Wednesday, April 27, 2011

QUINTESSENCE

By God, I felt Australian this morning, when I pulled away from home, a little after 6:30am, cruised down Penrose Rd and had an Eastern Grey Kangaroo burst from left-field and fling itself out onto the road ahead of me. Seemingly spooked and disoriented, the animal meandered all over the place, hopping along bitumen, grassy roadside and embankment. I slowed the car and followed the roo around the bend of Penrose Rd to where it meets Anzac Parade. The roo sped up and disappeared between the Country Inn Motel and the railway lines.

On another note, I found fifty-three Eastern Greys (inc. a joey in its mother's pouch) in a paddock near Ferndale Reserve a couple of days back - the largest mob I've seen in Bundy.

LJ, April 27 2011.

Friday, April 22, 2011

NEST

I just found a Yellow-throated Scrubwren's scraggy, pendulous nest near the entrances to Erith Coal Mine - a cool discovery. I'll keep an eye on this nest from July, when it's the bird's primary breeding time. I located another YTS's nest a couple of years back at Fitzroy Falls and had the great pleasure of watching a bird coming to and from the nest's side entrance hole one morning... I came across the same nest weeks later, lying on the forest floor, a cold egg in its central chamber.

LJ, April 22 2011.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

ON A NIGHT WHEN THE MOON IS A RICE CRACKER, A BINDI, A PORTHOLE IN ANOTHER LINER AND A HYMN WRITTEN WITH LIGHT...

A Powerful Owl, down in Morton, emitted its resonant double-hoot, just before 8pm. I heard this from my front verandah. Perhaps it was calling for its lost mate.

LJ, April 17 2011.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

SEA-EAGLES OF MIND AND ALL-MIND

Strolling home from the bakery and chemist with my son and my spaniel, on a breezy, warm, clear school holiday (yahoo) morning, I was thinking of White-bellied Sea-eagles, as bird nerds do. I considered whether a White-bellied Sea-eagle could appear in Bundanoon. I dismissed the idea due to our inland location and the lack of extensive nearby waterways.

Two minutes later, I gazed into the wide cyan sky to the east of Penrose Rd and... unbelievably... a distant Sea-eagle appeared! I was completely floored.

At first, I had a fleeting view, as a row of pines soon obscured the raptor. I wondered whether it was a Pacific Heron (old skool terminology). Luckily, it came into view once again and I could easily pick up the distinctive V-shaped wings and soaring flight, as well as whites and greys, without binoculars. This WBSE is another new bird for my Bundy list. I've seen WBSEs at Wingecarribee Reservoir and over Chevalier College in years gone by.

Is there any connection at all between the conscious mind and what nature brings us? Can we push away coincidence and reach for something else? I'd love to think so.

LJ, April 14 2011.

Monday, April 4, 2011

SUNDAY'S ZENITH

A Blue-tongue Lizard in the vege patch hissing and showcasing its tongue as if it was a flare from a purple sun... a resplendent male Superb Lyrebird bathing in a rockpool above the falls at Erith Cole Mine... migrating mobs of Yellow-faced Honeyeaters... a single Grey-headed Flying-fox cruising over darkened paddocks... new high-pitched frog-notes where the Southern Highlands rail-line intersects Shangri-la Rd... twenty-three Eastern Grey Kangaroos romancing the grassland outside Gambells Rest... stillness... stillness... and that incredible, lost sunshine, returned to us.

LJ, April 4 2011.