It was good to visit the Zoo again. Its a pleasant place to spend some time. The weather was beautiful and the Zoo was not too crowded.
On visits, you cannot expect all the animals to be active. Many, like the big cats tend to sleep a lot and it necessary to visit their enclosures a few times if you want to see them walking around. Continue reading
Bob and myself decided on a trip to Royal National Park to see if we could find some Aboriginal Art sites. On the day we visited five separate sites and found some amazing art. All the art we saw were rock engravings.
Fish engraving
As well as engravings, we also saw a lot of sharpening grooves. Continue reading
A Pacific Baza had been reported at Sydney Park. I saw a photo of it on a Facebook page, and thought it worth visiting the park to see if it was still around. They are rarely observed in the inner west.
When I arrived at the park, all was quiet. I had a look at the ponds to see what birds were around, and then had a look for the pair of Tawny Frogmouths that I had seen on previous visits. I could not spot them, but near where I was looking, I could hear some Noisy Miners kicking up a fuss. Perhaps the Pacific Baza was around? It was! It was moving around a fair bit, hunting for insects, its usual diet. Continue reading
After the Mudlarks Bird Survey, I continued walking down the Cooks River to see what birds were out. At the Princes Highway, I caught a bus down to Barton Park and spent most of the rest of the day there. This turned out to be a very good day of bird photography.
Below, Illawarra Road on the Cooks River, I spotted a Sacred Kingfisher. I watched it for a while. Continue reading
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
