Birds at Sydney Park – 16 April 2021

Posted on April 21, 2021 by Dave Noble

I had a few hours free in the late afternoon – so headed out to Sydney Park at St Peters with my camera. Its a very pleasant place to spend some time.

I walked around the ponds to see what birds were out. Here is a Black Swan –

Continue reading →

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A Day at The Zoo – Taronga Zoo – 15 April 2021

Posted on April 16, 2021 by Dave Noble

My friends John’s young son, Sebastian wanted to visit the Zoo. It was school holidays, so a trip was arranged. In the group was John, his two sons Jasper and Sebastian, and myself, and at the Zoo we also, at lunch, met his cousin Ruth and her two boys and another cousin. We all had good day.

With the children present, we visited both the Seal Show and the Bird Show. First the Seal Show – Continue reading →

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Birdwood Gully and The Gooch Track – 14 April 2021

Posted on April 16, 2021 by Dave Noble

Earlier in the day, I had been to Wentworth Falls with Bob and we had visited two nice but obscure waterfalls. That trip had finished well before lunch, so we next headed to Faulconbridge to look for an interesting site I had been told about recently. We had no luck with that, so next had lunch and then decided to complete a walk that had ben on my “to do” list for a while. It was a circuit walk that starts from Birdwood Gully at Springwood.

The plan was to star from Boland Avenue and walk down the Birdwood Guly Track to the junction of Shellys Creek, and then follow the track downstream, along what is now called Springwood Creek. Then we would complete a loop on the western side. Continue reading →

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Sapphos Leap and Carters Falls – 14 April 2021

Posted on April 16, 2021 by Dave Noble

I had known of two relatively obscure waterfalls in the Wentworth Falls area for a while but did not know very much information about them. All I knew was that they were in upper Wentworth Creek downstream from the Crematorium, and roughly west of Waratah St. The latest version of the Blue Mountains Geographical Encyclopaedia had some more information and grid references.

Sapphos Leap

A cool day was forecast for the upper mountains, too cold for canyoning, so Bob and myself decided to have a go at visiting these falls. Our route was from the west end of Waratah Street, following an old road easement across a swamp to a fire trail that went down to an old weir. The whole route was quiet scrubby – and this included the weir access road – it was very overgrown. Continue reading →

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Mudlarks Cooks River Bird Survey – 13 April 2021

Posted on April 16, 2021 by Dave Noble

I was able to join the Mudlarks for their monthly bird survey along the Cooks River. This month the group surveyed the side of the river downstream from the Land St Bridge to the Gold Club House and then back.

Australasian Figbird

We saw a nice variety of birds. Here are some – Continue reading →

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Fungi at Ferndale Park – 12 April 2021

Posted on April 14, 2021 by Dave Noble

I spent the afternoon at Ferndale Park at Chatswood looking for fungi. I was a bit dry and I didn’t find too much. The day before, Jason Carter had posted a photo of a nice cluster of waxcaps. They looked like the Ferndale Park Humidicutis sp. and I was keen to look at them.

I found them with no difficulty. They certainly looked like the Humidicutis sp. found at Ferndale Park which starts of green and the slowly changes to pink if conditions are suitable. This is very early for this fungus to appear. Continue reading →

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Fungi from the Lane Cove Valley and Terrys Creek – 11 April 2021

Posted on April 13, 2021 by Dave Noble

It was a nice day for walking, and I decided to repeat the walk from Thornleigh to Eastwood via the Land Cove River and Terrys Creek. I was on the lookout for fungi, orchids and birds. I heard a fair few birds as I walked – but didn’t manage to photograph very many. The fungi was not as abundant as I was hoping, but I did find a few nice species.

Here is some fungi from below Thornleigh Oval to Browns Waterhole – Continue reading →

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Birds at Long Reef – 10 April 2021

Posted on April 13, 2021 by Dave Noble

After the bird survey at Tempe, I caught a train to Wynyard and then a B-line Bus to Dee Why and walked out to Dee Why Lagoon and then Long Reef. I had lunch on the to pot the headland while waiting for the low tide, then  visited the rock platform.

There were quite a few migratory birds around as well as the resident Terns. I was also hoping for an Osprey to be around, or a Nankeen Kestrel, but had to be content with a distant Sea Eagle. Anyway, here are some photos – Continue reading →

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Tempe Birdos Survey – 10 April 2021

Posted on April 13, 2021 by Dave Noble

I was able to join the Tempe Birdos for their monthly bird survey. After meeting, at Tempe Wetlands at 7:30 to 8 am, I joined the group surveying the wetlands. The other group surveys Tempe Reserve.

Compared to other days, it was fairly quiet at the wetlands. Here are some of the birds we saw – Continue reading →

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Fungi at Sassafras Gully – 9 April 2021

Posted on April 12, 2021 by Dave Noble

This was another good day of walking in the bush and looking for fungi. I did find some nice fungi – although it was not very abundant.

Craterellus cornucopioides

On this trip, I went down to Glenbrook Creek via Fairy Dell and Magdala Ck, then walked upstream to the Lagoon, then exited via Sassafras Gully Road. Here is some of what I found along the way – Continue reading →

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