The House(s) of Fran_mart

On 20 June we went to ANBG to see what was in flower (and to try to spot a Pink Robin reported there in the recentish past).  The Robin can be disposed of quickly as it had moved on and was nos neither seen nor heard. There was quite a bit in flower, mainly Hakeas and Grevilleas.  However the first to catch our eye was a Stenocarpus sinuatus (Firewheel tree).   Hakea obtusa , with twisted Red Wattlebird   Grevillea tripartita   Grevillea vestita   Swainsona galegifolia:  a fairly large bush unlike most of the Swainsonas native to the Monaro which are low growing herbs   Hakea clavata  Hakea petiolaris: nuts ..  ... and flower  Crowea exalata Grevillea sp :  unusually for today I couldn't spot a name tag for this plant.

Read on to explain that!  A happier blog today! There was fog in Canberra early today ... and a strange effect of the shadow of Mount Ainslie as the sun rose. However when 17 COG members and guests gathered in the car park at the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve Visitors Centre there were clear and pleasantly cool (~3 o C) conditions.   A range of the usual suspects were seen before we moved off towards the Time Trail in search of Robins.   As usual a number of folk were caught out by the beeps emanating from the Ranging device.   This is a Doppler Acoustic Sounder.  Thanks to my friend Sandra I now know that A Doppler Acoustic Sounder is an instrument for measuring wind speed. The one at Tidbinbilla is a multi-axis system, with the three antennae pointing in different directions (one vertical, two at angles), and each serves to transmit and receive the sound signals, giving very   precise wind speed measurements. It sounded very like a Grey Butcherbird!  Moving on f

Almost exactly 11 years ago I published this post . This afternoon I sent a less pleasurable email to family members. She has been going downhill for most of the last year and the process has been accelerating recently.  She's stopped getting excited about us returning when we left her, and tolerating (most days) going for a walk rather than leaping up and down demanding to go.  She also seemed confused about where she was - stand looking at a blank wall, not know where doors were etc.  Over the last few days she also seemed to lose bladder and bowel control.  Her quality of life was marginal at best. So we decided that it was time to put her out of her misery which we did with the aid a very caring vet this afternoon. She gave us 11 good years and I hope we did the same for her.

This began with looking out my window at the many fairy lights in City Walk and Ainslie Place.  I do like the look of them but can't help but wonder how much power they are using up, as they are currently lit up for about 14 hours per day.  Then I went to the other end of the apartment to check the sunrise.  That wasn't available, but an exercise class was happening in Glebe Park!  The person at the bottom of the image was doing bunny hops down the steps carrying a weight. Black Mountain Tower glowed in the early morning light. I went birding to a couple of sites in the North-Western Townships.(NoWeTo - like SoWeTo but with inferior music).  The first site, Edgeworth Pond, was finally accessible again, but the blocks adjacent to it are now cleared for shanty erection so there were few land birds available and no White-fronted Chats.  At the second site the Chats were found.  This male was just being a Chat ... ... hile te female was carrying nesting material.  A bit

Being back in Canberra our day started with a dog walk in Commonweath Park.  We had wondered how the walk was going to be affected by Floriade preparations and the answer was "Not much".  This is possibly because it was a Sunday and thus not a working day. There has been a fair amount of beavering going on.  The weather has cooled down a fair bit so the trees in Glebe Park have lost their leaves ...  ... and the fruit bats have all left.  However quite a lot of the pansies have started to flower so I don't know how many will be left by the formal start of Floriade in September!  The final bit of the walk was graced by 12 Australian King Parrots, which are always nice to see. I had read that the ACT has finally got a Container Deposit Scheme.  I didn't think Nerang Pool was a part of the scheme however! In the late morning my attention was caught by a lot of blue and red flashing lights in the public housing area of Reid.  At least 3 carloads

My friend Janine had pointed out that the Lillipilli trees in the rainforest off Dowell Creek were fruiting and might be attracting some fruit-eating birds.  She had usually got to this site by boat, but it looked as though an assault by Pajero might be possible. This first map shows the eBird hotspots and my personal locations in the general area.  The target spot is the one marked 2.  The dashed red line shows Wallagaraugh and Fairhaven roads (accessed from the Princes Highway).  The green dashed line is Fern Gully track which runs off Fairhaven Rd  Finally the blue dashes show where I walked after parking the car at point 1.  It took me just over an hour to get there. If anyone else wants to try this, here are some details,   Distances are from Google Maps, which matched quite closely with my odometer' Turn off Princes Highway on to Wallagraugh Rd. Follow that for 6.7 kms to junction with Pieses Rd, turn left to stay on Wallagaraugh Rd. After about 200m turn Right to cr