I once again joined Brian Everingham and other walkers from the National Parks Association of NSW for a very pleasant walk from Wattamolla along the Royal Coast Track to Little Marley and back the same way. This is one of my favourite sections of the coast in Royal National Park.
In the party was Brian, Elaine, Anne, Helga, Sue, Judy, Derek and myself.
While meeting at the carpark, I photographed this Superb Fairy-wren – Continue reading
I travelled up to the the Blue Mountains again for a trip down Sassafras Gully at Springwood to see how the fungi was going. Everything was quite wet at Coachwood Glen the day before, but Springwood had experienced less rainfall, so perhaps the fungi would be reasonable? I did find a fair bit – but the fungi was not nearly as abundant or interesting as that which I found on my previous recent visits.
On this trip, I entered via the Sassafras Gully Road track, went as far as the Glenbrook Creek junction, then went out via the Wiggins Track.
Here is some of the fungi I found – Continue reading
I joined the Sydney Fungal Studies Group for their fungal field study at Coachwood Glen on the Megalong Road near Blackheath. It had been about two years since my previous visit to the Glen, and I was a bit chocked by the changes over that period. There has been a lot of flood damage near the creek, and the track seems to have changed a bit too. In the lead up to this field study, there had been a fair bit of rain – and a lot of the ground was waterlogged. Too wet for fungi, and what fungi we found was a often a bit water damaged. But, we still found an interesting variety of fungi.
Here is a selection –
Gloioxanthomyces chromolimoneus
Slime mould Continue reading
I joined Sue for a day at Taronga Zoo. It had been a while since our last visit, and the new Reptile and Amphibian House was now finally open. We had a great day.
There were also some new baby animals to see.
We travelled to the Zoo by ferry and arrived a little after it opened at 9:30 am. We walked down towards the new Reptile and Amphibian House via the Australian animals – Continue reading
With more wet weather forecast, Bob and myself decided on another visit to West head to continue looking for Aboriginal sites.
Wet rock platforms make the often very faint engravings much easier to discern. So that was a good reason to visit the headland again.
We started off near where we had finished on our previous visit. We had only found one small engraving of a kangaroo at the last area we had visited on that day (see above photo). We knew there was a lot more to look for. Continue reading
I visited two places on the day – first visiting a site near the Lane Cove River to check the status of the Gliophorus psittacinus group waxcaps. Then I headed to Blue Gum Reserve at Chatswood.
First, the Parrot Waxcaps. Here are ones I photographed on my previous visit. Back then they were fresh. Now they are quite orange in colour. Continue reading
I traveled up to Springwood with Sue, and after a coffee stop, we walked down into Birdwood Gully to see what fungi was out after the recent rain. We found a fair amount but things were a bit washed out.
Here is some what we found – Continue reading
In the afternoon, I decided to visit Sydney Park. A Pacific Baza had been seen there recently, but it seemed likely that it had left, but also, an Australian Hobby had been seen at the Park that morning. So it seemed like the right time for a visit.
As soon as I walked into the Park, I spotted the Australian Hobby. It was about 30 m away on the grass. Continue reading
In the morning, I visited Wolli Creek Regional Park for a short visit – mainly to check out how the fungi was going. It was not that different to my previous visit the week before.
Ramariopsis crocea
This was the first fresh one I had seen for a fair while. I hope more appears. Continue reading
Bob and myself decided to head up to the Blue Mountains and walk out along a ridge to looks for some Aboriginal sites. It was to an area we had visited before – but not to the particular ridge we had in mind.
After leaving Bob’s car, we walked out a short way along a fire road, and then climbed up onto a high point. Here, we inspected a small rock platform that features a few sharpening grooves. Continue reading
