Dave pausing to listen to the sounds of the bush and a Golden Whistler.
On fathers day David and I got up early and chose to walk the fire trail which runs south from the house to the Grose River. Its about 7km. You can listen to a Golden Whistler by following this link and scroll down to the MP3
http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/species/Pachycephala-pectoralis
One of the fresh fire breaks put in place by the fire brigade
The day was warm at 20c, bright, light breeze, and plenty of trails to follow as the local fire brigade gets ready for a burn off. The morning was full of bird call, and brown flitty things making themselves busy amongst the growth. It was not too long before we were enjoying the sounds of whip birds in the valleys and golden whistlers enjoying the upper canopy.
Yellow Robin (click on picture and zoom in....)
The fire brigade will be burning off this week and I am curious to see the impact of this on the bird life as the birds are effectively in nest building and territorial establishment. I fear that this will have a negative impact if the fire reaches the canopy.
One of the many interesting trees.
One of the frustrating things however is the number of bottles we found. Clearly someone has driven the trails, and had quite a number of drinks. None of that concerns me but to simply throw the bottles into the bush is irresponsible. Bottles can start bush fires. Its that simple. Dave and I picked up all we could find and carried them out.
The superb view at the end of the trail. Looking west into the Grose River Gorge.
Oh- I want to apologise for the photos- I use an Olympus U770SW. Its one of those small waterproof/shock proof thingies and is basically lousy.
Birds seen:-
Golden Whistler, Eastern Spinebill, Red-browed Finch, Striated Thornbill, Yellow Rumped thornbill, Grey Fantail, Rufus Whistler, Grey Shrike-thrush, White throated tree creeper, Laughing Kookuburra, Crimson Rosella, Whipbird, Lyrebird, Common Bronzwing, Rainbow Lorekeet, King Parrot, Superb Fairywren
Hehe ! Lousy camera ? It's the eye behind it that did wonders here ! Thought you made fantastic photos !
ReplyDeleteViviane
Viviane, many thanks. its just a horrible little unit. I bought it becasue of the outdoors but I have to take about 100 shots to get 10good ones. Hope you are well.
ReplyDeleteHello Simon, Looks as though,in your old age,you have gone from birds to birds,if you get my drift. Great photos,showing enormous appreciation for nature keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteSimon, I'm going a bumpy road...but I'm fine ! A fence collapsed onto my car at a buildingsite today...wonder what will happen next :-)
ReplyDeleteI too stick to little cameras...for me, it's also a good excuse ;-)
lucky you were not in the car Viviane! I have seen an entire wall fall on a car, not a good look
ReplyDeleteOh that's some view. wow. Again, I am impressed by the number of birds seen. Will play the songs tomorrow. It's late here & Julie the Cat is sleeping next to me. It will awake her:)
ReplyDeleteCheers, Simon.
yes, I can imagine that Julie will want to chase them!
ReplyDeleteSimon,
ReplyDeletethe images are great, only a bit overexposed.
Do you have a "Snow" or "Beach" setting on the camera? That should help getting better calibrated exposure.
It is amazing how many birds you can find so close to home.
hey Merisi. I will check it out. the camera is very sensitive to changes in light. By that I mean, if I turn sideways into a bit of shadow, the picture can come out looking black, so I will check the settings out and try it.
ReplyDeleteSadly I am a "auto" man