9333 miles

[Flutterby]

Great to see some new feathered friends!

[Seiont]

I’m pleased you are enjoying my adventure and continuing thanks for comments. It is all good motivation to me to sort through my photographs, share the best ones and add details and stories as we go along. Amoli I too see the similarity between the two Ibises they are sister species after all: Threskiornis aethiopicus and Threskiornis moluccus. I will too in time tell you about some of my SA plants and some others I grow but not just now. If I do I’ll lose my focus but similarities in the Southern hemisphere go both East and West and are an important observation as I seek my final destination. In the meantime more Australian birds.

White-cheeked Honeyeater Phylidonyris niger



Willy Wagtail Rhipidura leucophrys



Crested Bronzewing Ocyphaps lophotes


Australian Magpie Cracticus tibicen


I appreciate the work that many in horticulture and conservation do. They often work long hours for little pay. I express my thanks whenever I can and that often brings its own rewards. I saw a couple of gardeners in Sydney Botanical Gardens and wandered over to thank them for their work. We had a brief chat and as we were concluding they directed me to one path and told me to look for a particular tree. I learnt long ago that sometimes to see birds in trees you need to look down. I walked the path and saw lots of droppings. This is what I saw looking up. The ISO is out to 3200 but nevertheless the sighting of the trip so far.

Powerful Owl Ninox strenua



Just a short time left in Sydney now. Visiting friends and trips to Manley, a cliff walk from Bondi to Bronte and then round South Head at the entrance to Sydney habour. There I can look longingly at the sea and wonder what’s to come.

[nan]

love the Owl and Crested Bronzewing

and then

[pooky]

Beautiful birds


An owl with a kill

[Lisbeth]

I love your birdies The owl looks quite special!

[Flutterby]

Love the markings on the honey-eater.

Great pics.

[Richprins]

Ja! Amazing how the Aussie birds have similar alternatives here in SA!?

The mammals went a bit South, though?

[Bushcraft]

Fantastic pics

I love the owl

[Mel]

WOW! What a magnificent TT and I so enjoyed reading through all of it. You really got a way with words.

I'll be glued to this as I have just returned from Oz myself. So, some of the Sydney stuff, including the birds
is very familiar to me. Unfortunately the Botanical Garden visit coincided with a spell of rain (if an afternoon of
rain can be called a spell at all...), so I won't have anything to report from there.

[Seiont]

I’m continuing my adventures around Sydney. This is first and foremost a family holiday but I always seem to be lagging behind on any outing or walk trying to identify or photograph this or that. The family understand and I do appreciate them telling me about some animal or bird they’ve seen ahead. That always gets me catching up but sometimes I think it is just a ploy. My daughter particularly understands my passion and is a good spotter. Another note to self: I must plan a trip for the four of us to SA and Kruger. It would be an absolute ball!

Here are some more birds I’ve seen around the city and along the coast.

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo Cacatua galerita

Superb Fairy-wren male Malurus cyaneus

Superb Fairy-wren female Malurus cyaneus

Little Pied Comorant Microcarbo melanoleucos


There are beautiful and strange rock formations along the coast.




Notice the Ice plant or Hottentot fig Carpobrotus edulis that I’ve seen on frost free cliffs all over the world.

The views are fantastic.



They remind me of one of my mother’s favourite poems.

Sea Fever
By John Masefield

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking,

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.

I am a sentimental soul and anything that brings recall of those loved and now absent is cherished. It is also appropriate to this adventure, our historical hero as well as to my Mum. If it touches you at all then that’s great too. (Best wishes and fond memories to you Bushveld Jock).

Finishing off now with one of the most common and striking birds I’ve seen in Australia so far – the Silver Gull Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae



Tomorrow we set sail; embarkation from Wharf 6 at 0915.