This was a very full day of bird photography at a number of locations. I caught a B-line Bus to Warriewood, and the first site was a nearby sporting field. This is the nesting site for a pair of Eastern Ospreys.
I was concerned that their nest may bot have survived the recent very windy weather. Their nest is on top of a light post at the field. Their nest seemed to have survived, but perhaps their eggs didn’t or did not hatch. The Ospreys were mating! Continue reading
It was time to head back to Oatley Park to see what birds were out. The day started off fairly quiet – not that many birds were out, but later in the day, things got a little better.
I started by visiting the wetlands at Lime Kiln Bay. A few of the usual birds were around. Continue reading
I spent the afternoon of this day at Bicentennial Park at Homebush Bay photographing birds. Conditions were not the best – it was very windy. This made photography harder and I think a lot less birds were around.
Here are some photos – Continue reading
It was time to make another visit to Malabar Headland National Park. My main aim was to try and photograph the breeding pair of Peregrine Falcons that are currently nesting on the headland.
It was a reasonable visit. One of the Peregrine falcons was reasonably active and I did manage to get some nice sequences of photos. It was also a chance to look for whales. And there was plenty of time to look for whales as there was a fair bit of waiting around for the Peregrine Falcon to fly. Continue reading
I joined Brian Everingham and others from the National Parks Association of NSW on a walk through the Curra Moors of Royal National Park. August is a good time to visit the park for the wildflowers, and indeed on this walk we were greeted by an amazing display.
In particular, two plants were incredible in their prolific flowers – the Grass Trees and the Gymea Lilies. Continue reading
Another trip to the Zoo. I had several motivations for this trip – one was to See the new baby Gorilla. The other was to try out new firmware for one of my camera bodies and see how well the “animal eye autofocus” worked.
When you go to the Zoo to see new arrivals like the Tiger cubs or the new baby Gorilla, you need to be prepared to spend some time and make multiple visits to their enclosures, or even multiple visits to the Zoo. Continue reading
It is getting near the end of the fungi season, but due to lack of rain, the fungi that has appeared has been poor in a lot of places. But the northern suburbs of Sydney have had more rain than other areas, so I thought it worth having another look at Ferndale Park at Chatswood. I was pleasantly surprised with what I found.
One of the key species that I had been looking for had finally appeared in reasonable numbers. This was the Ferndale Park – Green-Pink Waxcap (Humidicutis sp.). That was particularly nice to find. I had seen it twice before this year – 2 old dried out specimens on one trip, and a single one on another. Here are some of what I found this time – Continue reading
This was a full day spent along the Cooks River. I started near the Boat Harbour and then cycled all the way to Botany Bay and back. I spent most of the time at Barton Park.
Near the Boat Harbour, I spotted one of the Tawny Frogmouths. This one was in a tree on the south side of the river. Continue reading
The bushcare group that I am in spent a morning weeding at Barrenjoey Headland. This is one of the regular places that we work at. After meeting up at the carpark near Pittwater Road, we then headed to the NPWS land at the north end of the spit. We split onto two groups – one weeded near the climbing area, and the other, the one I was in, walking around the headland near sea level and removing weeds as we go.
We mainly removed Bitou Bush and some Asparagus Fern, and some Lantana. It was good to see that a fair proportion of the area near the sea is relatively free of weeds. It is an endangered ecological community. Continue reading
I like to photograph the birds at local venues – areas near where I live. It is always interesting to see what birds are there, and also challenging to see if you can spot rarer and more exotic birds that occasionally pass through. One major place I have somewhat neglected has been Sydney Park at St Peters.
I spent a morning at the park. The birds were a bit quiet on my visit. Perhaps I should have arrived earlier? (I was there from about 10 am to 12:30 pm). But there were still some nice birds around. This photos shows a wide range – Black Swans with their chicks, Purple Swamphens, Moorhens and Coots – Continue reading
