Skywatch Friday

Riverland Sunrise, South Australia

Gluepot Reserve - Scarlet-chested Parrots

Every now and again an amazing bird turns up. Gluepot is renowned for them, and this winter a number of Scarlet-chested Parrots have returned to Birds Australia's Gluepot Reserve. It was an early start to get to Gluepot early. I walked down the track, and stopped and scanned. No sign. then a flash of colour as one then another flew across the track. A little further on one perched distantly, but always into the low sun. I think I counted 5 in the end. A flash here, a glimpse there. Quite a few different birds around, so the walk back was interesting. Here are two crops one of my photos, heavily photoshopped!! Not my greatest photography moment. For a brilliant photo of the same birds taken a few days earlier, see Chris Steele's blog here. A quick stop on the River Murray near Waikerie gave a few more photo opportunities.

Adelaide Botanic Gardens

This post has a few odds and ends from the last couple of weeks. A couple of weeks a go we popped up to the hills to see if the Square-tailed Kites had returned. On the way I spotted a Musk Lorikeet sitting by the side of the road. A quick u-turn, and I took a couple of photos before getting out of the car. I took a closer look and it seemed OK, so I assume it was stunned after being hit by a car. It eventually flew off to a tree in the next field. At the Square-tailed Kite site, there was no sign of the birds, but the Sundews were already in flower. Last Sunday was a beautiful spring day, and as were in the city, we decided on a quick walk at the Botanic Gardens. First stop was the water lily and orchid house. Followed by a slow walk, stopping when anything caught our eye. Butterflies, flowers and even graffiti! Roll on Summer!!

Benalla and the snow

Maryann and I have been wanting to go "to the snow" for a while now, and as I had the chance of some time off, it was time to go. We flew to Melbourne and then drove the two hours to Benalla in North East Victoria, our base for three days. On Sunday we headed to Mount Buffalo National Park. The weather was pretty poor, with low cloud covering the mountains. We had fun tobogganing, but missed out on the lovely views. Mondays forecast was much better, so we went to Mount Buller, a world class ski resort. We took a chairlift up to the Spur for lunch, then walked across to another lift for the ride down. This area was full of Kookaburras, more than I have ever seen in my time in Australia. This one was in one of the picnic areas in the park. Benalla has an interesting ceramic mural, which has many seats overlooking Benalla Lake built in to it. I have also included shots of some of the detail in the mural.