A couple more outings

The first was on 17 June, to Bungendore to go to the Waste Transfer Station (still referred to, by traditionalists, as the tip).  On the way home I checked out the main dam on Trucking Yard Lane.  The main reason for stopping there was to check the ducks.
Especially the Plumed Whistling Ducks (or, as the property owner said recently to another birder, Darwin Ducks).  There were 21 present on this day: the flock has been around 20 -30 birds for the last while.
 A huge number of Galahs were present.  They were in several flocks.  This is part of a mob on some power lines.
Here is a cropped image of the one flying in because it shows the feather positions as it manoevures for a landing
There were a couple of other flocks on other power lines and four trees with this density of birds.  All up I estimated about 500 Galahs.  Smaller numbers of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos and Little Corellas were also present.
 On the Sunday Frances and I did a lap of the Central Basin of Lake Burley Griffiin. We parked at NGA (as a return visit to the Triennial exhibition was planned) and started by going through the underpass.  It is a very attractive bit of civil engineering, as it should be given the generations of members of the CFMEU who founded dynasties through its construction.
 A couple of Black Swans were tried to bum food from passers-by.
 A darter was more concerned about drying its wings than feeding.
There were quite a mob of folk enjoying the walk around the basin.  A fair proportion had dogs with them, on leads and causing no grief to anyone.Certainly the birdswere not fussed.
The sky was completely clear, which made a nice change from recent cloudy/murky/English-Summer days.
 On the final leg a series of plaques have been erected to celebrate Australians of the Year.  The plural is necessary as simply having an Australian of the year is way discriminatory so there are now Senior Australian of the Year, Young Australian of the Year and "Local Hero"of the Year.  There must soon be a category which I can win.  Whatever: I reckon 1990 was a classic year with these two winners.  
 As the basin is the haunt of both the Territory Government in the form of TAMS (boo, hiss) and the Commonwealth through NCA (BOO, BOO, I say, hissss) official dom is evident with various signs controlling the rabble. This lot appeared to be around a few m2 of repaired concrete.
 As the temperature was about 15oC no ice was evident but having the sign out from about April to October saves money and thought.
Despite my last bit of snark it was a very pleasnt walk on a nice Winters day.

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