Monday of the Queens Birthday Holiday weekend dawned with a splash of glorious sunlight coming in through the windows.

“Lets, go visit someone “, she said.  Good idea but who?  And we came to a reasoned conclusion that we hadn’t seen Rosie for a couple of weeks and that settled it.

Besides it was a holiday and the Woodlands park would be filled with every man and (his/her) (several), four-legged bird scarers.  And I’ve grown tired of answering the ‘what are you doing with all that photo equipment”, question And the inevitable discussion  on the rights or wrongs of Australia not having a Bill of Rights. So bypassing Woodlands and the bird scarers we travelled on  westward.

So Rosie, here we come. Nice quiet area, just far enough of the track to not have to listen to endless cars passing.  And the pleasure of Rosie, if she was taking visitors.

We arrived at her little area of the bush, the past weeks rain had given it a little extra lift, and a good stand of grass is starting to show in the open areas.  But. No Rosie. She is a female Rose Robin, that somehow is out in the open basalt plains rather than in her normal wet hillside environment.  Not that we’re complaining. It might just be she is a nomad in winter like the Flame Robins. Time will tell.

While we were scouting around, a small family of Flame Robins came through. One a particularly thin and tall bird with a quite dramatic yellow plume on his chest.  Things were getting interesting.

When out of the trees and on to the ground flew a familiar little brown bundle, with appropriate wing fanning and tail twitching. Rosie was taking visitors.

Working with her on a good day is a real delight. She moves fast, but does a circuit of the small wooded area, so its possible to see her come by every  10-15 minutes sometimes.  I settled on to a log and waited and sure enough she flitted in.  She also seemed somewhat agitated by the Flame intruders and spent a bit of time chasing them out of the area.  The Flames not being territorial at the moment simply moved up the paddock a bit.

Then back she’d come and on a number of occasions  landed on the branches near me, and then above me and alongside me at distances the lens wouldn’t focus down too.   It pretty amazing to have a little tiny bundle of feathers in arms reach sitting on the side of the tree with the feathers going in and out as she breathes.  Most times I stop breathing for fear of frightening her off.
So we photographed, she hunted, then rested then came back again.   We had hoped that there was a male to accompany her, but after several hours its pretty much a conclusion she is on her own.

Then to make a good day a great day, a pair of Eastern Yellow Robins also moved through and some Yellow-faced Honeyeaters to finally fill out a good day visiting friends.