During the morning I saw a picture on Facebook of the Tawny Frogmouth family at the Boat Harbour posted by Jennifer, a resident who lives close to the Boat Harbour. So that afternoon I cycled down to the Cooks River to see if I could spot them.
On the way, I saw a Great Egret hunting for food in a shallow part of the river. It seemed to catch a few small things. Then flew off upstream. Continue reading
I decided I would make another trip down to Tempe Wetlands and have a look for more Rails. After that, I would make my way along the Cooks River and look for Tawnies.
Olive-backed Oriole
At the Tempe Wetlands I had no luck spotting any Rails. I spent a bit of time photographing the Fairy Martins and Welcome Swallows darting close to the surface of the pools. Here is a Fairy Martin – Continue reading
I spent a pleasant day wandering around Oatley Park and the neighbouring Lime Kiln Bay area. Lots of Nature was on display.
Blotched Hyacinth Orchid (Dipodium variegatum)
I walked from Mortdale Station for about 20 minutes to the tracks that head down to Dairy Creek at Lime Kiln Bay. Continue reading
David Hufton was keen on a photo trip to Crawfords Lookout above the junction of the Colo River and Wollemi Creek in Wollemi National Park. He talked me into joining him.
We headed up the Putty Road and turned off along the Culoul Range. This fire road is in quite good condition and we had no trouble driving all the way out to the end of the road at Hollow Rock in David’s small 2WD car. I think this is about 12 – 13 km. On the way out we stopped at Jonathans Knob – a small basalt cap on the range (one of two) – an area that used to have cattle on it. It is a grassy area with a lot of nice tall trees. Continue reading
After visiting Tempe in the morning, I decided to visit Wolli Creek in the afternoon. I only went to the middle part of the valley – between Bardwell Park and Turrella.
I caught a bus to Earlwood, and walked down to Girrahween Park. On the way I looked for orchids – I had seen some in that area last year. I could not see any near Girraween Park, but little bit down the Two Valleys Track I did spot some coming up. They should be in flower later in the month. Continue reading
After having a most interesting day observing birds the day before, but missing seeing or photographing a particular bird, I again headed down to the Tempe Wetlands early in the morning.
Buff-banded Rail
My main objective was to try and spot the Rail that I had missed the day before. It had been seen by quite a few members of the Tempe Birdos, but no one had photographed it, so its identification was not certain. Continue reading
Early in the morning I joined the Tempe Birdos at the Tempe Wetlands for their monthly bird survey. It was nice to observe a reasonable number of birds at the Wetlands.
Striated Heron searching for food at the Boat Harbour, Cooks River
Here are some of the birds we saw early on – Continue reading
After a nice ferry ride to the Zoo, the day before, I thought that another ferry trip would be pleasant. So I caught the ferry to Manly and then set out to walk around North Head.
From the Ferry terminal, I walked up the main street to Manly Beach, and then off on the Coastal Path to Shelly Beach. This short section is rather urban walking but there are often lizards and birds to see – Continue reading
Another nice day at Taronga Zoo. This time I was joined by Chuin Nee and her two young sons Jasper and Sebastian.
We had a great day wandering around looking at the animals. Here is a selection of photos from the day – Continue reading
This was a very pleasant photo walk with David Hufton along the Curra Moors Track in Royal National Park. Quite a few wildflowers were out on the Moors and also the sea was rough along the coast – nice conditions for photos.
As we set off from the main road, we could not help noticing a lot of Christmas Bells in flower – Continue reading
