Channelling TeeJay

I know it's a weird title - but here's the back story. The weather is a bit odd today, a LOT cooler, a clearing shower this morning and quite windy.

Really no inspiration at all for a Blip. So I did as I always do, wandered around the garden feeling slightly grumpy. I found myself thinking, geez I wish I was with TeeJay and KiwiLizzie. They're always going on walks down a bush track and seeing all sorts of marvellous birds. I wish I could just turn around and see something magical.

And I did..... and I did.

This is an Eastern Spinebill (Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris). I knew we had them in the garden, as I have had tantalising glimpses of them, but they are always being chased off by the New Holland Honeyeaters. I was advised to plant species that the NHE don't like, with long tubular flowers.

Quite by accident it seems I have a plant - a salvia of some sort - that the honeyeaters can't feed from, and the spinebills can. they are incredibly shy, so I was doing mental cartwheels when I realised I had a halfway decent image of this one. Naturally enough, I had the wrong lens, but it's amazing what you can get with that 100 mm macro at a pinch.

I see that the Eastern Spinebill has already been listed in BigBlipYear - but I have a female, which is a tad different to the male, so I am tagging it anyway.

(By the way, yesterday's raspberry tasted MAGNIFICENT).

You don't have to go large because it is a bit a lot grainy. But - go on, be a devil.