The House(s) of Fran_mart

 A few photographs around Canberra on 8 May.  The first few are from our apartment beginning with the trees in City Walk. Then looking over Glebe Park and Reid. Close up on Reid. Reid, Campbell and over to the Taliesin Hills in NSW. Ainslie, with the roof of the Ainslie Hotel in the foreground. Heading South, the next tew images come from a walk along the base of Red Hill in Garran.  The first is a view towards, and beyond, Woden Town Centre. A maple tree in a back garden. No idea, but pretty. Ibid Japanese Maples in a front lawn in Couvreur Street. In the morning we went to Kellys Swamp with many Australian White Ibis From the apartment on 9 May.

 The drive up was pretty reasonable apart from surprisingly heavy traffic on the Cooma to Bombala  section.  There were a couple of groups of Italian cars - 3 Alfas and about 10 km later about 6 Ferraris - but I have no idea what they were about.   After settling in the main attraction was the sun setting behind Black Mountain. On the morning of the 9th as we set off on our morning walk we noticed the abseilers were doing the business on people's windows.  These were on the South Tower in Allara St: the images are a little out of the order in which I took but seem to sequence OK> This continues to be a job for the imagination-challenged! We got to Commonwealth Park and to my amazement found Floriade being rebuilt.  My suspicion is that it is less than 6 months since the beds were removed!  An alert auditor might like to explore the value for money given by this rubbish - especially the astonishing amount which must be paid for hiring the tempor...

 Frances has been spending some time in Glebe and become interested in the behaviour of the clan(s) of White-winged Choughs ( Corcorax melanorhamphos)  which hang out there - and nearby.  I joined her there on the afternoon of 3 March to see what we could see.  This image, based on Google Earth, summarised where we (and the Choughs) went. We began at point 1, in the shady corner near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi where we found 4 Choughs drinking.  They then flew to a lawn under the elm trees (point 2) joining another 5, presumably part of the same clan.  I am unsure - at this time what the wing spread behaviour means but will consult HANZAB online to find out. Here is the whole clan of 9. A second group of 6 appeared from the direct of the toilet block, being harassed by an Australian Magpie ( Gymnorhina tibicen).  Eventually all 15 birds flew off towards Bindara St.  Some of them went into the casino car park (3A) - this one seemed to be getting ...