New Camera try out

Made a quick visit to Oaklands Wetland earlier this week to try out my new camera.  These are straight from the camera with no post processing apart from cropping for composition.

I'm pretty happy with the results for the first time I have used this camera.

Warrawong Sanctuary

Maryann and I headed up into the Adelaide Hills today, where we met a couple of friends for lunch at Warrawong Sanctuary. This small privately run sanctuary preserves local wildlife for the enjoyment of the public. Before we had lunch we took a short stroll around the sanctuary. Just inside the entrance is a large feeding station, and here there were a few Rainbow Lorikeets, and some Common Bronzewings. The sanctuary has a variety of habitats, with a few pools and areas of eucalyptus forest. One on of the pools was a very confiding Little Grebe. I noticed later that a turtle had swam past during this time. There are also some kangaroos and wallabies here, and some bandicoots all protected from introduced predators.

River Torrens Linear Park

Yesterday I walked part of the River Torrens Linear Park. This park stretches from Gulf St. Vincent right through the City of Adelaide to the hills, and apart from a couple of short stretches is continuous. It has a footpath and cycleway running its complete length. There is a weir close to the sea designed to maintain the water level in the river. In the summer the river can dry out in places. There is also a boom to stop rubbish and debris flowing into the Gulf which the birds find convenient to rest on. The sea end is being redeveloped and now has a stretch of the coastal path and cycleway and some new pelican sculptures. There were also lots of real pelicans there as well. There were plenty of flowering eucalypts along the walk, some with very interesting bark. One species of eucalypt with white flowers was very popular with the birds and had lots of Rainbow and Musk Lorikeets and also Little Wattlebirds feeding on the nectar. Amongst the many birds along the river bank were Maned Ducks, Masked Lapwings and Spotted Doves. Finally, back at the beach there were a group of Silver Gulls squabbling over a baby octopus.

Queensland (Part 1)

I am currently on a short trip to the Gold coast in Queensland on a conference for work. Yesterday the weather was very windy and I didn't get out, but this morning was beautiful. I headed down to the beach to watch the sunrise. I thought I would pretty much have the beach to myself, but no, there were joggers, walkers and fishermen all there before me!! This is the view from Broadbeach, looking North towards surfers Paradise. I also looked to see what birds where about. Nothing special, Rainbow Lorikeets, Noisy Miners, Australian Ibis and a poor one-footed Silver Gull. Finally I took a quick look in the hotel garden (which is actually on the roof of the adjacent shopping mall.)

This is a bird of paradise flower