter, a really good book to look at is "A Field Guide to the Birds of Western Austalia" by GM Storr and RE Johnstone. It should be available in most libraries in WA.

Thanks MotherGoose, I'll see if I can find that.
Stunning sunset Howie.

Gasp!
I quite agree about it being the best Forum in FT
The joy is I never get a bit of trouble, nobody beating each other up, no Trolls etc ( well we get the odd Rabbit.) It is wonderful for me to be part of this marvellously friendly group of people.

Wonderful sunset Howie

Ha! Be grateful for small mercies, some rabbits are very odd indeed.

Beautiful sunset, Howie!

A different side of Canyon Lake.

That's fabulous ClaraSue.

My old pear tree is loaded with fruit - all I have to do is get up there and get it!

As the country roads are popular here's another in Shenley

This hilltop looks like it could be made from the same material as ClaraSue's Canyon Lake outcropping. This one is near Lockwood, Nevada. What you see is about 50 meters high.

Jakeroo, the steps are a recent addition. Earlier you just had to trek to the bottom and back up. It's amazing to see the locals including the elderly and kids go up and down without breaking a sweat.

Those are beautiful colours, Daniel. Amazing sunset, Howie! Clarasue, one of my close friends has just moved to Arizona and I'm looking forward to visiting her and seeing this beautiful place.

Love those ones, Clara, zorba and CmdrK.

Here's a Roseate Cockatoo (aka Pink and Grey Galah).

My last day in Toronto and first day in London did not involve much sleep. Awake all day in Toronto and catching a 7:30pm flight, arriving in London around 8am for another day of walking around before sleep at night. An 8 hour flight so by the time a meal at each end it did not leave much time for sleep. Anyway, I found my way to Hyde Park and came across Isis.

Reminds me of Daniel's Darter.

CmdrK, I've probably seen that mountain as we travel through there a lot. I'll have to look more closely next time we're through there.
Zorba, I think you'll find Arizona to be a beautiful place My best friend who visited last winter was surprised at how pretty it is here. Lovely shot of the rock jetty, btw.
Daaanieeel, is that a wild bird? It must be awesome to see birds like this in the wild as we only see them in cages.
Howie, that statue of Isis is lovely. It's so graceful looking.

On our bike ride this past weekend to the hills, we stopped and visited an old western mining town. This is the Goldfield Ghost Town, an actual ghost town that was rebuilt and is now a tourist attraction at the base of the Superstition Mountains.

It's best seen from old Nevada Route 45, which unfortunately, hasn't received any highway funding since World War II.

It is wild, Clara.

ClaraSue, ever since I looked at the photo of the ghost town the theme to "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" has been echoing through my mind.

Cmdrk - now that's what you call potholes!

To me it looks as though WWII happened right there!

The "best" part of that trail is called the 'rock garden'. It was my turn to drive going through there and I wasn't about to stop, never mind take pictures. =:o

We saw this bird at a local wildlife park. Not sure what it is though, there was no identification label on the enclosure - I'm guessing some sort of wading bird/crane

When I first saw it, I thought it was Old Tucson. I had a holiday in Arizona in 1984. We flew to Tucson, stayed with family, hired a car and drove up to the Grand Canyon and back, and also went south as far as Nogales, Mexico. Great holiday! Your photo brought back lovely memories.

Howie: Gorgeous sunset. That one rivals even those we get on the prairies here. As for your trips, I don't think I could stand the pace you kept up on all the ones you've mentioned so far!

Flopsy: nothing wrong with "odd". And I defy anyone to define "normal" in any case lol

ClaraSue: it appears that any side of Canyon Lake is lovely! All those colours in the rocks are amazing.

CmdrK: very nice picture. I'm always fascinated by rock formations, especially when they don't seem to belong there (like ones that are sitting all alone in the middle of "nowhere" that you'd think would have succumbed to erosion or whatever by now). Nevada/Arizona are GREAT places to find unexpected wonders like that one.

Christina: just how tall IS that pear tree? Looks ginormous! And it's hard to tell what your bird might be. Looks too short/stout to be a crane, maybe one of the lesser Herons?

Zorba: thanks for the extra info! My next question is where was your latest (beach) photo taken and why is there a fence on the far right (if that is indeed a fence, just guessing).

David: very pretty. Our trees/leaves have already started to turn.

Daniel: Good Lord on the cockatoo. Looks like someone turned a blow dryer on the poor thing lol. Cute though!

Hmm, I thought I had a picture to post, but apparently my train of thought derailed. bbL.

Wall Hall, a Victorian pile in Aldenham. It used to have its own university college till 2004 when it was demolished for a housing estate. Thanks for all the compliments everyone, much appreciated

Hmmmmmm, it was actually a sunrise and I had to double check that was what I had typed.

These travel photos were all from the same trip, I left Timaru on April 23rd 2010 and the current photos in London are May 27th.

Speaking of which, I also ran into Peter Pan while in the Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens area though a poor photo.

I got an email back from the website. You're right, Jakeroo, they were cormorants. Here's what they said:


My attempt at a flower photo. You can see these flowers everywhere this time of the year, not sure what they're called though (I'm no botany expert lol). They look really nice when there is lots of them in one place.

Looks like a member of the Echinacea family.

Jakeroo, the tree is around 25/30 ft high, it's about 100 years old. The pears are round and not that large, but very sweet, just drip juice whem they're ripe. Sometimes the easiest way is just to go up there every day and pick up the fallers rather than try and climb the tree.