Tag: cockatiels

The “No power” road trip

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

We lost power early in the afternoon on the day Hurricane Milton was coming. The next morning after spending the day cleaning up the yard we decided to take a road trip for a few days since we knew the electricity would not be coming back on for at least several days. Local hotels were full from people evacuating the coastal areas and the gas stations were out of gas (and most didn’t have power anyway).  We had a full tank of gas and figured we could make it to West Palm Beach before filling up again so we packed the car Friday morning and headed to Ft. Lauderdale to visit Brett’s relatives. We didn’t see any gas until we got to the other side of the state. We spent Saturday with Brett’s aunt and uncle and Sunday we decided to do some sightseeing. We were at Butterfly World when they opened.

Gouldian finches were flying freely in the big aviary at Butterfly World. The males have the darker purple chest and the females have paler chests. They are beautiful birds and it was fun to watch them chasing after each other.

The budgies were flirting and preening each other.

This couple, with their zebra striped heads, were kissing.

This was a target rich environment with lots of little birds flying close by. The top is a juvenile gouldian finch who hasn’t gotten his bright feathers yet. The middle one is a scaly-breasted munia. I have heard there are some wild ones flying around parts of Tampa. The orange one is some type of canary.

There was a small flock of cockatiels and I wondered if they were former pets that were surrendered.

Some type of guineafowl? There were several creeping around on the ground.

And yes, there were tons of butterflies at Butterfly World but more on them later. A quick video of them fluttering around as I walked into the aviary.

 

Up close on a rainy day.

On By dinajohnstonIn flowers and plants2 Comments

Playing around with my macro lens in the house on a rainy morning in February.

We have hibiscus bushes growing on the side of our house but I rarely bring them inside. I need to do that more often. They only last a day though.

Up close with some new shells. Our glass stove top gives off a nice reflection.

Turning the lens on my own birds.  Buddy on top (he’s 27 years old) and Harley in the bottom 2 (he’s 5). Harley used to be terrified of the camera so I would only take pictures of Buddy up close but now he sings for it.

My Corner of the World

Sunshine in the house

On By dinajohnstonIn Uncategorized6 Comments

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All of the above were taken with my Nikon macro 85mm lens. I’ve been motivated by Deanna’s blog to bring home flowers to brighten up the house. Especially since it’s been raining and cloudy so much lately. Buddy and Spikey are always sunshine with their yellow and orange faces and their happy chirping. Although, Buddy can get really loud if someone else is talking. He wants to be the loudest one in the room. I’m surprised Spikey let me get this close. She’s very shy and a little of afraid of the camera. Not like Buddy, who will come running up when he sees it.  The last two are what’s left of the poinsettia plants from Christmas. I need to plant them outside to see if they bloom again next year. My dad did that. When my parents retired to Florida, my sisters and I would always come down for Christmas. We would bring a poinsettia plant every year. After the holidays, he would plant it on the sunny side of the house. Ten years later the entire side of the house was covered in red poinsettia leaves when we would come to visit.

Shine the Divine mom_badgeweb