It was a wet morning for the monthly bird survey with the Tempe Birdos. This made photography challenging. Not that many birds were out in the rain, the thick clouds made the lighting very poor for bird photography, and its not good to get your camera too wet.
Despite these challenges, we saw some interesting birds and fascinating behaviour. Continue reading
I thought it about time to make another visit to Mt Annan Botanic Gardens. I was particularly after photos of an Australian Owlet-nightjar that had been roosting there for a while. On a previous trip, we had been to the right tree but had not been able to see the bird. This time I had more success.
Like on a previous visit. I caught a train to Cambelltown and then a bus from there to just outside the Gardens. This worked out well. On the way home, I changed from bus to train at Macarthur, and that seemed a better interchange.
The success was due to five other bird photographers being present and all of us scanning possible hollows that the bird may be roosting in. As well, one of them, Cary, had photographed the Owlet-nightjar quite a few times previously and knew the likely places. Continue reading
I made an early morning trip to Sydney Park – arriving before 7 am to see what was out and about.
It was nice being there early – but I didn’t see any of the less common birds that I was hoping for. Sometimes it can take many visits to see the birds I was after. Continue reading
This was another nice day of canyoning with Bob and Nipper in the Northern Blue Mountains. On the day we visited three canyons that were close to each other and this enabled us to complete an interesting loop.
The first canyon, was reached after a fairly short walk. This canyon was not very long but it featured a number of short waterfalls into deep pools. In a few places we used a rope to assist us on the drops. Other parties may choose to jump all of them. Continue reading
During the late afternoon, I made visit to Sydney Park at St Peters for some bird photography. I was after, in particular, more photos of Lewin’s Rails. During my visit I could hear several, and even see the vegetation moving as their sound moved around. But they chose to stay hidden. However, as on all visits to a site like this, there was plenty of things to see and photograph.
There were lots of baby birds. Here is an Australasian Swamphen with its chick – Continue reading
Another early start for the Greenway Bird Survey with the Inner West Environment Group, between Taverners Hill light rail station and Hawthorne light rail station along the Greenway. It was a bit dark and gloomy and a lot of the birds were a bit quiet.
At Taverners Hill, we did not see too many of the usual birds – Honeyeaters and Silvereyes. But there were a lot of Noisy Miners in one tree – Continue reading
After spending the early morning at the Cooks River, I headed home, and then in the afternoon, went on a visit to Sydney Olympic Park. There, I visited the Waterbird Refuge at Bicentennial Park, then went to Wentworth Common and The Brickpit.
I probably spent most of my time at Wentworth Common – and was on the lookout for Rails and Crakes. But did not spot any this visit (I may have left too early?). I did spot a nice pair of Brown Quail – Continue reading
I was up early in the morning to get down to the Lang St Bridge over the Cooks River by 7 am in order to join the Mudlarks for the monthly bird survey. This month, the group was surveying downstream.
Here are some of the birds we saw – Continue reading
It was time to visit some local birds again. I walked down to the Cooks River, crossed at the Lang St Bridge and then slowly walked upstream.
No Kingfishers this time. But I did spot a single Tawny Frogmouth roosting in a tree where I had seen two roosting last visit. Continue reading
I had grown up at Springwood and thought I knew the local area pretty well, but there was one creek that I had not visited – Frasers Creek, near Yellow Rock. I was surprised to find when looking on maps that that Yellow Rock is now a town. In my younger days, it was the name of a road that went to Yellow Rock Lookout.
Yellow Rock Falls
I had heard that Frasers Creek contained a waterfall worth seeing, and a visit to the creek had been on my list of future walks for a long time – but with only a low priority. Bob was keen for a trip, but for various reasons, did not want to venture too far away, so suggested it was now time to do the Frasers Creek walk. Already, when talking about options, we thought the best way would be to take a bike and use that for a quick way to avoid a road bash. Continue reading
