Southern Ridge

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

Weekend Bike ride.

Well, I dusted off my Cannondale Synapse with the attitude " Well, it hurts if I sit and do nothing, and it hurts if I do something...so better to do something!"

The bike was covered with dust, tyres flat, and it just looked awful. With a few squirts of WD40 and a rag I had it looking nice again. So I packed the car and took the bike to the "Lowlands" (which I have blogged about before).

Now, I have to admit that I was a little reluctant to push it, but I soon found my rhythm and was humming a long nicely, that was, until a young guy with legs like Cadel Evans shot past me like a car in the fast land on the motorway. It was only then I realised just how slow I had become in the 18 months since I have ridden.



This shook me out of my "Gee I am going well" thoughts, and I hit the gears up and tried to keep up. Well, I didn't.. Buuuut I think with continued effort I will give it a good crack.

The lowlands are beautiful- Polo fields, the river, hedges, turf farms and birds. Its a lot like riding along English country lanes.

After a short 25ks I returned home.

This morning I have woken up a bit sore but I am on a mission to get fit again and will be back Wednesday.

Melbourne

Last week I sold my landcruiser. It felt as if it was part of the ending process that this year seems to have brought about. I will pick my new one up in a few weeks.


I hope to have it set up ready for more travel.



The apartment

Last week I was in Melbourne.



Black swans on the lawn of Albert Park lake.

Birding on the run can be a fun way of avoiding bordom. The trick is to identify without stopping or turning around. It can be frustrating too. I saw a beautiful bird of prey, thought I got all the markings down in my mind, but when I went to look it up, there were a few options. As a esult I cannot "tick it"

The letter winged kite looks almost the same as a black shouldered kite except for the marking under the "armpits". So I was very pleased with that one*. (* After consolation with Tony Dymond Vice president of the Cumberland Bird observers club, I am going to un-tick this. The behavior of the LWK is quite different to the BSK, and therefore I can no longer be certain)

Birds seen- Little Corella, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Galah, Red-rumped Parrot, Australian Raven, Litte Raven, Letter-winged kite, Australian Magpie, Australian Magpie, (White backed form), House Sparrow, Masked Lapwing, Australian Wood duck, Black Swan, Eastern Rosella, Crimson Rosella, Grey Butcherbird, Crested Pigeon, Common Bronzewing, Purple Swamp hen, Little Pied Cormorant, Intermediate Egret, Willy Wagtail, Magpie Lark, Silver Gull, White necked Heron, White winged Choughs, Pied Butcherbird, Welcome Swallow, Straw-necked Ibis. Black Shouldered Kite.

On returning I was pleased to see that the 2 bathroom renovation is complete and I can get a wheel chair into the main. which will be critical for a few weeks in December.

Weekend Birds

Glossy Black Cockatoo. (Not my photo)

I saw 9 of these threatened species along the firetrail. Specialised feeders they make a nest in hollow tree trunks. The non native bee also use the same hollow and have been attributed to the decline in numbers of these amazing birds. Over several years I have witnessed the numbers increase in the area I walk.


Eastern Spinebill.(Not my photo)
A honeyeater and a good sign that spring is on its way. Melodious song.


Red Browed Firetail Finch. (Not my photo)

A very busy small bird, with the male brightly coloured, often seen flitting about the sides of the firetrails in groups.


Rainbow Lorekeet. (Not my photo).
A very smart bird that enjoys fruit and seeds and clowns around!


King Parrot.
Bright red and green and quite a regular in the feeder and fire trails.

Its clear that spring is certainly on its way

Meeting Badger

It was some with some trepidation that I had agreed to meet Badger from "Vienna for Dummies" blog. I mean, meeting someone for real can be whole different experience than what your expectations might be based on their blog.

However, with our mutual friend, Jim's, departure, I thought "why not?" It will be interesting to see another persons perspective on all of this.

So, I met Badger and family in Blackheath, (Blue Mountains), on a stormy Sunday afternoon and had a wonderful few hours in front of the log fire with a beer, chatting about friendships and life's experiences.

So, Phillip-thanks mate. Great afternoon.

I look forward to catching up when overseas with them.

Check out Badgers Blog at http://phillipprideaux.blogspot.com/

Well folks today I:-

Opened a bag of fire wood and spread it all over the deck

Slept on Simons outside chair and then remodelled it.

Bit the end off a clay flower pot, which had strawberries in it and spread the dirt all over the deck.

Pulled the washing off the line and slept on it.

Opened the outside fireplace by removing the grill, and removing a burnt log, which I smeared all over the deck and ate the strawberries even though green.

Chewed the end off the hose.

Dropped a turd right in the middle of the pathway- just to test Simons reaction if he stepped in it.

Forced Simon to join Twitter for stress relief.

( I cannot understand why he gets stressed in wet weather?!!)


WOOOOF!

Motorbikes and birding.

Dave ready to ride.

Can they co-exist? I mean birding is a quiet activity. Motorbikes, (especially 2-strokes), are noisy affairs. So this weekend we took to the bikes to 2 separate locations. one on the farm to a beautiful valley called Tarana, the other to Pacific Park, where the boys can let their hair down on a motocross track, enduro tracks and trial riding trails. All in the name of exhausting themselves.


The Bike trailer with cooking set up- ensures a nice cup of tea, hot lunch or cold can be available for hungry riders.

Well I can say bikes can certainly be an effective means of birding. I even had a ride, ( against doctors orders), and flushed out a pair of Stubble quail! When I was younger I enjoyed the motorbikes I had. There is a certain sense of freedom with them.
After hours of riding the boys were covered in mud from head to toe. Daves CRF150, and Logans new CR 125 motor cross bike performed well and both boys rode exceptionally well too. Both boys are growing so fast, its really difficult to keep up with their energy level.


The boys fueling up the Honda CR125 motorcross bike- this bike is seriously fast!

Whilst they spent 5 hours riding I went off for quieter walks amongst the woods, river and swamps and found:- Australian Magpie, Brown falcon, Eastern Rosella, Crimson Rosella,, Australian Wood Duck, Pied Currawong, Common Bronze wing, Red-rumped Parrot, Galah, Yellow Tailed Cockatoo, Eastern Yellow Robin, Flame Robin, Yellow-rumped Thornbill, Striated Thornbill, Willy Wagtail, Grey Fantail, Crested Pigeon, Superb fairy wren, Stubble Quail, Australian Pipit, Rufus Whistler, Sulfur-crested Cockatoo, Common Starling, Australian Raven, Little Raven, Australian Pelican, Pee Wee, Black Swan, Masked Lapwing, Pacific Black Duck, Hard head, Purple Swamp Hen, Noisy Miner, Mallard, Cattle Egret, White Faced Heron.


Flame Robin- Its "red breast" is more of a flame orange then red.

It was a great way to spend 2 days.