Wild Bird Wednesday 49 - Wild, but not natural.

Like most Australians I don't live in a very natural looking environment.  Despite many of the myths - think Crocodile Dundee - most of us live in rather urban surroundings.  I live in a suburb that was once market gardens and dairy farms, but has long since been swallowed by the expanding beast that is Melbourne.

This means most of the birds I see are wild in state, but not living in nature.  While its true you can find the odd bit of bush land scattered about, and that given half a chance "weeds" (often, but not always native plants) will grow almost anywhere, most of my immediate surroundings are man made.

So, I had a think about this and decided to find some images that I thought made the most of the man made - there is not pretence in these pictures that they have been taken in the wilds - the back of Burke as we might say here.

So, here we have that most free of species, the flying bird, taking the urban and making just a little less bland, just a little more interesting.

(OK, so the pelican shot is not suburban, but its not natural either!)

Silver Gull

Silver Gull (on a hot tin roof)

Pelican Marker

Now its your turn to join in with WBW.  Remember to link back to here - to visit other bloggers and to invite and newbies you encounter on the web who may be interested.  Over to you.

A wide view on winter (!)

Although things have changed a bit in the last few days, this was some of the weather we had to deal with last weekend.  I have to smile.

These are two images of Cape Schank in Victoria.  The tow side of the cape are very different - one is open to the ocean and the other very sheltered.  I liked the open side best as you could balance the rounded stones on top of each other and make towers.  The whole family got involved and it seemed a batter idea to keep building that start snapping.

As you can see, I'm rather enjoying the potential of my wide angle lens.

You can find more images from around the world at Our World Tuesday.

Enjoy the pictures.

A bit of a furphy.

When you move between countries - or even regions of a country - the slang or vernacular can change markedly.  I love the phrase that England and America are two countries separated by a common language!

One of the terms I encountered rather quickly in Australia was the "furphy" (or the furfie).  It would be used in conversation like this.  "Thats a bit of a furphy"  - it means a rumour, untruth or something improbable or irrelevant.

One theory about the origin of this phrase is that soldiers would gather around mobile water tanks on the battle field and swap rumours and gossip - and the manufacturer of the water tanks was J. Furphy and Sons of Shepparton, Victoria.  Its a good story.

And this is a real Furphy!

Have a look at the slogan above the tap. I'm not sure companies do this kind of thing any more!

I'm linking this to Macro Monday 2 and to I love Macro.

I wonder why?

One of the things I love about clouds is their almost capricious ability to form in ways that are unexpected.

I have no idea if this cloud is the numb-end of a con-trail or whether its a natural cloud formed by some minute change of temperature or humidity.  What ever the case there was not another cloud to be seen in this sky, just this little line.

You can find more skies at Sky Watch Friday.

Enjoy the pictures.