With another wet day – I decided on another rail trip. This time I travelled to Westmead via the normal heavy rail, then tried out the new Parramatta Light Rail.
I started at one of the line – Westmead, where the light rail station is very close to Westmead Railway Station. Then I stayed on the tram all the way to the far end of the line at Carlingford. Continue reading
With a very wet day forecast, Bob and myself considered options. It looked like it was going to be too wet for a standard bushwalk, and we did consider a session of indoor climbing, but we ended up deciding to head up the Mountains and see what some of the waterfalls were like.
We ended up having a very good outing, although we did get quite wet and cold. As well as wearing parkas, we ended up using umbrellas most of the time. Continue reading
I was keen to get out after a few days at home sitting out bad weather, and with another bad weather day forecast, I thought a train trip to Newcastle and back may be a good activity. I was keen to see what the new Mariyung Trains were like.
So I boarded one of the new Mariyung – D Set Trains at Central. It was a ten car set – comprised of a set of four cars and a set of 6 cars coupled together. Continue reading
I attended a walk that Brian Everingham organised for the National Parks Association of NSW. The plan was to walk along the upper, heath section of the Wallumarra Track in Royal National Park. But before that, we visited the south end of Lady Carrington Drive and a short part of the Forest Path to look for any orchids that may be out.
In the party was Brian, Valerie, Sue, Elaine, Nerine, Ken and Helen.
First the orchids – Continue reading
My previous trip to Long Reef had been shortened because earlier in the day I had visited Irrawong Reserve. So I was keen to head up to the Northern beaches for another session of photographing mainly the Ospreys fishing at Long Reef.
It turned out to be a reasonable day. I was at Long Reef from approximately 11 am to 4 pm, and for a lot of that time, particularly later in the afternoon, there were a lot of other bird photographers present. At one stage I counted about 20. These included Celine, Michael, Simon and Jimmy who I have met at Long Reef numerous times before. Continue reading
I headed down to Bola Creek in Royal National Park for a field study with the Sydney Fungal Studies Group. It was late in the fungi season, but there had been plenty of rain recently.
We had an enthusiastic group along for the field study, including some attendees from Friends of of Royal National Park. We did not observe a huge abundance of fungi, although we did spot some interesting species.
Here is a selection – Continue reading
I made another trip to the Northern Beaches, with the main focus being the Ospreys at Long Reef, but I first visited Irrawong Reserve at Warriewood to look for a Noisy Pitta that had been seen there recently.
I had no luck spotting the Noisy Pitta. I knew I was in the right place, and there were some other bird photographers around, and had been seen there earlier in the morning. Here are a few other birds – Continue reading
Bob and myself decided to visit the Lower Blue Mountains to look at some Aboriginal art sites. Rain was forecast for Sydney, but the lower Blue Mountains escaped the bad weather during our visit.
We visited four art sites.
The first site was a cave, not too far from a major sporting complex, and had suffered some vandalism (graffiti) over the years. A shame! Continue reading
After the Greenway Bird Survey, I travelled to Maroubra Beach, where I met Sue, and then we headed out into Malabar Headland National Park.
Just after the carpark, we spotted a Black-shouldered Kite perched on top of a pole. This was a good start to our visit. Continue reading
We had a very pleasant morning survey along the Hawthorne Canal section of the Greenway. The Sun was out!
This makes a big difference with the birds seen at Taverners Hill Light Rail Station, where we saw a small flock of Spotted Pardalotes foraging in the Eucalypts.
