Hello from Queensland Australia

[The Jolly Swagman]

G'day mates...Let me introduce myself with a story about an Australian Finch. The Painted Finch lives on the other side of the continent. I dont complain about that because the majority of exotic birds mostly parrots live in my state of Queensland. I do have a couple of pairs of Painteds in my aviary together with several other Australian and Foreign Finches. The Painted Finch is one of my favourites because they are not at all shy When a pair of them began to nest a few months back , I was intrigued that after laying the grass foundation for their nest, they began picking up pieces of bark and stones and carting it off to their nest site. The nest on completion has this base of rubble etc. It turns out that this is an inherited trait. You see they mostly nest in Spinifix country and it has large thorns. As the birds usually nest with the onset of seasonal rains. This also causes the Spinifix to grow faster. The base of rubble therefore is there to stop the thorns from penetrating the nest and to give protection to the eggs and chicks. The nesting birds delivered 4 newcomers. I shall post a pic of a Painted somewhere

[goosey]

Hello, it will be great to hear about some of your exotic wildlife and see any of the photo's you want to share. Never having been to your part of the world it will be most interesting. I have just googled painted finches and they are really lovely looking birds. Welcome .

[paul m]

Yes welcome - as wide as the wild world can get now!
Thanks for that about the painted finch - cheers, Paul

[Suzanne B]

G'day Jolly Swagman
And a warm (or should I say a rather Chilly...brrrrrrr) welcome from England!
That's a nice story of your Painted Finches, it just goes to show they never lose there instincts and how lovely they managed to successfully rear 4 chicks !!
I'm looking forward to seeing their photos now!!
See you around the forums!!
Suzanne

[The Jolly Swagman]

Hello Suzanne....sorry I can't send you some sunshine. I'm sorry to tell you that the photo section has me baffled. Ive tried to post pics a couple of times and each time being refused, with the message that my pic isnt big enough....the last one I tried to post was like 150 k, thats got to be big enough for the News of the World lol. It is very hard to tell a story without the pic Like my " A True Xmas Story" in the other forum. I have received emails asking me to post a pic of the characters Sabco and Willow the Brushtail Possums ,but until I work out the problem I remain

[Suzanne B]

Hi again
Sorry you can't upload your photos yet. I think it may be something to do with the actual size - they've got to be at least 800 x 600. Unfortunately I'm pretty rubbish with anything technical.....I just rely on luck really ..... so I can't help with this but I'm sure someone will be along soon who will be able to advise.
And don't worry about the sunshine......I just love sitting indoors on these cold, dark, windy, drizzly, miserable days ........not
Suzanne

[Za_]

Hello Jolly Swagman, one new member to another, this is my first post here.
I use a free program called fotosizer for my pictures, I have just posted a load in the North America gallery. fotosizer.com its a free download, hope this helps.
Za_

[paul m]

It's a bit complex but fairly straightforward when you know how! 150Kb would certainly not be a problem (I forget what the upper size limit is but it's written down somewhere - if there is one). No, as mentioned, you have to have minimal dimensions of 800x600 pixels. Note that is 800 in the horizontal plane (you can't get away with 600x800 in portrait format ).

My routine is to crop the picture to get rid of unwanted background and then to resize to at least 800x600 - I use Irfanview which is a pretty comprehensive, competent and free photomanipulation product. http://www.geocities.com/freighterman.geo/mainmenu.html

Good luck - looking forward to some pics!

Originally Posted by The Jolly Swagman

Hello Suzanne....sorry I can't send you some sunshine. I'm sorry to tell you that the photo section has me baffled. Ive tried to post pics a couple of times and each time being refused, with the message that my pic isnt big enough....the last one I tried to post was like 150 k, thats got to be big enough for the News of the World lol. It is very hard to tell a story without the pic Like my " A True Xmas Story" in the other forum. I have received emails asking me to post a pic of the characters Sabco and Willow the Brushtail Possums ,but until I work out the problem I remain

[Guy F]

Hi, welcome to the site. Australia is one of the top places I want to visit, it looks amazing!
Guy

[The Jolly Swagman]

Za, thanks your tip helped me produce the pic of the "Tawny Frogmouth" in the Gallery