Bob and myself were keen to head back to an area we visited two weeks before, where we had looked at a number of Aboriginal sites in the Northern Blue Mountains. On this trip, we went back to the same area and visited some more interesting sites.
As usual on these trips, we started by walking along a fire road. On the way we saw a few orchids – Continue reading
I spent the morning at Rookwood Necropolis photographing birds. My last visit had been very good for photographing Spotted Pardalotes and Scarlet Honeyeaters. That visit had been in the afternoon. This time, I saw a few Scarlet Honeyeaters, and heard a lot more – but they seemed to be spending their time high up in the trees. The same for the Pardalotes. But the pair of Brown Goshawks that I had seen last time where about, and seem to be nesting nearby.
When they are perched in the trees, these Goshawks can be very hard to spot, just by looking around and looking up. But if you hear them calling, then that gives you big clues to where they are. Continue reading
Barton Park, which includes Landing Lights Wetland is one of the regular places I visit for bird photography, as it is relatively close to where I live. It also often offers a different range of birds between visits. This morning visit – the highlight was a Black-shouldered Kite.
When I arrived, I saw a small flock of Galahs feeding on the grass in Riverine Park near the Spring St Canal. Continue reading
This was another wildflower walk in Royal National Park. The walk was led by Brian Everigham for the National Parks Association of NSW. Perhaps the main thing we were looking for this time was orchids.
In the party was Brian, Gary, Ian, Phillip and myself.
On the way to Wises Track, we stopped off at three other sites along the way to look for orchids and other wildflowers. Continue reading
This time of the year is a good time to walk the Curra Moors in Royal National Park if you want to see wildflowers. I joined John and Chuin Nee and their two boys, Jasper and Sebastian, together with Digi Dave for a walk on the Curra Moors – out to the Coastal Track at Eagle Rock, then back via a loop along the coast.
Being a Sunday, we met a lot of other walkers enjoying the beautiful weather and the amazing display of flowers. Continue reading
The previous Saturday visit to Rookwood Necropolis with Simin and Lennis had been very good for observing some nice birds – in particular Scarlet Honeyeaters. But, we had also seen a Brown Goshawk flying about, and we had all missed photographing it. So I thought a repeat visit could be good. So I arrived in the early afternoon and started wandering around.
I had walked to Rookwood from Lidcombe Station. This is a very short walk, but the tricky part is crossing the very busy road to the Necropolis. Then I made my way to the Serpentine Creek area where we had seen the Scarlet Honeyeaters. When I arrived none were around. I walked down a path alongside the forest, and soon heard and then spotted the flock. But also, there were a lot of Spotted Pardalotes around too, and some had come down low. Continue reading
I was thinking of heading up to the Northern Beaches, but as it was a cool and windy day, I thought it may be more protected on malabar Headland, so headed out there to look for the Peregrine Falcons. This time I was by myself, and walked in from Malabar.
As visits go, this was a bit quiet. I only had fleeting glimpses of the male Peregrine Falcon, and saw little whale activity – the sea was very choppy due to the wind. But early on, I did see pod of Dolphins – Continue reading
It had been a long time since I had visited Emu Green Reserve at Emu Plains. Since the floods, the area is no as attractive as it once was. Also – some of the vegetation along the land has grown too high to see into the fields of the prison farm where raptors often hunt. So I don’t think it is as good as it once was. Here are some of the birds I saw –
Bell Miner
Red-browed Finch Continue reading
I visited Barton Park in the morning and spent most of my time at Landing Lights Wetland. The far end of the Spring St Canal was closed off for construction work.
Perhaps the highlight this visit was hearing and then seeing a Horsfield’s Bronze-Cuckoo. These are the smallest cuckoo in Australia and lay their eggs in the nests of Superb Fairy-wrens, or as a backup – Thornbills. Their life and ecology is very interesting and it is well worth listening to this podcast.
Here are some of the birds I spotted – Continue reading
Both Bob and myself were keen to return to the sea caves along the coast in the Munmorah State Conservation Area. On earlier trips we had visited the caves at Caves Beach and further south and then on a later visit, had walked from Caves Beach south to Frazer Beach. Some of the caves require low tides and low swells for safe visits, so we had to be very selective about when we could visit the area again.
This time we were more selective of where we visited, wanting to spend some time at certain caves. Continue reading
