It was early for fungi to be out, but there had recently been quite good rain, so I headed up to Springwood. The forecast was for more rain – so I headed down the closer and shorter Birdwood Gully rather than Sassafras Gully.
There was not a huge amount of fungi out, but I did find some nice ones. And also I spotted some nice birds after lunch. Continue reading
In the morning I had taken part in a local bird survey, but I was keen to get out again, so in the afternoon I cycled along the Cooks River out to Barton Park and back. And I took my camera.
Along the Cooks River, I stopped to look at a Striated Heron nest that I had seen before. It looked much the same with an adult sitting on the nest. Continue reading
I was pleased to be able to take part in the Greenway Bird Survey. The group met outside Waratah Mills Light Rail Station at 7:30 am and then slowly walked around the loop looking for birds.
Just before we set off, one member David Hair, looked up and spotted small group of White-throated Needletails flying overhead. I just managed to get a photo of one of them. Continue reading
I spent a nice day out at Oatley Park with Valerie. On our visit we looked for fungi and birds.
King Parrot
We ended up walking a lot of the trails and tracks in the park. Here are some of the birds we saw – Continue reading
It has been a while since I have done some exploratory canyoning. I know I am getting older and slowing down, but probably the main reason is a lack of resource. I have spent many years exploring remote creeks looking for canyons with some success, but as time goes on the number of creeks left to explore diminishes. And the creeks left are probably less likely to have worthwhile canyons. But the tools available change. When I started exploring canyons in the Wolgan Valley, I used stereo pairs of air photos to look for likely slots. Later further north, I repeated this technique – but made visits to the Lands Department and asked to use their large stereo viewers and then sat down with a few bundles of air photos to look through. After an hour or more, I would leave with markings on my maps that indicated creeks with possible slots. Another friend, Rik, that I did a lot of exploration with used the same technique and we later compared notes and planned a trip. Now with online tools like Google Maps, Google Earth and the Six-Viewer you can access very high resolution air photos of the Blue Mountains. You don’t have the 3D view, but you do have a high resolution.
So its nice to do some armchair canyon exploration at home, studying air photos looking for possible canyons in places you haven’t been to. But the results are not always worthwhile. This was the outcome on this trip. A nice walk, but a poor canyon. Continue reading
With wet weather forecast, I decided to head out for a short afternoon trip. I went to Sydney Park and had a nice wander around.
The highlight for me was spotting the family of Tawny Frogmouths. I had been watching them last year but had not seem them since mid November. The single chick, I hoped had fledged successfully after that visit. But on subsequent trips I had not been able to locate them. So I was pleased to see all three Tawny Frogmouths lined up roosting on the same tree. Continue reading
I was originally planning to head up to Springwood and check out the fungi in the gullies there, but wth poor weather forecast, I thought it would be better to go on shorter trip to Ferndale Park at Chatswood. The rain radar showed rain in the mountains that was slowly heading to the city. As it turned out – I had light rain while I was at Ferndale Park and my visit was quite short.
Despite fair bit of recent rain, the fungi was not that great. Still too early in the season. Continue reading
I had been hoping to make another visit to Nurragingy Reserve for a while but there had been railway trackwork or unsuitable weather. This day was not ideal – I had a late start after waiting at home for delivery to arrive, and it was forecast to be quite a hot day – and it is always hotter in the western suburbs.
So I didn’t arrive until after 11 am, but it turned out to be worthwhile trip. When I walked into the Reserve I could hear the alarm calls of some birds and looked up. I soon spotted a raptor. I think it was a Brown Goshawk. Continue reading
It was nice to join a group of friends on a trip down Jugglers Canyon at Medlow Bath. In the party were John and Chuin Nee and their two young sons Jasper and Sebastian, Martin, Su Li, Brent, Keith and myself.
We parked at the end of the fire trail near the airport at Medlow bath and were soon on the track down to the start of the canyon. We soon reached the creek. The water level was high but not dangerous. Continue reading
I made an afternoon trip to Sydney Olympic Park to see what birds were around. It turned out to be relatively quiet.
While there, I first went to the Waterbird Refuge at Bicentennial Park and then to Wentworth Common and back the same way. All the birds I spotted were more or less the usual birds I find at the park. Here are some – Continue reading
