I spent an interesting day exploring some of the area near Kurnell and Cronulla. We started off by visiting the coast near Doughboy Head. This can be reached by a road that leaves the Kurnell Road just past the Desalination Plant.
This is a popular fishing and surfing spot. I was on the lookout for birds, but ended up taking photos of the surfers. Continue reading
Bob and myself headed up the mountains for a day of canyoning. We had decided to revisit Crayfish Creek. I could remember many years ago visiting this creek on a trip with Bob. Bob could recall it too – he said it was in 1977, just after we had been on a trip to the Ovens Creek area for Easter. But neither of us could remember anything much about the creek and its canyon except that it was not that extensive, nor were there any abseils.
So we set off along the firetrail to Burramoko Head from the barrier. We walked out to leave the fire road at about 300 metres south of Burramoko Hill. We followed an open ridge down to the creek. It was easy walking with no cliffs. Continue reading
This was a pleasant day spent in the northern part of Royal National Park on a walk led by Brian Everingham for the National Parks Association of NSW. I travelled to Bundeena by train to Cronulla and then the Ferry.
At the wharf, we were met by the rest of the party, and we proceeded by car to a street near the Jibbon Beach. As well as Brian there were Ken, Gary, Graham, Sue, Sue, Esther and myself. We then walked down to the beach and along it towards Jibbon Head. On the way, Brian mentioned some fo the management issues – such as the beach not being in the park, and the area just behind the beach, which is park, being an endangered ecological community – being littoral rainforest. Continue reading
It had been a while since my previous visit to Nurragingy Reserve at Doonside, so I thought I should visit the park again.
I did not observe that many birds, but those I did see where quite interesting. On my previous visit I had seen a pair of Pacific Bazas. This time I saw they had a nest, and in the nest was quite a well developed chick. It looked like it was 2 or 3 weeks old. It was hard to get reasonable photos of the chick in the nest – it being shielded behind branches. Continue reading
For a fair while I had wanted to do an overnight trip to Claustral Canyon. The extra time should allow for more photographic opportunities. Albert was keen to join me. We headed up Bells Line of Road in Albert’s car and parked at the Claustral Canyon carpark. We were not the only ones! There were 16 other cars there. But we had plenty of time, so it would not matter if new were held up by other parties at the abseils.
We set off around 10 am. Checking the logbook revealed that the last party to leave before us headed off at 8:50 am, so we should not have any problems with canyon congestion. This proved to be the case. We reached the abseils about 11 am. On the way, we had overtaken a party of 4, who were doing an extra abseil to get to the top of Calcutta Falls. We had taken the much faster, usual scrambling route. At the abseils there was another party led by Adele. They said they had waited for the party in front to get through. Not long after, Adele’s party were down the first drop, and we could proceed. Continue reading
After a great day down Birdwood Gully, I thought it may be worth visiting the nearby Sassafras Gully to see what fungi was out.
Hygrocybe miniata
Sassafras Gully has a lot larger area of suitable fungi habitat than Birdwood Gully, and I found a reasonable amount of fungi out. Perhaps the density was not as great as Birdwood Gully though. Continue reading
Another very hot day…. means another canyon. I was heading up the mountains with Bob and we decided to visit Whungee Wheengee Canyon near Mt Wilson.
Bob in an upper section of the canyon
This is an attractive canyon, but many sections are difficult to photograph as it is tricky to get your camera out in the spectacular sections which tend to be very wet. Also, on our visit, the lighting tended to be quite harsh making photography difficult. Continue reading
I was invited to join Liz and Gemma on a walk through Birdwood Gully at Springwood looking for fungi and slime moulds. There had been some recent rain in the lower Blue Mountains, but I was not all that hopeful that we would find much. This turned out to be wrong. Perhaps because we had three pairs of eyes spotting for fungi, we found a reasonable amount. And also, what we did find was certainly quite interesting.
I think the most interesting find of the day was this beautiful strawberry coloured coral fungus. So far we have not been able to identify it. Liz had seen it before in Birdwood Gully, but I could recall having seen it in he nearby Sassafras Gully. Continue reading
A hot day was forecast. I was keen to get outdoors, but not looking for anything too strenuous. And some swimming would be nice. I ended up catching a B-Line bus to Mona Vale and then walking out to the beach.
I didn’t see any interesting birds there, so started waking south along the Coastal Path. I reached Turimetta Head and looked around, but again things were quiet. I continued past Turimetta Beach to Narrabeen Head. On the way I spotted a very distant raptor (a Sea Eagle I think?) – Continue reading
I was keen to get out and look to see if any fungi was out after recent rain. Ferndale Park at Chatswood is not too far way and easy to get to. I caught a train to Chatswood Station and then walked down to the park.
It was drier than I was hoping for but I did find a few things out – fungi and slime moulds. Here is some of the fungi – Continue reading
