A run with my friends in Queanbeyan

Some years ago The Committee decided that defining a run by yourself as a run with your friends was an official Joke.  I think that made the total number of official Jokes about 2.  The first one was established before I became a member of caucus, let alone The Committee, and was something to do with graders near Half-way Hill on Pipe Flat Rd.  The third official Joke was to do with Roast Lamb (rated as the only thing better than a 32km rain at 4oC with light rain and a 30kph Southerly.).

So today a quorum was 1 as I took myself off for a waddle along the mighty Queanbeyan.  For such events I take my phone and record bird sightings as I go: this tends to slow the run down a bit, but I have 90 minutes before Frances has finished her Pilates Class so that's alright.  I also take a few snaps with the phone, but they aren't great art when the light is scungy as it was today.

Birds were relatively thin on the ground until the last part of the outward leg when I came across 39 Australian Wood Ducks, 24 feral pigeons ...
(with 2 Eastern Rosellas  if you look closely) and 34 Galahs.
 On my way the Ducks were a bit agitated due to a white cat running around.  It jumped back into a yard before I could find something to heave in its general direction (such as a rock).  Further along I noticed for the first time - in about 70 runs on this course that the small park with the two-stall sacred site is called Glebe Park That is currently the site of a flowering gum tree, which I think is possibly Eucalyptus leucoxylon.  Its very pretty and very popular with Red Wattlebirds.

 About 300m further on the traditional diverges from a pure out and back to cross to the opposite side of the River.  This utilises the Suspension Bridge, originally built to allow nuns to cross the River when it was in flood.  Here is the Mighty Queanbeyan in somnolent mood and also showing the crappy weather.
 The main reason for this snap was not to show the infrastructure of the bridge but the ridge in the distances up which yesterday's stroll went (its about 250 vertical metres).
 Nearing the end I encountered a flock of 66 Little Corellas giving some beak to sundry roots in the lawn.
 Then a little further I logged the only Red-rumped Parrots of the outing.
All up I recorded 27 good species of birds and a domestic Mallard.

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