An early start on a cold day – to meet the Mudlarks at 7:30 am on the Lang Street Footbridge for the monthly birds survey. This survey was going downstream – to do the Wave Rock Loop.
Eastern Rosella
Here are some of the birds we saw – Continue reading
I was keen to see what the fungi was like at these two reserves at Chatswood. I was a bit disappointed – due to recent winds and dry conditions the fungi was quite poor. What I did find in reasonable condition was very small, and all the large fungi was desiccated.
Gliophorus chromolimoneus
I started off at Ferndale Park. Here is some of what I found – Continue reading
This was a good day…. eventually. It started off quiet and then the Peregrine Falcons appeared.
I expected the main photographic subjects to be whales passing by, and that was how the day started off. As I walked out, near Magic Point, I observed a pod of Humpback Whales. Continue reading
With long weekend plans cancelled, I decided to spend the day in the local area taking photos of birds. I started off with the Tempe Birdos for their monthly bird survey, then joined Micheal from the Greenway Birdos to photograph a pair of Sacred Kingfishers on the Cooks River at its junction with Wolli Creek. Then I made my way to Barton Park and had much better session than the day before.
At Tempe – things were fairly quiet for the bird survey. being a long weekend, the number of people in the group was smaller than usual – so we only surveyed the wetlands. Here are some of the birds we saw – Continue reading
I spent a pleasant but fairly quiet day at Barton Park. I was keen to look for the raptors that I had photographed on previous visits – but this time they mainly stayed away. Perhaps because someone es roaring around on a trail bike on the old sporting fields I had observed the raptors hunting.
I spent a bit of time on the day photographing the Welcome Swallows. They are nice birds and always challenging to photograph as they wiz around unpredictably, hunting for insects. But modern autofocus systems and the motors in lenses can track these birds as long as you can keep your camera aimed at them. But they are only worth photographing if the light is very good (a high shutter speed is needed – I use a 1/3200 of a second or shorter) and the background is not too confusing that it will trick the autofocus. And also – I try and get the Swallow in flight just as it is about to grab an insect. You can’t plan to do this – you need to “spray and pray” – and later be prepared to hunt through many images. But photographing Swallows in flight is also an indication that there are not many other birds around to photograph. Continue reading
I was keen to visit Sassafras Gully again, to check the fungi, and to see if any new ones were out. I did find some good specimens, but the wind had played havoc – dessicating many that I saw. I walked in via the Wiggins Track, walked down to the creek, and then along to the Lagoon at Glenbrook Creek, then I headed out via the track at Sassafras Gully Road. I came out fairly early and had time for a quick visit to Birdwood Gully – but there the fungi was very poor, and also no sight of the Powerful Owl I had spotted on my previous visit.
Here is some of the fungi I saw – Continue reading
Bob and myself spent another interesting day in the Blue Mountains exploring a number of heritage sites.
On an earlier trip, we had missed an Aboriginal engraving site. It was not too difficult to get to, so we checked it out first. I had read about this site in an old newspaper article. Continue reading
The Watergate Reserve is located near Sailors Bay between Castlecrag and Northbridge. I had visited the reserve as part of the walk I did in 2017 – part of the Round Willoughby Walk and I thought then that it looked like good fungi habitat. Now I was back for a short visit with my camera and tripod.
Gliophorus viridis
I found a fair bit of fungi, but most of it had been desiccated by the recent dry windy weather. Continue reading
It was nice to join Brian Everingham and others from the National Parks Association for a walk in Royal National Park. Brian, the leader, had advertised the walk as a photographic walk – with fungi and orchids as the subjects – and we certainly did well with both.
Toothed Helmut Orchid – Corybas pruinosus
Sue and myself, got a lift from Heathcote to the start with Brian and on the way down, we stopped off at the lower end of the Couranga Track to looks for orchids. Brain soon spotted two species – Continue reading
I spent some time at Barton Park photographing birds, with a few more photos taken along sections of the Cooks River. Like some previous recent visits, it was a Nankeen Kestrel that provided most of the subject matter.
I started at the Cooks River near the Princes Highway. On the south side I saw a Little Pied Cormorant – Continue reading
