Today being Christmas day and all, I took the family to the folks for dinner. The food was spectacular. Nothing beats a good roast on Christmas day, or any other day. After we all chowed down, My eldest son Jack decided to take Tanis over to the park next to the footy oval. Decided I would go with them and wander around to see if there was anything interesting about. Hoping to spot a Christmas beetle.

Here is Pearcedale footy oval. Pearcedale is about an hours drive from Melbourne and about a 10 minute drive from my place. My parents house is right next to the oval. I helped the old man build the house about 20ish years ago. He made sure the upstairs room had a massive window facing the oval so he could watch the footy. He died earlier this year.
R.I.P mate.
I played cricket here when I was younger.
I was really shit at it.

I heard these Galahs squawking away. The one on the left is feeding a youngun. You can see its tail sticking out. We had one of these birds as a pet when I was a kid. Charlie was its name. Charlie didn't like me. I didn't like him much either. Bastard would sneak up on me and bite my toes. It loved my brother though. I think it took his side in every fight we had.

Check these beetles out. There were five or six just sitting there, until they saw me. Then they all scurried of together. i managed to snap a couple of shots while I was laughing. It was pretty funny to see.

They headed strait for that piece of bark, almost like they had practiced it before.

This one didn't think I could see it. It just sat there trying not to attract my attention, but it did. I love the colours of these bugs. It changes from green to purple depending on the angle of the light you hold them in. I find it interesting that this same effect and colours can be found on an array of different bugs.

A rainbow Lorikeet!
They hang around in pairs. This ones mate was on the next branch. They flew off before I could get a photo of both of them.
There were a pair making a nest in a hollow in the big gum tree at my place earlier in the year. Noisy miner birds chased them off. Theres a possum living in it now.

I spotted some morning glory hanging over the fence line. There was a native drone fly chilling on one of the leaves. I was lucky to spot it. It flew of after I got a pic of it. It is a cool looking insect!

Under the eaves of the clubhouse were a few sky rat nests. All the birds flew away except for this one. It just stared at me with full attitude.

I decided to head back to the playground and then head home. I could hear Jack and Tanis having a great time of it. Heres a photo of Jack terrorising his little bro. Judging by his shrieks of laughter, he wasn't terrorised at all!

Oh and I didn't find that damn Christmas beetle! My family all said the same thing, haven't seen a single one this year, and maybe one or two last year. So I googled "where have all the Christmas beetles gone?"
Here is the first article that popped up from the Australian museum.

Thanks for coming on this quick walk with me. I am always happy when I can find a few bugs to show you. The little metallic green ones were an amusing find and I am glad I could share at least a part of it with you.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!