Birds along the Cooks River and at Barton Park – 21 April 2021

Posted on April 21, 2021 by Dave Noble

I went for an afternoon bike ride along the Cooks River to Tempe, and then out to Barton Park – taking my camera to see what birds were out.

My first stop was the Boat Harbour. I soon spotted the resident Tawny Frogmouths – Continue reading →

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Birds at Nurragingy Reserve – 20 April 2021

Posted on April 21, 2021 by Dave Noble

Another nice day of bird photography. This time at Nurragingy Reserve at Doonside. When I arrived, things were very quiet. I looked for Kingfishers with no luck, checked out the ponds – nothing special, then did a walk around the perimeter fire trail without spotting anything much. And then things improved….

The first birds I saw when I arrived were a pair of Galahs – Continue reading →

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Birds at the Central Coast Wetlands – 19 April 2021

Posted on April 21, 2021 by Dave Noble

It had been a while since my last visit to the Central Coast Wetlands at the old Pioneer Dairy at Wyong. I travelled to Wyong by train and then walked the short distance to the Wetlands.

I first looked in the ponds to see what waterbird were present. Here are some of the waterbirds I saw throughout the day – Continue reading →

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Camping Weekend at Asgard Swamp 17 – 18 April 2021

Posted on April 21, 2021 by Dave Noble

We had a birthday to celebrate, and the campsite at Asgard Swamp had been chosen as a suitable venue. Its a short walk from the Victoria Falls Road at Mt Victoria and once there, its a great place to laze about, or to go on side trips.

I travelled to Mt Victoria with Valerie and Jenni, and we met up with Dave Oz at the carpark. We then set off on the short walk to the Asgard Swamp campsite. Continue reading →

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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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