Canberra snaps

We need to be in Canberra for some routine medical tests.  On which topic Doonebury has commented in the past!
It seems that most people are not in Canberra.  This car park is normally full by 0830 and this is the situation late morning.  Others have advised that (a) it is school holidays and (b) 50% of public servants are working from home.
We went out to Jerrabomberra Wetlands and scored a good snap of a pair of Australasian Shovelers.
Cameras have a lot of intelligence.  Mine worked out that I really wanted an in-focus image of cyclone fencing not a Straw-necked Ibis.
That's better.  The aim was to get the 'straws'.
Field guides rarely mention the white vent area as an ID assist for Brown Falcon.
The next day we went to Stoney Creek Nature Reserve at Uriarra, looking for Pied Butcherbirds.  Here is the routewe followed.
I zoomed out the route to show more of the pine forest on the opposite side of the Murrumbidgee,  I mapped this in about 1988 for the ACT Orienteering Championships.  A somewhat fraught process in many ways.  The main feature of the area was a lot of Kunzea and a large gully somewhat south of our route so we called the map Tea-tree Gully.  I have highlighted it in yellow.
I thought the shape looked like a device used to open walnuts and could be rather strenuous to cross.  However my suggestion of Nutcracker Gulch was over-ruled.

Going along the track we came across this wombat catching a few rays.  Its fur wasn't in great nick so I hope the sunshine was fixing up the mange.
There was much evidence of large wombat burrows, including this double-header in the middle of the track.  Without the stick it would be invisible to any service vehicles using the track.
A view of the 'bidgee,
That was a still part of the river.  Where it crossed the reefs the amount of flow was both visible and audible.
A Great Cormorant.
Natural bonsai!
A White-faced Heron.  These birds always look quite large in the distance but when up close is actually modest in size (eg about 1/4 the weight of a bin chook- Australian White Ibis).  
Although we didn't spot a Pied Butcherbird we got quite a reasonable list of species. Right at the end it got a boost when the Magpies and Cockies all went feral,  A Wedge-tailed Eagle cruised by getting close attention.
Back at the ranch the sunset was muted, bu pleasant.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Insects from pine trees

A tour of the West (part 1)

Maslins beach rules