Making Rainbows and Playing with Helicopters

 

The children burst with excitement when the maples produce seeds, "look mum look"cries the Middle Bowerbird.  It is such a delight to throw these winged seeds into the air and watch them giddily tumble, spinning and catching the wind, casting themselves to new homes. I haven't met a child yet who didn't like playing with these natural helicopters, to be truthful I'm still fond of launching them into space too.

We are very rainbow inspired of late. The little Bowerbird has been creating Autumn leaf Rainbows and the Middle Bowerbird chose rainbows as a topic for his weather assignment.

We have been back to visit our DIY rainbow at Macedon Station and the picture on the wall is just as it was in April. Amazing how long chalk can last, I love it that no one has been offended or wanted to remove it.

Southern Brown Tree Frog

This is one of the most common frogs we find in our area, the Southern Brown Tree Frog, Litoria ewingi. See it's gorgeous padded toes, that's how you know its a tree frog. It's colours are highly variable, they can even have green on them. That orange in the groin is one of its identifying features. This is a particularly fat Southern Brown Tree Frog.

 

We never get tired of finding frogs in the garden, there is something about their smooth wet skin and wide eyes that is utterly enchanting. These frogs feed on flies, moths and mosquitoes, and are very welcome in our mosquito ridden backyard, we have a little pond made from an old bath to encourage their visits.

Even though its getting quite cold, we can still hear Southern Brown Tree Frogs calling, this species can breed all year round.  Only the male frogs call, their cree, cree, creeing, is a soothing soundtrack to our evenings. You can listen to the call, and find out more about the Southern Brown Tree Frog and other frogs of Australia at this wonderful website. I can also highly recommend the Museum of Victoria's Field guide app for helping identify species when you're out and about.