The House(s) of Fran_mart

While wandering towards Whiskers Creek yesterday I noticed a rock with a good covering of lichen and moss, so returned today for some photos. From consulting the 1:250k Canberra Geological Map Sheet I have concluded that this is a greywacke.  As explained in the Wikipedia article about the rocks it is primarily a form of sandstone, formed in such a way as to have a lot of other rocks mixed in with it. On looking more closely at the rock there were some very interesting forms of lichen and moss. (Rolling stones may not gather this stuff, but that welded to the Earth's mantle certainly do.)  I know even less about lichen and moss than I do about rocks so will let the pictures do the talking. I will be bold and say the next two images are moss rather than lichen.

It seems to me that this year the wattles are getting well ready for Wattle Day (1 September for any non-Australians reading this).  In fact it seems that some of them are somewhat early, despite a pretty cool Winter.  So I thought I would take some photos of the situation in mid-August.  I have tried to make a scratch in the dirt to redo the images from the same spot on the day itself. The earliest flowering wattle on our place is Acacia gunnii .  It is a rather small , sparsely flowering species which makes it a bugger to locate in the middle of a paddock of Kunzea ericoides .  However I managed. I received a little editorial feedback that the image above was excessively underwhelming even for this species so I went and too another snap (or 4, it is definitely trying to make a silk purse from a feral pig's ear).  Here is my best effort. When looked at more closely the flowers do have a waif-like charm. The commonest wattle in this area is A....

The weather forecast for today was not good, involving low temperatures, precipitation and wind.  So the ANPS WW was abandoned - not least because the location proposed was pretty exposed. The light rain started about 11am.  By 12:30 that had changed to snow, which wasn't settling as the ground was still warm and the air temperature was still about 3 o C.  By 13:15 the temperature had dropped to 0.9 o C - in the middle of the day, get real! - and the snow was getting a bit serious.  It was settling nicely! The Stella referred to in the title is a friend's Corgi who has come to stay for a few days.  She and Tammy seem to be getting on well, with a little frivolity ...  .. and periods of relaxation. An astute observer will note both the well stacked fire and the mild sedative on the hearth! I won't put up a squilllion posts about the dogs but this shows one of the positions adopted while I am working on my computer. Both dogs are very aware...

Following a post to the COG Chatline (and having wielded the chainsaw and the spade as required around our block) I took myself off to Googong Dam South to spot Hooded Robins. The specific site was said to be the homestead, rather than the more frequently visited natural arch. As is often the case, when a wombat is out and about in the daylight this poor old marsupial has got a dose of mange. Mum and Joey posed nicely in front of the rocks o the arch as I went by. There were not many birds around.  After about a kilometre of walking the only really interesting one I had seen was a Speckled Warbler, high in a eucalypt. Some of the remnant trees in the area were very impressive. Quite a few of those around the area had yellow X's painted on them, suggesting they were going to be bonsaied sometime soon.  The area is "managed"  by the ACT Government so presumably some otherwise unemployable lawyer has declared the trees, growing in a nature park to be a ris...

Late last week one of the Canberra birders coming out to inspect the Hoskinstown Banded Lapwings called in at Cuumbeun Nature reserve and found a Chestnut-rumped Heathwren.  This is only the second sighting of the species in the Carwoola area so was pretty exciting.  Another birder found it again the next day so Frances and I took ourselves off there on Sunday afternoon. At the gate into the Reserve we fortuitously met Julienne, a birding friend from Hoskinstown.   She jad just viewed the bird about 30m inside the Reserve and showed us the spot.  A small dark shape zooming between the base of shrubs suggested we were in business.  Not really tickable views however - Frances recognised the overall wrenishness, but couldn't see any colours. Then while I was looking at a slightly different patch of bush the bird ascended about 2m into an Acacia rubida , giving me great views and sang its heart out before disappearing.  Happy, happy happy.  I was not q...

I apologise for the quality of some (OK all) of these images but the birds were over 50m away and the sun was in an unfortunate direction. Sometimes Banded Lapwings are standing up and thus easy to spot.  Some are not too bad as they are squatting - presumably to examine a tasty invertebrate.  Then they hunker down in a convenient hole.  (I think this may be the one thought to be nesting.  HANZAB suggests breeding possible June to December in NSW so it is feasible) Others really chuck on the camouflage.  As far as I am aware there is not a Banded lapwing in this image. I will leave those authorised by the ABBBS to offer the companion post "A guide to banding Spotted Lapwings".