This was the week for bird surveys – with the Tempe Survey on Saturday, the Cooks River Survey on Tuesday, and now the Greenway Survey (Wednesday). The group met at 7:30 am at Taverners Hill Light Rail Station.
Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike
The highlight of this survey was spotting a Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike at Taverners Hill Station. These are common birds – but not along The Greenway. Continue reading
I joined the Mudlarks for their monthly bird survey along the Cooks River. This month the survey was the downstream loop.
While the group was assembling on the Lang St Bride a large flock of Little Corellas flew past – Continue reading
It had been a few months since I had visited Nurragingy Reserve at Doonside. I had been wanting to go for a fair while – but it had either been too hot or too wet, or something else was on. I finally made it!
One of the birds I look forward to seeing at Nurragingy Reserve are Azure Kingfishers. On this visit, despite a lot of looking, I did not see any. I did see a pair of Sacred Kingfishers bringing back food for their family which was nice.
It was a fairly warm day, and I eft early in the afternoon when the temperature started climbing towards the mid thirties. Continue reading
I decided to do a walk down Terrys Creek to see if any fungi was out, and also to look for birds. I started from Epping Station and walked down to the creek via Pembroke St. I then walked down to Browns Waterhole where the creek meets the Lane Cove River. I stopped there for lunch, and then walked back to where I had entered the creek, and continued walking upstream, and exited at Eastwood.
There was not that much fungi out, but what I did find was interesting. Continue reading
The weather in the afternoon improved a lot compared to the wet weather of the morning, and I was keen to venture out again, so I travelled to North Strathfield and first visited Mason Park Wetlands. I then continued into Sydney Olympic Park and visited Lake Belvedere, the Bennelong Ponds and the Bicentennial Park Waterbird Refuge. I then went to Wentworth Common, Wo-lar-ra and finished off at Narawang Wetlands. This was fair walk!
I would have been happy to remain in one or two spots, but the birdlife was relatively poor compared to what it sometimes can be. Continue reading
It was time for the monthly bird survey with the Tempe Birdos. This time I joined the group surveying at the Wetlands. It was not raining when we started, but that did not last long. We soon put on rain coats or put up umbrellas.
Being a photographer, I winged about the terrible light and generally difficult conditions. Continue reading
I joined Bob and Doug on a nice day of canyoning in Hat Hill Canyon at Blackheath. It was a fine warm day – and a cool canyon was a great place to be in.
Doug parked at the turn-off to Hat Hill Ridge, and we then walked back to the track that goes to the start of the canyon. We thought it best to do the road walk first – in the cooler conditions. This was a sensible thing to do – as it was much hotter later on. Continue reading
Sue joined me for an interesting and enjoyable trip down Birdwood Gully at Springwood. I had been looking at the local rainfall data and it indicted it could be good for fungi, despite some recent hot days.
The fungi was not super abundant, but there was a reasonable amount of a few species out. Continue reading
A very hot and humid day was forecast. I thought it would be good to be indoors in air conditioned comfort – so I decided to visit the Art Gallery of NSW, and in particular visit two short term exhibitions – Kandinsky and
Wassily Kandinsky (1866 – 1944) was a Russian born artist who is regarded as a pioneer of abstraction. However his style changed significantly over the years. As well as working in Russia, he spend many years in Germany.
Many of his works feature circular and triangular shapes. Continue reading
