I joined a group of friends for a wander around Sydney – starting from Darling Harbour and making our way around the foreshore to Circular Quay looking at the Vivid installations.
Being a Saturday night – it was very crowded – a bit of a shock after all our recent social distancing due to Covid. Here are some photos – Continue reading
This was another good survey of the fungi at Bola Creek with members of The Sydney Fungal Studies Group Inc and visitors. We found a good range of fungi, including quite a few waxcaps.
Hygrocybe anomala var. anomala
I will start with some of the waxcaps we found – Continue reading
I spent an an enjoyable and interesting afternoon with Digi Dave at Barton Park photographing birds.
We first went to Landing Lights Wetland, but it ws pretty quiet, so we then headed to the old sporting fields near the Golf Firing Range. Here we spotted a distant Nankeen Kestrel. It was perched on a lamp, and we walked closer. Continue reading
This was a very interesting walk with Bob and we were joined by Peter. Our plan was to look at some Aboriginal sites in the Blue Mountains. It was an area that Bob and myself had explored before for Aboriginal sites and so had Peter, and this time we would compare notes to get a bigger picture. A lot of these sites are sensitive so I will not detail the specific locations.
The sites we visited included sharpening grooves, rock engravings and also pigment and charcoal art in caves. Continue reading
I was able to visit Springwood again, and this time I put in a fairly full day visiting Sassafras Gully first – and doing the long loop – down Magdala Creek to Glenbrook Creek, up to the Lagoon, then walking out via Sassafras Gully Road. Then back in Springwood, I decided I had enough time fora quick visit to Birdwood Gully.
Humidicutis sp.
First here is some fungi from Magdala Creek – Continue reading
I was originally intending to head up to the Blue Mountains for a fungi walk, but the weather up there looked bad, and there was rain approaching on the radar, so I changed plans and echoed to do local walk where I could be flexible if bad weather arrived. As it turns out I had quite a reasonable day. I carried a tripod and macro lens for fungi, but ended up photographing more birds than fungi.
The fungi was not as good as it had been a week before. Some was still out, but most had vanished and little more had emerged. Continue reading
I had read about Shanes Park recently in Peter Ridgeway’s excellent book “A Wide and Open Land”, his account of a multi-day walk across a fair length of the Cumberland Plain. One of the gems of the plain seemed to be Shanes Park, near Shalvey, a 560 hectare area that had previously been used a a telecommunications facility. The Park is a bushland remnant in quite good condition and many interesting plants and animals can be found there still. When friend Deb, invited me to join her on a visit to the Park organised by the Bankstown Bushland Society I was glad to accept.
The Park has recently been transferred to National Parks and they intend to fence it off and use it for re-wilding. Introducing back animals such as quolls. You can read about their plans here. Continue reading
After the Greenway Bird Survey, I joined fellow Greenway Birders, Michael and Lennis, and headed to Barton Park. We spent the rest of the day there and observed a good range of bird species.
When we arrived, we headed to the Landing Lights Wetland. A Brown Goshawk flew past, being harassed by Magpies. Continue reading
I was able to join the Greenway Birdos for their monthly survey along the Waratah Mills section of the Greenway. The highlight this survey was probably being able to observe small flock of Spotted Pardalotes.
Here are some of the birds we saw – Continue reading
After an amazing trip to Sassafras Gully a few days earlier, I was keen to head back to Springwood and check out the gully on the north side. This was another very good outing.
The train was late getting to Springwood due to a freight train problem at Faulconbridge. Despite a late start, I was fortunate to spot some very unusual fungi. Continue reading
