I spent a few full day at the Northern Beaches visiting a number of sites, and in particular nesting sites of raptors.
I first travelled to Manly Vale in the B-line bus, and walked to sporting park where a pair of Eastern Ospreys have a well established nest. As I was approaching the nest, one of the birds flew off and landed on the grass and grabbed a stick. It flew back and added it to the nest. Continue reading
I spent another day out on Malabar Headland. My main aim was to photograph the resident pair of Peregrine Falcons.
I walked out fairly early towards Boora Point. On the way, there were not many birds out. At the Falcon nesting area, I spotted one of the Falcons sitting on a ledge and managed a few photos before it flew away to a ledge out of sight (the nest site). I then met David, another bird photographer that I had met before at Oatley Park and on my previous visit to Malabar Headland. Continue reading
I spent a full and interesting day wandering around the ponds and foreshore at Bicentennial Park at Homebush Bay photographing the birds.
Here are some of my photos – Continue reading
On a previous visit to Bob’s house at Cheltenham, one of his neighbours, Steve, had taken me down to see the nesting site of a pair of Powerful Owls. I now had another chance to visit – Bob and told me Steve had visited the nest site that morning and the male Powerful Owl had a possum clutched in his talons and that he would most likely feed the chick in the nest hole that evening at dusk.
So I travelled up to Cheltenham, called into Bob’s place for a cuppa and then walk down the street to meet Steve. He arrived with another bird photographer, and we set off the short way to the nesting site. On the way, Steve pointed out the male owl with the possum. Continue reading
I had been on a previous trip to Popran National Park not long before and had been impressed with the area. That trip was with Bob, and we were both keen to visit the park again. One feature of Popran National Park is its high density of Aboriginal sites.
Bob had done some research and found there was an old track not marked on the maps that ran from the Hominy Creek Trail North to Ironbark Creek. This trail is continuation of the Mailmans Walking Track, that is marked on the maps, and runs south east of Mt Olive in Glenworth Valley. The western part of the track leaves the fire road before Donovans Forest and meets Ironbark Creek between Koala Gully and Ferny Gully. Continue reading
I had travelled up to Cheltenham to see a pair of newly fledged Powerful Owlets. I met my friend Bob, who lives close to where the Powerful Owls have their nest, and we walked the short distance into the bush of Byles Creek to see if we could locate the chicks. We were very fortunate we soon found both the Owlets and both parents. I will upload some photos in a separate blog post. After taking photos of the Owls, I left Bob and headed down the fire road along Devlins Creek to the Lane Cove River, I then walked down that and then up the track that follows Terrys Creek to Eastwood. This was an excellent trip for bird photography.
As I walked down Devlins Creek I could not help seeing and hearing a lot of very noisy Sulphur Crested Cockatoos. Continue reading
I spent a morning at Tempe, wandering around the Tempe Wetlands and the wastelands nearby, then around Tempe Reserve, and back through the Wetlands before heading home for lunch.
It started off fairly quiet, but as the morning proceeded, more birds seemed to appear. This is often the case with bird photography. You need to be patient. Continue reading
It was good to spend a weekend in the Northern Blue Mountains with a group of friends. John and Chuin Nee had organised the walk, and with them went their young sons Jasper and Sebastian, Eugene, Dave Os, Martin, Steffy, Rob, Rik, Colin, Sam and myself.
After driving to Newnes, we set off up the valley of Little Capertee Creek – following a rough and very faint track that follows the true left bank most of the way, and then up a side tributary to the Wolgan/Capertee divide. Continue reading
This was a bit of an opportunistic trip. I had visited the headland a few times recently, and had originally planned to do some bird photography at another site. But the forecast was for more high seas, so I thought the coastline would be nice.
It was another very good day. But it started badly – here had been a train with a mechanical problem at Town Hall on a different line that the one I was taking to Central. But the whole rain system seemed to be stuffed up. The train journey was very slow. Then the bus trip to Maroubra Beach. So I eventually arrived around 10:30 am, and started my walk out into the National Park. Continue reading
I had been planning to do a walk up the mountains with Bob, but due to an adverse weather forecast (strong winds) we changed plans. The forecast was also for a powerful surf, so I suggested some coastal walking. Bob then suggested visiting St Michaels Cave near Avalon.
In some ways this was a crazy thing to do. To visit a sea cave in a time of high seas was probably madness. But that did not deter us. Bob parked near Avalon Beach and we walked down to the beach and then approached the rock platforms to the north. We were soon stopped by a place where the cliff met the sea. The tide was half way between low and high (and on the way up). Large waves would wash up right to the cliff. Continue reading
