This post is something different. On a recent trip, we had been talking about Sydney building with nicknames – like Packer’s Pecker. Valerie had mentioned some at UTS – the “Crumpled Paper Bag” and the “Cheese Grater”. I decided to link some of these up on a walk through the city. I then intended to finish at the Royal Botanic Gardens and look for the resident Powerful Owl.
So here are some buildings – Continue reading
My friend Bob, was back from an overseas holiday, and we were keen to resume our weekly bushwalks. On our last trip, we had looked for heritage sites in a particular part of the Blue Mountains and had not had much success. And we were both keen to go back for a more thorough look.
On this trip, we did have more success. On the day we visited three locations. At the first one we were looking for Aboriginal sites. Continue reading
This was another productive day spent at Barton Park photographing the resident birds. I arrived a little after 9 am and stayed till around 3 pm.
During my visit, I was able to photograph a good range of birds.
When I arrived, as usual, I went to the Landing Lights Wetland. It was very quiet in the pond, I could see no birds in the water, and a single Egret foraging on the far bank. But closer, in the scrub were a pair of Double-barred Finches. Here is one – Continue reading
This weeks trip to Malabar Headland was constrained by the headland being closed due to a Rifle Range Activity later in the week. Monday was forecast to be a reasonable day, so I headed out there with Valerie.
For a change we walked in from Malabar rather than Maroubra Beach. This allowed us to look for Sun Orchids. We found quite a few – but none with open flowers. Continue reading
I was able to attend the 90th Anniversary of Blue Gum Forest being saved. For bushwalkers and many others, Blue Gum Forest is a very special place. It is not only a magnificent natural forest, deep in the heart of the Grose Valley in the Blue Mountains, but it is also the cradle for the wilderness conservation movement in NSW.
Ten years ago, I attended the 80th Anniversary and I wrote about some of the history on that blog post. Then I had walked in with another bushwalker from SUBW. We had started from Mt Victoria and walked along the Grose Valley to reach the forest and join the celebration. Then we had walked out to Blackheath via the track along Govetts Creek. Sadly, due to fire and flood damage, both of those tracks are not open now, so that limited options for a longer walk in or out. I therefore decided to travel up to Leura on Friday, about lunchtime and then walk out the Mt Hay Road, and then along the Lockleys Pylon Track. I would then camp on the Pylon and walk down to the forest early Saturday morning. Continue reading
Spring had arrived! It was time to visit the wildflowers of the Curra Moors in Royal National Park. Valerie had suggested this as a walk, and I was glad to be able to join her. The display of wildflowers was simply stunning!
At the carpark of the Curra Moors Track, we spotted quite a few Caladenia sp. Orchid. Continue reading
This was another day of train and bus strikes, so I decided to head off on my bike, cycling along the Cooks River, and then out to Barton Park. From there, I intended to return via Tempe Reserve and along a new cycleway along Alexandria Canal, and then to Sydney Park before heading for home. I had a good day out – but it was cut a little short by rain once I reached Sydney Park.
My first camera stop was along the Cooks River, at the usual place below Illawarra Road – there was a Sacred Kingfisher sitting in a tree above the river. I snapped a few shots. Continue reading
As days go, this visit to Barton Park was relatively quiet. Not that many birds were out compared to other recent visits. It was quite windy – so it may have been due to that. Also – there were fair few workers around – inside and outside the old stadium.
I was at the park from about 10 am to 3:30 pm. Later in the day, my friend Micheal from the Greenway Birdos turned up and we spent some time photographing a Striated Heron hunting for fish in the Spring St Canal. He offered me a lift home, and on the way we stopped off at the Cooks River and we looked for Kingfishers, but had no success. Continue reading
Lately, I have been trying to visit Malabar Headland National Park about once each week. The main purpose being to photograph the nesting Peregrine Falcons. This visit started off very quiet, but got a lot more lively a little later.
On the walk in, at the Maroubra Beach car park, I saw a pair of Willie Wagtails harassing three Laughing Kookaburras. Continue reading
It had been a while since I had been to these Wetlands at the old Pioneer Dairy at Wyong. I had been meaning to make another visit for a while, but had not got around to it for one reason or another. This visit turned out to be relatively quiet. I saw some nice birds – but nothing special.
I walked to the wetlands from Wyong Station, and this has one advantage – about half of the walk is around two sides of the wetlands and you can spot birds that you may not see at the usual spots. Continue reading
