We had a trip planned to another reserve, but it was cancelled at the last moment, so four of us – Deb, Valerie, Sue and myself decided to visit H V Evatt Park at Lugano, then we made a quick visit to Oatley Park.
Once we arrived at H V Evatt Park, we had lunch at one of the picnic tables, then set off to see what was around the duck pond. There were certainly a lot of domestic ducks as well as Pacific Black Duck. There were also a lot of Water Dragons –
Australian Wood Duck
Crimson Rosella
Little Black Cormorant
And some more Water Dragons –
We then set off down the Blackbutt Trail. This is a short and very pleasant walk. Except for the noise of speeding jet skis in the Georges River.
We were on the lookout for birds, but most seemed to be hiding. We did see a Bees Nest –
King Parrot
Dollar Birds
On the walk back, I was talking to another bird photographer, who had good local knowledge, and she mentioned a pair of roosting Powerful Owls, and roughly where to look for them. Later we spotted them –
The second was just waking up for a scratch –
Back at the pond, this Noisy Miner was having a wash –
We then headed to nearby Oatley Park, where we had a look for orchids and Tawny Frogmouths.
A lot of late season Flannel Flowers were still out –
We spotted Bonnet Orchids (Cryptostylis erecta) in two places in the park –
But we had no such spotting the Tawny Frogmouths.
It had been a pleasant afternoon.