The House(s) of Fran_mart

I had hoped to get some photos of the cattle coming through Bungendore this morning, but they came through at 7am to avoid the worst of the traffic.  According to one of the drovers "There were a lot of people out taking photos." So I found them strung out over about 3km of Hoskinstown Rd, from just past Gidleigh Lane to about halfway to the 6 mile TSR, where they will camp tonight.  Here are my photos.  "There's a long, long road unwinding ..."  Obfuscation prevents face recognition! This is the 6 Mile TSR.  A nice amount of feed in there (and the cattle look to be in good condition, so have been finding feed as they have come along). The economics of the exercise fascinate me.  There seem to be at least 6 people in the group, with 2 trucks and 3 4WD utes.  It must be taking them at least 6 weeks for the drive whereas a truck could do it in a day Allowing a day each end for loading and unloading I'd still have thought it chea...

It is traditional to see Gippsland Water Dragons around Whiskers Creek.  This one sat in the middle of the ford and allowed me to get out of the car to take its photo. It being yet another stinking hot day it was very traditional to find the cattle all lurking under a tree to keep cool.  On the edge of Bungendore it is now very traditional to see Plumed Whistling Ducks.  These two were in a very traditional upright pose.  The cattle here were cooling off standing in the water and giving a steely gaze in the direction of the ducks.  Perhaps the Shelduck was seen as non-traditional?  According to my references the Whistling Ducks only go into the water when threatened.  However at this site they have been known to enter when a cow takes a toilet break and apparently feed on the undigested grain.  Another break with tradition.  This next bit should be written with a thumbnail dipped in tar as it references one of the great Austral...

There has been much activity since my last entry in this series . Whiskers Creek Rd We have exchanged contracts with a lovely young couple and expect to settle on 22 January 2019.  A slight issue has been the lawyer they chose who seems to feel that the best way of serving her clients is to annoy the other side.  Of course, we have to keep the place as it was when they last inspected, just before exchange.  A potential issue in that regard came with a large thunderstorm on 14 December causing the Creek to flood far more than I have every seen. I think everything has recovered from that with 7 cubic metres of road base spread on the drive.  One small bit of fencing will have to be replaced. Another road issue has arisen with a discussion with the removalists in that a few trees require pruning to get their truck up to the house.  A pole pruner will be hired after Christmas. Bunda St. The biggest entertainment here was organising the access to the bui...

At a community gathering one of our neighbours told me that she had breeding Satin Flycatchers on her property which surprised her as her field guide suggested they were birds of damp forested gullies, not the open woodland of her property.  She gave a pretty good description referred to the iridescent blue colouring. This got me more than a little excited and a couple of days later I met her and watched the nest, occupied by a female Flycatcher.  On looking at the photos my overall impression of the bird was that on the back it was a "bit light" in colour to be a Satin Flycatcher, but I couldn't be sure.  So it was entered in eBird as a spuh "Leaden/Satin Flycatcher".    The male bird was steadfast in refusing to appear in the time I had available. So a couple of days later I went back, this time with my telescope (but not the phone connection - probably a mistake).  As I got to the site a bird flew from the nest and another one took over.  Pro...

Our final day was a short walk , pack up and head for home .It began with a fairly spiffy sunrise, due to looming cloud. A pelican was keeping up the patrol from last night. This is the route of our dog walk this morning.  The numbers show the location of the next few photos. For the first time this trip we found some flowering orchids.  I'm pretty sure these are Dipodium roseum , rather than D punctatum . A Jacaranda in full flower are Bucklands. We often see these two dogs on their walk around Karbeethong.  They are very well trained and despite their obvious interest in Tammy stayed sitting as we passed  - the owner is just out of shot, wielding a lawn mower. I think this is some variety of Leucodendron. This shows the current state of the house next door, on the uphill side.  There is massive renovation going on: the cliche about "a great old axe - two new heads and 6 new handles" springs to mind. Apart from dealing with some asbesto...

Taken on our lawn.  I don't have much to say about these except they get progressively cuter.

In a recent Facebook exchange it was agreed that too many photos of echidnas, pelicans and a couple of other things were impossible.  Several of them feature in this post (although not echidna - I saw one yesterday, but the phone-photo went to Echidna CSI from whence it is not really shareable). This post covers two days, as I didn't take many photos on Tuesday 11/12.  Dawn looked promising but didn't develop strong colours. I was up on the roof making sure the gutters were clear and had an eyeball with this young person in the adjacent gum tree.  Definitely a species of which too many photos are never enough. We did the Casuarina walk today and everywhere was very dry.  Hardly any ground layer flowers and only Leptospermum sp in the shrubs. There were many fallen florets of   Dendrophthoe vitellina  on the ground.  I had never noticed this mistletoe until last Saturday (see also below). We found no open orchids but the Dipodium pu...