The House(s) of Fran_mart

Having a little time to spare in Canberra today I explored the Australian National Botanic Gardens (ANBG) and the Sculpture Garden at the National Gallery of Australia (NGA).  The ANBG was a delightful place to stroll with many plants coming into flower.  I was struck by the contrast between the Hardenbergia and Acacia in this clump. Some visitors to the garden obviously ignore the direction to keep off the garden beds: I am not sure that having White-winged Choughs excavating the bed will assist the Chiloglottis to grow and prosper.  The other birds evident on this day were hordes of hyperactive honeyeaters.   The New Holland Honeyeaters and Eastern Spinebills didn't pose for a portrait but this Red Wattlebird was more cooperative. Moving on to the NGA I found the Fog Sculpture by Fujiko Nakaya in the sculpture garden was in fine form.  It is a pity that a couple of the images are polluted by inclusion of the tatty marquee used to house the re...

.. and ratbags and rednecks.  I am sure that if Lewis Carroll had been around the Parliamentary Triangle today he would have added a couplet along those lines to the Walrus's oration to the oysters .   He is certainly heading in that direction with the topic ".. whether pigs have wings." As many of you will be aware a bunch of folks from the more rural areas of Australia have decided to run a set of Convoys of No Confidence to come and let the Government know that the Government needs to listen to such folks.  Various predictions were made about how this was going to screw up Canberra's traffic really really badly today (22 August) as the hundreds of trucks orbited Parliament House and the masses then rallied to be addressed by the Mad Monk - no, not him , but him . From some of the coverage in the Sydney Morning Herald it appeared that this movement has been adopted as a 'cause' by Alan Jones, the 2nd most obnoxious shock-jock in Australia. I have put ...

While on our walk this morning Frances commented that although we had been North for a month this seems to have been a bad Winter in terms of cold and/or wet.  However there are a few signs of improvement. In the bird department there have been a few promising sightings and soundings.  Red Wattlebirds are definitely back in the area, although I haven't seen one close to our house yet.  The Eastern Yellow Robins that turned up last year are still around and were travelling as a twosome during last week.  This morning (21 August) 2 Grey Shrike-thrushes were patrolling our drive and dining off unwary worms.  A pair of Australian Wood Ducks ( Chenonetta jubilata ) were checking  out the state of the lawn yesterday morning.  I actually managed to get a photograph of them! The female is in front and the male showing a slight mane (hence Maned Goose or Maned Duck, as folk-names) at the back.  They are to be distinguished from the very lurid Americ...

During several visits to Tallaganda National Park I have thought that the Bald Hill Fire Trail, running from the Mulloon Trail to Palerang Road would be an interesting area for COG to explore. Every time I have been in this area I have seen Spotted Quail-thrush ( seen 23/7 ) (Image by Tobias Hayashi from COG photo gallery .)  and there should a good chance of species such as Olive Whistler, Red-browed Treecreeper, Wonga Pigeon ( seen 23/7 ) (Image by Lindsay Hansch from COG photo gallery .) and possibly Pilotbird.  A number of Honeyeaters more common on the coast have been seen occasionally in the general area.   Stretching one's luck to breaking point, a roosting Powerful Owl is a theoretical possibility, and the chatline report of Pink Robins referred to an area not too far away! On 23 July I rode my mountain bike along the entire route and have planned the following event for September 17th. Broad plan The broad plan for the outing is depicted in the attache...