Back in action

Finally got the interwebs reconnected after a few month absence. Should have a few new posts up soon, but in the mean time here are a few pics from a walk I did in lane cove a few months ago.


A little bit overexposed. Pity I deleted the raw file.

Stuff

Have not being doing a lot lately although I manage to get out for a short walk most weekends, there has been no longer trips or camping. The bird life was pretty good but I did not have my camera on me then so didn't get any shots. However, now that I finally got my camera fixed there should be some reasonable photos soon.

Fagan park again

A few weeks back we went to Fagan park again so Claire could 'play' with some ducks.




Hello ducks

Cairns

Work sent me to a conference in Cairns, I had tried to get out of it as I have far to much to do to be able to take a week off but sadly could not.

I had only half a day free while I was there as well as early mornings so was pretty limited in what I could do. Nonetheless my attempts to see any wildlife were appalling with only 4 new birds seen. Didn't see any crocodiles either despite the sign on the esplanade promising so much.


Black Butcherbird

I will have to go again when I can afford to have some time off and have a proper look around.


The botanic gardens were very nice.

Muogamarra Nature Reserve

Every year Muogamarra Nature Reserve opens for a few weeks of the year in late August and early September. It is supposedly famous for its wild flowers and they were rather good although there was not a lot of other wild life about when we were there.


Flower


View


Cicada shell


Family


Hollow tree

WA part 4

From the Stirling ranges it was just a short drive down to Cheynes beach next to the Waychinicup national park. It is a lovely area and the beaches are stunning with fantastic white sand and beautiful water.


Two peoples bay is very pretty and rumour has it you can even see the rock parrot there although I didn't.


Waychinicup, is also extremely nice.


Cheynes Beach


Adelle's "quail"

While we were down south we also popped into Porongurup national park and saw a few trees, but not too many birds although it was probably to late in the day. Still very nice though.


Rufous treecreaper

On the way back to Perth we stopped in at Collie (don't) where I got a bacon burger for $6 which was comprised of two pieces of bacon and two pieces of bread a little sauce and nothing else, before going on to wellington state forest/national park. After seeing a few nice examples of Kings skink we headed for our accommodation for the night at Evedon Park (great value for money), the gps originally wanted to take us on a long loop around the park but I talked it into taking the direct route through the park which turned out to be rather interesting with the camry displaying a surprising good ground clearance.

WA Part 3

After leaving dryandra it was just a short leisurely drive down to stirling ranges national park. Whilst visiting the park we stayed at the lovely stirling range retreat which is a very good place to stay if you are interested in wildlife as it has reasonably good ground where the owners have put in a lot of work returning to a natural state and trying to attract wildlife and it seems to have worked well as a lot of the new birds that I encountered were within the retreat grounds. The ranges themselves are very nice with a lot of walks going up the various peaks and in a place as phenomenally flat as Australia it is just nice to see a hill or two every now and then.


Western yellow robin.

Elegant Parrot one of the first things I saw as we entered the retreat.
Grey currawong, they do exist.


There were also plenty of monitors about.

WA part 2

The next day after Rottnest we left Perth much to my relief and drove to Dryandra. Dryanda is a lovely dry woodland with some rather special bird species and some fantastic accommodation run by the lions. We stayed in the mallee hen cottage and it was great with wildlife including Carnaby's black-cockatoo by the dozen in the small dam 20 meters from the cottage. I also managed to see the brown-headed honeyeater from the veranda which was nice. The only real downside being that I slipped over after just getting there and smashed the filter on my camera and have not been able to get it off. Luckily it was possible to pull all of the glass out of the filter and carry on taking photos.








A friendly visitor to the hut.

WA part 1

After the wedding we had an afternoon to kill so went to Cottesloe beach which was fairly mediocre so I won't mention it here. However, the next day we had all to ourselves so we went out to Northam to see the mute swan. I was told it was an industrial wasteland but we found a lovely little park near the river were we could have some lunch and watch the wild life. The weather was terribly hot and I did feel sorry for all the people competing in a running race along the river. On the way back we stopped at the Bakers Hill pie shop which was rather good and then at Sawyers Valley where there were some markets where we managed to find a nice wodden bowl. The mute swan. The next day we went out to Rottnest. The trip takes about half an hour and Adelle only just made it there with throwing up on the way there. That meant our first destination on the island was the pharmacy to get some sea sickness tablets for the return journey. However i did manage to see both banded lapwings and quokkas on the few hundred meter walk there. The island itself is pretty barren and I managed to see no new birds there but did bump in to Allan and Gemma again and had a good snorkle as the coral and fish are very good.

Allan and Gemmas Wedding

A few weeks back we went to Allan and Gemma's wedding in kings park. It was a great wedding in the park on a lovely sunny day. In fact it was way two sunny and my camera struggled to get a white dress and black suit in the same photo without a lot of weird aberrations appearing. Here is a particularly bad photo which I uploaded by accident. The gardens are well worth a look and I managed to see both Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo and the Red-Tailed Black-Cockatoo there.

Fagan Park

Back in February we visited Fagan Park for a we wander. It is not that great but it is close and a good place for little kids.

New Years Holiday

Over new years we went up to Whananaki with my siblings.

Whananaki is famous for amoungst other things having the longest foot bridge in the southern hemisphere.


It also has some pretty good beaches but since it rained the whole time I did not get to spend that much time at them. Did get out for a few walks although most of them were not that good and involved walking across farmland.


The beach





Nonetheless I did manage to see a barbary dove which is a new one for the list.


Due to the poor weather we were forced to travel farther a field for something to do and the clock museum in Whangarei was widely touted as the most exciting place in all of northland and i have to say they were not wrong.

Christmas

Well I have rather slack and not posted anything for a while but I have finally sorted out all my photos. For Christmas Adelle, Claire and I went back to NZ.

We did not really do anything special apart from a brief holiday in whananaki.


Opening the presents.


Playing with the sheep


Playing in the grass.

Claire did have her 1st birthday while we were over there and her great grandmother kindly made her a cake.


Also did a bit of swimming, gardening and a few short walks.

Bobbin head/Sphinx/Warrimoo tracks

In mid December Adelle and I went for a walk in the Ku-ring-gai Chase national park. I had not done these tracks for a while so it was good to combine them in a leisurely loop. The wildlife was good with plenty of reptiles including a nice monitor. There was also a very friendly echidna digging up an ants nest near the track but unfortunately it was a torrential downpour at the time and I was not willing to take out the camera to try and get a shot.


The reason it is called the sphinx track


The live one was more interesting but I didn't manage a photo of that.