I discovered that the park we walk through to Middle Harbour is actually called Munro Park, which leads out to Tunks Park where the playing fields are closer to the harbour.

Anyway - with the nice spring weather, I decided to take my camera on the walk again and spend some time photographing birds and anything else interesting I found along the way.

Red-whiskered Bulbul

White Browed Scrub Wren

Eastern Water Dragon

Superb Blue Wren

Red-browed Finch

Remote-controlled Yacht - Middle Harbour

Little Black Cormorant

Went for a walk down to Tunks Park / Middle Harbour this afternoon. Decided to take the compact digital camera with just in case.

Good thing I did too, as I was climbing back out of the valley, I passed a pair of King Parrots just near the side of the path munching away on some nuts from the trees. They were quite happy to sit there crunching away while I pulled out the camera and took a few photos. Pity the light wasn’t great - difficult to get a good shot.

King Parrot - Tunks Park

The female was there too with her green head, but my photos of her didn’t turn out clear enough.

A few steps further up the track were a pair of Crimson Rosellas enjoying the same types of food as the King Parrots. Again, the light wasn’t good enough for my photos to turn out.

Plenty of other birds out too - anyone would think it was springtime or something!

We bought a 2 year multi-park pass for all NSW National Parks (excluding Kosciuszko National Park). The pass cost $115 for 2 years, while most NPs around Sydney charge $7 vehicle entry. That means we have to make 17 visits over 2 years to make it worthwhile.

The good thing about it is that we can now justify going to one of the National Parks for even just a short period like a one hour walk - without feeling compelled to stay much longer.

Which is what I did today - took the camera and GPS data logger down to Lane Cove NP and found a track I hadn’t walked yet. Spent about an hour walking and taking photos - very pleasant.

Porters Creek Bridge - Lane Cove NP

Burnt tree trunk - Lane Cove NP

Tree growing from rocks - Lane Cove NP

Banksia - Lane Cove NP

Silvereye - Lane Cove NP

Rainbow Lorikeet - Lane Cove NP

Sulphur Crested Cockatoo - Lane Cove NP

Chatswood from Tunks Hill - Lane Cove NP

Here are the GPS tracks:

Night-time photography

15 second exposure at f/9.0 with 10mm focal length

22 degree moon halo

I had to look up what it was called - 22 degree moon halo

Sim gets creative

Long exposure with deliberately placed shadow.

*chortle*

(via InkTank)

Went for a walk yesterday in Lane Cove National Park - a few kilometres west of our place. One of the great things about Sydney is that we have national parks right in the middle of the city. If you can get through the traffic that is - official reports show that traffic congestion on the North Shore is now officially worse on weekends than it is during the week!!

Anyway - we sat and had some lunch before heading off along a track which is part of the Great North Walk (which actually goes as far as Newcastle!). The path winds its way along the river, sometimes heading up along the ridgelines too. We walked for just under two hours in total - we would have walked further, but the sun was getting low and the parks closes at 6pm, so I didn’t want to be rushing back in the dark.

I took the GPS data logger - here is where we went: