Having nothing better to do on a Saturday, I headed down to Oatley Park with my camera. It had been a while since I had visited the area.
I walked there from Mortdale Station and entered the area via Lime Kiln Creek. I first checked out the ponds of the wetlands. Not many birds out. So I then headed along the track on the western side. Continue reading
I had visited Tempe wetlands four days earlier, but that visit was the last part of a walk down Wolli Ck and I dint spend very much time in the area. So I decided to go back – starting early in the day.
White-naped Honeyeater
I started with several slow circuits of the wetlands, seeing what birds were out. The first thing I noticed was how dry it was – especially the third pool. A lot of it had dried up – Continue reading
I made another visit to Nurragingy Reserve at Doonside to photograph the birdlife. I had failed to spot the Azure Kingfisher pair on my last visit. Perhaps I would have more luck this time?
Golden Whistler
I had a rewarding day, although I didn’t manage to spot the Kingfishers, as there were a lot of other birds to photograph. Continue reading
I returned to the Chiltern Trail at Ingleside to attempt to get better photos of some of the Honeyeaters I had seen on my previous trip. On that occasion, I had got a nice series of photos of Spotted Pardalotes taking nesting materials into their nest hole, and I had seen a lot of honeyeaters – but only had poor photos of some of them.
Eastern Spinebill
Here are some of my photos. First the honeyeaters – Continue reading
Another trip to Malabar Headland. I was keen to return after photographing Kestrels and Peregrine Falcons on my last trip and well as some close ups of breaching whales. This time I was joined by Ken Griffiths, who is a very good nature photographer (See his website here). Ken is also an expert on frogs and reptiles – and is able to often spot these creatures in places I walk past.
We met at Central and caught a bus to Maroubra and then set off along the track to Magic Point and the Boora Point. Continue reading
It had been a while since had walked down Wolli Creek. At this time of the year I normally am on the lookout for fungi, but it has been so dry recently that I thought in most unlikely that I would see any, so I had my bird camera ready instead.
On this trip, I started at Bexley North Station and walk down the two Valleys Track to Tempe and then crossed the railway line and finished off with a quick visit to Tempe Wetlands. Continue reading
My friends John and Chuin Nee had won a family “Behind the Scenes” pass to the Australian Reptile Park at Gosford. They invited me to join them. I went along and did the normal visit rather than join them for their behind the scenes visit.
It had been a long while since I had visited the Reptile Park. My last visit was on a school excursion (as a student rather than a teacher), and since then it had changed location slightly. I remember it then as being a very interesting place to visit. It still is. Continue reading
I made some plans to view the Lunar Eclipse and try and photograph the eclipsed Moon setting behind the city buildings. I thought about some good venues for this and then used the Photographers Ephemeris App to see which location would be best. Then I would see if I could get there by either bike or public transport early on Saturday morning.
The Moon totally eclipsed
The Sun sets more to the north of west in winter, and because of the tilt of the ecliptic plain the Moon therefore sets more to the south of west. Or in other words, a good summer sunset spot would be good for the setting Moon in winter. Continue reading
I joined Brian Everingham and a group from the National Parks Association of NSW for a photo walk at Wottamolla. We later continued with some bird photography at Audley.
In the party, as well as Brian, was Sue, Alan, Ken, Bob, Gary S, Gary B, Erden and myself. From the carpark at Wottamolla, we first walked out to Providential Point. We were hoping to see a Sea Eagle or two, but we had no luck on the day. But we did see some whales pass by quite close. Continue reading
Neither Bob nor myself had visited Bruce’s Walk. It is a walking track constructed in the Blue Mountains, nor far north of the railway line, around 1931. It follows the easement of an electrical transmission line constructed shortly before, that was used when the railway line was electrified. Much of the survey work for the transmission line was carried out by Arthur Bruce, and it was likely to be him who also suggested a walking track could be constructed along the same route between Lawson and Blackheath.
The NSW Government railways even published a guidebook to the new track which can be downloaded here from Trove. Continue reading
