Farewell to 2022!

Now a well-established tradition on this blog, here is a review of our year through the filter of one photo per month. Again it hasn't been a great year, and for personal reasons we've not been able to venture far from home - in fact the longest we felt able to be away from Canberra was a week. Nonetheless we did manage some mini trips of a few nights, and in this we were assisted by our long-planned camper trailer which was finally delivered in January. And nature always provides a balm. We are in the third consecutive year dominated here by the La Niña phase of the Pacific climate cycle, so things were mostly wet and cool.

Overall I didn't have a lot of photos to choose from, but I found enough to present at least one version of our year, while trying not to use photos I've already posted here. As ever I don't make any pretence to photographic excellence; I have no training and my pics are definitely records rather than art. This collection was chosen for their associations rather than any perceived excellence. Ideally there'd be a random scatter of subjects, rather than starting with three invertebrates, having a couple of orchids in spring and ending with a couple of birds. But, that's how it was!

JANUARY

The day after we collected our camper trailer, we headed west with it to Cocoparra NP
in the Riverina, a favourite of ours. La Niña helped us here, as though it was pretty
warm it was nowhere near as hot as it can be out there in summer. This beauty, at
least four centimetres long, is a Giant Yellow Robber Fly Blepharotes coriarius,
Family Asilidae. (The yellow abdomen of its name is only visible when it's flying.)
It entertained us as we sat quietly in the shade one afternoon and the birds had settled down too.
A fierce predator, it is waiting for an insect to fly by.

FEBRUARY

Almost as soon as the summer school holidays ended we went camping again, this
time to the coast, south almost to the Victorian border at Beowa (then still known as
Ben Boyd) National Park. Four nights of coastal forest and sweeping heathlands, sandy beaches
and rugged rocky coastlines. It might seem odd to select a fairly modest-looking little
butterfly to represent this wonderful park - but I have! I love the warm colours,
delicate wing spots and very pointy antennae of this Splendid Ochre Trapezites symmomus.

MARCH

In late March we headed off north-west for three nights to another favourite park,
Weddin Mountains, a couple of hundred kilometres away on the western slopes.
This small-scale drama couldn't help but enthrall us, as it played out on the campground
picnic table while we were sitting there! This Slender Mud-dauber wasp Sceliphron laetum,
Family Sphecidae, had paralysed an orbweb spider and was looking for somewhere to
stash it. The odd thing was that she would normally have made a mud cell first, to receive
the paralysed spider. She may have been young and inexperienced, perhaps forgetting where
the cell was. Once she'd remembered and stored the spider she would have laid an egg on it
so it acts as a living larder for her offspring, then sealed the cell with mud.

APRIL

    We were home now for a couple of months and inevitably I visited the Jerrabomberra
Wetlands on the eastern edge of Canberra. This Hardhead Aythya australis was uneasy
about me being in the hide nearby and was here in the act of taking off from the water.
I was happy to have, by chance, caught it as it rose into the air; you can see the water
roiling around its legs as it paddles furiously to push off.
('Hardhead' is an old shooters' name, as the bird is reputedly difficult to kill, though there
is no evidence that this is to do with its skull. I think that the older name of White-eyed
Duck is less loaded and more useful as the eyes are a good field mark - though
admittedly only in the males.)

MAY

At the end of May we headed off for a week to the Warrumbungles NP, a magnificent
volcanic range some 550km to the north of here. We'd planned a couple of nights camping
en route but torrential rain and heavy winds thwarted us. Once we got to the park
the temperature didn't ever get to 10 degrees! Nonetheless we enjoyed the park and
made the most of the conditions. Belougery Split Rock, a massive volcanic plug,
loomed over the campground and on two consecutive evenings the setting sun
pierced the clouds on the horizon, and cheered us with this warm rich glow.

JUNE

We were still in the Warrumbungles for the start of June, and this was probably our
bird highlight of the year. It's one that Lou had always wanted to see, and I'd never
successfully laid lens on one. Turquoise Parrots Neophema pulchella are mostly restricted
to New South Wales (going a little way into north-east Victoria and south-east Queensland)
and are found mostly in woodlands, especially in the vicinity of ranges. There was a scattered
little flock here, feeding on grass seeds and going down to drink at the creek.
This male is typically exquisite, and tiny! At only 20cm long and weighing just 40 grams
they are scarcely bigger than a Budgie; the little Red-rumped Parrots that were also
present looked quite hulking by comparison.

JULY

Is this cheating? I don't mind if you think so. It really is one of the most impressive
pieces of public natural history art that I've ever seen. Called Varanus (the goanna genus
name), by sculptor Glen Star, it is 20 metres long and lurks in woodland at Gum Swamp,
itself one of our favourite wetlands, on the outskirts of Forbes, some 300km NNW of here.
In recent times the wetlands area has been looking tired, and not very accessible.
All that has now changed, with new access, excellent new walking tracks and magnificent
new two-storey hides. And of course some very good outdoor art work.

AUGUST

We made a special effort this spring to chase wildflowers (and especially orchids,
of course), starting at the end of August back at the Weddin Mountains. Now I really don't have
many photos for August, but I'm quite happy to offer this one as I'm always a big fan of
donkey orchids and this is almost certainly the first orchid we saw for this spring. This one is
Goonoo Donkey Orchid Diuris goonooensis; Goonoo is an extensive forest area near Dubbo.

SEPTEMBER

We were in the Blue Mountains for a few nights in September, when it was pretty cold and
wet, and we were probably too early for most of the flowers in the high mountains. One walk we
usually do there is the Coachwood Glen rainforest walk at the head of the Megalong Valley
below Medlow Bath. It's always cool and green and refreshing, and usually very reliable
for a range of fungi. I'm not very good at fungi, to my chagrin, but I think these
delicate brackets are fresh young Microporus affinis.

OCTOBER

This is a special one, Dainty or Hard Hills Spider Orchid Caladenia ampla, found only
in western Victoria and adjacent South Australia and listed as Critically Endangered.
This was in the Deep Lead Conservation Park near Stawell (a known site, I'm not giving
away any secrets with that). We spent nearly a week in nearby Gariwerd (also known as
Grampians) National Park, where it rained a lot, as this photo can attest, but we had
an excellent time. Many flowers, many orchids, but none more exciting than this.
(Hard Hills is the name of the reserve from where it was initially described.)

NOVEMBER

By now I was teaching my Understanding Birds night course for adults at
the ANU, for the first time in three years, so travel was off again for a while.
At Isabella Ponds in southern Canberra I was just wandering around one day when this
young male Superb Parrot flew down almost at my feet, and proceeded to search the
path for seeds. It's a nationally threatened species, which in the past bred in the
woodlands to the north of Canberra. Since the Millenial Drought however they have
become widespread in Canberra suburbs, but they're still quite novel this far south.
It was a lovely moment.

DECEMBER

This photo, taken just a couple of weeks ago through my study window, is not nearly as
grim as it might look! Far from being on the point of expiring on the balcony rail,
this Red Wattlebird was taking advantage of a rare sunny day (things have improved since
then) to stretch out and open its feathers to the sunshine to discomfit parasites such as feather lice.
I am constantly reminded how fortunate we are with our heavily planted small yard, which attracts
a good range of native birds, invertebrates and small lizards.

So this was my year, or at least a version of it; this year however there probably weren't many other versions I could have offered. Of course I have no idea what 2023 might bring, though the plan is to take a group overseas, to Costa Rica, for the first time in four years. Thanks for reading along with me, both today and through the past year. That means a lot to me. 

Whatever is coming we can be sure that nature is always there to inspire us and keep us in perspective, and I have every intention of continuing to share it with you through these posts. May your 2023 start peacefully and naturally.

NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 19 JANUARY

 

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