Jottings from the Tropics: 7 September 2013

Well, it's been raining and blowing a gale, sometimes separately, sometimes in combination. I've been getting a lot of exercise from rushing to close windows when the squalls come in and then rushing to open them again to let the breeze through the house.

While I was staring out of one of those windows I noticed some avian actiivity at the far end of the garden.

Rainbow bee eaters, looking windswept and interesting, were braving the drizzle to hunt insects. They were doing a good job of it, suddenly launching themselves from their perches to engage in aerial manoeuvres with butterflies and dragonflies. One of the males (identified by the two long tail streamers, visible in bottom pic) came within portrait distance and posed in a bleeding heart tree.

I hadn't seen any bee eaters around for a long time. I'm not sure if these are passing through on their migration or are resident birds, but I hope the latter.

— o O o —

Although I am ignoring today's elephant in the polling booth room (as far as the blog goes), I thought you might enjoy these tweets from the NT News, the Northern Territory's main (only?) newspaper.

First of all, for those of you unfamiliar with the newspaper, this is all you need to know.

And here's a selection of tweets from earlier today. That cover photo is real.

Because that's how the NT rolls.