New Holland Honeyeaters by MBoulad on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

New Holland Honeyeaters, blue banded bee and bottlebrush.

Funny, I was researching native bees about a month ago (I know, it's a weird pasttime, but I like reading about stuff like that) when I first came across info on the blue banded bee. They are one of many beautiful and interesting native Australian bees. I'd never seen one before (or probably never noticed them ) I first saw one two days after reading about them, and the thing you can't see from a photo or painting is the absolute fat fuzzy cuteness of one in real life. They're so adorable you can imagine hugging them like a teddy bear

I've seen honey eaters in fairly good numbers at the botanic gardens here in Canberra, and wanted to paint them for a long time. I think they're quite beautiful.

Just as an aside, we've had unsettled weather this last couple of weeks. A storm was coming in a couple of days ago...ahead of the storm I saw two things I've never seen before-- First, two wedge tail eagles being chased by a couple of galahs! I've never seen them in the city before, though I've had some awe inspiring close encounters with them in the bush...it was so funny to see them being chased by two much smaller and very obnoxious galahs.

And a peregrin falcon was perched on our back fence not 20 minutes later!

I wonder if the wild weather had driven them into the city to seek shelter, we don't often see raptors in the 'burbs...or at least *I* don't

Anyway, enough geeky bird talk... I hope you enjoy this & thanks for looking. Comments and critique always welcome. Apologies if I can't answer right away, this is going to be a busy weekend...hope you're all enjoying yours as well