Dirty December (with lots of dust and smoke)

Greetings and a Happy 2020 to you all.  I hope to have 2020 vision for the coming year.  December has been terrible, hot (a number of days in excess of 40C), dry and with visibility of less than 3 Klm either through dust and/or smoke.  Some mornings I never took the dogs for a walk because of the awful air quality.

Feeding Junior

Junior Frogmouth

Feeding out

Wait - that is blue sky and fluffy clouds!  Well, yes, but that sky was taken some time ago and replaced the smoke and dust one.

Eurasian Sky Lark

Rufous Songlark

Crested Pigeon

Smoky Moon

Ginninderra Creek at the Stepping Stones (looking downstream)

Ginninderra Creek at the Stepping Stones (looking upstream)

Eastern Rosella

A smoky glow on the tree trunks

A view from our back deck - there are hills out there 2.5 Km away

The Ol' Swimming' Hole

Afternoon smoke light on an Oak

Smoky light on trees

Layers through the smoke

Smoky Sunrise

Galahs - feeding junior

Ginninderra Creek - Footbridge pool

And another smoky sunrise.

Noxious November

Noxious Novmber has gone.  No rain, with lots of airborne dust, smoke and hay fever pollen.  Consequently, we did not venture far from home.  However, this month is shaping up to be Dusty December.

Dust and smoke from our back deck

On a clear day - same location

I thought we had seen the last of the Frogmouths for the year, but they have made some return visits.

Mum, Dad and the three kids

Wild oats blowing in the wind.

Brightly coloured bark on a Fyshwick Gum tree

Flower pod from my Pitcher Plant

Early morning light

Weetangera Cemetery

Just a long dead Eucalypt

Bottlebrush in full bloom at 33

The palm in full flower - still don't know where it came from. 

This year's Christmas Cactus
(Me experimenting with Topaz software)

Infra-red of the palm

Rosebush by night

Rosebush by night without my 'enhancements'

Gang Gang - first time I have seen one on my morning walk

Drone view of the earthworks of the new suburb of Whitlam

Pelicans - West Belconnen Pond

Flock of Galahs - smokey and dusty morning

Local Kangaroo

Pacific Black Ducks resting

Red Wattlebird preening after a bath

Esme with minimum blur - Finally

Footbridge in black & white

National Museum of Australia

Springbank Island - lots of willows removed and new plantings

Five Years of Frogmouths

I have been watching and photographing the progress of a pair to Tawny Frogmouths now since 2014.  This Blog is a selection of their nesting activities.  As always, the male hatched and guarded the young, while the female was close by to assist if ever the nest was attacked by other birds.

During winter of 2014, I noticed a pair at the start of my normal morning walk with my dog.  That year, they started nesting mid-October and raised and fledged one bird.

2014

2015

In 2015, they built their nest in the same spot and hatched out three young, but one did not survive.

2016

During the winter of 2016, their nest tree blew down in a storm, and although the birds were present in the area, I did not find their nest, and did not know how many were fledged.

2017

In 2017, I happened to notice the male bird sitting high in a dead tree, apparently on a nest.  They raised and fledged three youngsters.  

It is possible that this is where they nested in 2016. 

2018

In 2018, a nest was again built in the same place as 2017, but was either destroyed by wind or Pied Currawongs, and was rebuilt in another tree.  The pair again hatched and raised three young.

2019

This year, 2019, the nest was again built in the original 2017 tree, and again the pair hatched and raised three young.