The House(s) of Fran_mart

After a stroll to say hello to Arabella, Tammy and I dropped Frances off at a drawing class and headed to vague area of Ginniderra Creek.  I began at Giralang Ponds. The big hope here was Nankeen Night-heron which roost in the Casuarinas.  Actually that should be "Sometimes roost in the Casuarinas.": and as you might infer today was not one of those times.  In the general region of Herons etc I soon spotted 3 Australian White Ibis (not common recently) and a pair of White-faced Herons on a power line. I then spotted another two mucking around in the reeds.  I'd guess a family group.  A Lathams Snipe then sqwarked its way off a mud bank.  All told I ended up with 25 species for the site. I then shifted a few '00m to McKellar Pond where in the past Little Bittern and Australasian Bittern have been sighted.  Not today they weren't.  The best bird - which has turned out to be Bird of the Day - here was Olive-backed Oriole.  Surely that is ...

Unfortunately neither Marilyn Monroe nor Tony Curtis graced the cemetery at Mongarlowe today.  I decided to drop out there as a member of the Canberra Orchid group had reported that the orchids were very good. I checked out a few damp places in Bungendore and can report there were good numbers of Australian Shelduck but as far as I could determine no Plumed Whistling Ducks. Heading on out towards Braidwood (10am 30 o C) I found that Palerang Shire Council were doing what they do best: blocking traffic.  I seemed to sit there forever, but it was probably only 7 or 8 minutes.  When traffic finally started coming towards us I counted 30 cars coming through so Lord knows how long they had been waiting.  The only evidence of any actual work at this point was this guy moving the cones around. In fairness when I came back a few hours later it did seem that some tar had been sprayed, but again there seemed to be massive delays and no sign of the workers. On getti...

The weather forecast for the next three days is looking a tad ordinary with maxima of 35-36 o C  so I thought I should take the chance to get out for at least most of the day. I had my binoculars with me to see what I could scare up in the way of birds. The first venue was to meet daughter and grand-daughter for a lap of the Central Basin of Lake Burley Griffin.  As we crossed Parkes Way I looked at the traffic banked up on the road and thought how lucky I was not to work any more. Why is there so much traffic?  In part it is because the people in the outer reaches of the urban area seem not to have heard of car pooling. When I have looked into Census data on journey to work in the past it has resolved to an average of 1/5 th of the people travelling by car doing so as a passenger.  I have also observed this when running early in the morning in most of Australia's State capitals. This morning I did a quick check as the walked across Kings Avenue bridge. ...

I have again started on a campaign to see a different/new bird each day through 2016.  This is my third year (but 4th campaign as I also tried a year starting on 1 July in 2014). The previous efforts have broken after 162 days (Jan 2014), 173 days (July 2014)  and 166 days (Jan 2015).  Despite starting in mid-Winter, the July 2014 entry should be higher than the others since that included a 4 week trip to Western and Northern NSW. So far I am 49 days into the January 2016 effort.  My best bird thus far is undoubtedly the Paradise Shelduck seen on January 2: I could also have recorded Hudsonian Godwit (also a BaD 7) on that day, but someone else in the game had scored that on January 1! Looking at 2016 in contrast with 2015 is interesting.  I record two scores for species.  The first is called  % and is based on the number of times the species has been recorded in NSW by recorders for eBird.  Smaller is better as implies rarer.  (Its act...

On 18 February we visited the Australian National Botanical Gardens, primarily to look for artistically curled leaves and butterflies, and Cockington Green, primarily to have a look at the place at our own pace. The leaves will appear here in due course when they have been dealt with artistically.  The only interesting butterfly seen was a McLeay's Swallowtail which did not pose conveniently for a snap. One of the roos did pose displaying both a collar - showing it has been darted in a trial of contraceptives - and a pink ear tag.  Both collars and pink eartags can be anticipated in larger numbers in Oxford Street on 5 March but I don't think contraception is exactly needed there. Going up the Rainforest gully we encountered a tree surgeon doing his stuff. Failing to find any photogenic butterflies we went to check the Gippsland water dragons in the Rock Garden.  I'll start with the scales on the back of a dragon's head They have a colourful throat. And ...

26 Members and guests, including 2 visitors from Cambridge UK gathered at 8:30 on the Eastern shores of Lake Tuggeranong.   In the early stages of the walk we had frequent reminders that it was a shared path. In contrast to the lycra-clad Visigoths who frequent the track along the Northern side of Lake Burley Griffin the riders here were pretty considerate and frequently used their warning devices to alert us to their presence.  Also, it is good as a point of policy to see quite a few folk riding to work. The lake generally looked in reasonable order although I was intrigued to see a sign near the dam wall saying the Lake was closed. None of the other signs said this so I presume it was just that the TAMS EL1 responsible for maintaining this sign was at a workshop and it was awaiting their return for removal. Closed or not a bunch of researchers were hard at it in a tinny. Assuming they were associated with a ute mit boat trailer at the ramp off Mortimer Le...