Yippee....Spotted Pardalote

I was inspired by the tenacity of a bird blipper who weathered the cold and gusty conditions in England to get her photo, to close my laptop, grab my camera and head outside to the great outdoors that is my back garden. I was immediately rewarded by an unusual event...a spotted pardalote (Pardalotus punctatus) subspecies (punctatus) flitting around. Yippee....camera was set on auto so I just had to steady myself and presto I caught this beautiful little bird. (I like to get off the automatic setting but I am rather slow at selecting the correct adjustments that I would have missed this photo opportunity if I had pfaffed around with manual). I have only seen it in the garden on one other occasion and was losing hope of ever being able to get a photo of it. It is such a tiny little bird and another one that prefers to flit around rather than relax and take in the view.

In the height of the summer a variety of birds were abundant in the garden early morning and towards dusk, but with the cooler autumn days they seem to be much more active throughout the day. It might have something to do with my guest from England, Keith, who stayed here for 5 weeks holiday and encouraged the birds with a couple of new bird feeders, always topped up with fresh seed. Bless you Keith. I managed to take this photo from the back decking and so didn't startle the bird, but having done so I ventured into the garden, tiptoeing around stealthily while reminding myself of an oversized, yellow garbed, garden gnome....a bit of camouflaged attire and stillness wouldn't go astray on my part.

What would make an even better blip would be if I managed to get a sharper photo of this little chap, so now it is time to close the computer once again and get outside.