Bob and myself decided on walk along the coast of Royal National Park in order to see big waterfalls and big seas. These were the result of the recent coastal low. We started from Wattamolla and walked along the Coastal Track to Eagle Rock, and then back the same way.
The highlight of the walk were the massive waves crashing against the coastal cliffs.
As we set off from Wattamolla, we saw this Rainbow Lorikeet – Continue reading
I spent another day at Long Reef, on the Northern Beaches, from about 10 am to nearly 4 pm, where I spent most of the time photographing the local Ospreys. Fortunately quite a few were around. At one stage there were five hunting for fish at the one time.
When I arrived at the lookout, there was one Osprey circling around. Continue reading
I was able to attend the Greenway Bird Survey – Dulwich Hill section. The weather was fine but quite cool, and we did not see as many small birds as usual.
Here are some of the birds we observed –
Rainbow Lorikeets
Brian Everingham had organised a morning walk, for the National Parks Association of NSW, in Royal National Park to look for winter orchids. In the party was Brian, Valerie, Elaine, Judy, Ken, Sue, Suzanne, Helen and myself.
The group met at National Falls, and explored the upper part of the falls. Continue reading
I was keen to visit an interesting nook part way down Leura Falls that I had read about in an essay by John Low in his book “Blue Mountains Byways”. The essay “A Secret Garden” is about a special place near the bottom of Bridal Veil Falls that was described in an early tourist guide as “Gwennies Grotto“. So I suggested a walk to Bob to visit the Grotto and some other nearby features.
It was quite cold when Bob parked at the top of the track, on Cliff Drive at Katoomba. Due to landslides and track work, a lot of the tracks were closed – including the Fern Bower Track and the Leura Cascades Track. Continue reading
Sue joined me for a pleasant day spent at Nurragingy Reserve at Doonside. The weather was cool at first, but later developed into a very pleasant day, and it was warm in the sun. The birds however were fairly quiet.
Here are some we saw – Continue reading
Long Reef has been a very good venue recently for photographing Ospreys and sometimes Sea Eagles.
I arrived on the lookout around 11 am and soon walked down to the lower level. The tide was low, but now starting to go up. With binoculars, I spotted an Osprey perched on a tree on the north side of the headland. I walked towards it, and spotted a second Osprey perched a bit closer – Continue reading
I attended another fungi field study with the Sydney Fungal Studies Group. This one was at Bola Creek in Royal National Park. We had a large enthusiastic group in attendance and it included some members of the Friends of Royal National Park.
Conditions were quite dry and not that much fungi was out, and a lot of what we found was not in good condition. But having a large group with a lot of people looking made it easier for some nice fungi to be spotted. Continue reading
I decided to visit Oatley Park and have a wander around to see what was out and about.
I first went to the Lime Kiln Bay Wetlands. There did not seem to be too many beds around. Continue reading
Both Bob and myself were keen to look at an Aboriginal art cave in the Wilton area on the Southern Highlands.
The cave seems to lie on crown land, near a creek, but was not easy to reach. The first way we tried to walk there involved a lot of unexpected scrub, so we chose a slightly longer route that was was a lot more open. When we reached the cave, the art was truly amazing.
The cave has been relatively well known to non-aboriginals for a long time. It was archeologically described in the early 1960’s, and photos taken then, compared to now, seem to show little deterioration in the art. But the author of that report also mentions vandalism (graffiti) done in the 1930’s. Continue reading
