This year we have decided not to send Christmas cards, and instead have made a donation to Cows for Cambodia on everyone's behalf. This is a locally run charity that provides poor Cambodian families with a cow. This is how it works. Cows for Cambodia is essentially a “COW BANK”. They loan Cambodian families a pregnant cow. They must look after the cow, and when it has the calf they get to keep the calf. Cows for Cambodia take their cow back, ready to be impregnated again. It’s more about providing an opportunity to break the poverty cycle rather than a direct handout. To find out more about Cows for Cambodia, (and also make a donation if you wish), follow this link.
We wish all our family and friends a very Merry Christmas and a safe and prosperous New Year. We'll leave you with the weather forecast for Adelaide where we are expecting the hottest Christmas in 70 years and some pictures from some local houses all decked out for Christmas.
Pengilly Scrub is a small reserve to the north of Adelaide. It was almost totally burned out in the Pinery bushfire in November 2015. Over seven days the Pinery bushfire burned over 65,000 Hectares (210,000 Acres). Adelaide has had exceptional rainfall this winter so I decided to go and see how Pengilly was recovering after the fire.
The understory was growing well, and there were signs of the gum trees sprouting new leaves, but many of the larger trees were down.
There were plenty of birds though, and two Western Grey Kangaroos.
The most common bird by far was the Rainbow Bee-eater, a summer visitor to South Australia. I found a favoured perch and this chap was happy to keep returning until I had enough photos.
There were also plenty of Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters, Red-rumped Parrots, and, of course, Willy Wagtails.
I did notice that there were very few small birds, no finches or thornbills, and only a single pair of Dusky Woodswallows.
The only raptor was a distant Brown Falcon.
I'll try to get back there in a few weeks time to see how things are going.
We have had a very wet end to winter in South Australia, and the wetlands has been steadily filling. So I took my "point and shoot" along for Kobe's regular Saturday morning walk around the park to see what we could find.
Around 9 months ago a Fluker Post appeared at the wetland. The Fluker Post Project is a "citizen science" project where members of the public put their camera or smartphone on the post and take a photo. These photos are then used to track how the environment changes with time. More details on the project can be found here. This is what a post looks like, along with my contribution.
Recently, the council also replace some of the bridges here with new bridges. All of the new bridges are underwater at the moment.
The wetland is full to overflowing at the moment so there are lots of opportunities for photographing reflections, and the wildflowers are really starting to show their beauty.
On the bird front, the summer visitors are beginning to arrive, and in the last week I have heard Horsfield's Bronze Cuckoo, Rufous Songlark and Australian Reed Warbler. No chance of photos with my point and shoot, though I did manage a photo of Pacific Black Duck and a female Superb Fairy-wren (100% crop).
Today we spent a pleasant afternoon at the Semaphore Kite Festival. When we arrived, it was pretty much calm, and there were very few kites flying, but the afternoon sea breeze soon started to blow, and the sky filled with more and more kites.
There were specially shaped kites as well as more traditionally shaped ones.
There seemed to be a bit of a maritime theme going on with many of the special shapes.
Here are a few more shots from the festival.
While in Perth I also visited the Heritage Aviation Museum which is run by the Royal Australian Air Force Association (RAAFA). I would recommend a visit. At only $10 entry for adults it is outstanding value. More information about the museum can be found here.
Here are some of the aircraft on display:
Mounted outside the museum is a Supermarine Spitfire Mk22 (Replica)
Consolidated PBY Catalina
Bell UH-1 Huey
Macchi MB-326 H
CAC CA-5 Wirraway
Avro Anson
Avro Lancaster
English Electric Canberra
This is a great little museum, with knowledgeable, helpful volunteers. I recommend a visit if you are in Perth and have a spare hour or two!
