Farewell to 2023!

I've now established this as an annual tradition, a review of our year as represented by one photo from each month. (As sometimes happens, at least one month passed with no appropriate photos, in which case I've presumed to 'borrow' photos from other, over-picced, months.) It was a pretty good year overall for us (though not of course for Australia, or the world at large), with our first overseas trip in four years, and our first longish holiday in our camper trailer. Anyway enough of words, here's one way of looking at our year.

And 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 misperceived excellence.

JANUARY

This was the first time this lovely sun orchid, Thelymitra alpicola, had been reported in
the ACT (and I hasten to say that I didn't find it, but was Acting on Information Received).
It was growing in typical habitat near a bog in Snow Gum woodland, but was previously
only known from NSW in the Snowy Mountains and Blue Mountains. Even with
the aforesaid information it took me a while to find it, and I felt very privileged.

FEBRUARY

For the past couple of years it's been our practice to pack up the camper trailer as
soon as summer school holidays end and head for Beowa National Park (formerly Ben
Boyd NP) on the far south coast of NSW. On this occasion we made a day trip south
into Victoria to Croajingalong NP near Mallacoota. Our highlight there was watching,
with some enthralled campers, these two big Lace Monitors Varanus varius competing for mating
rights in the area. It was mostly a wrestle (and they were still at it when we left
after quite a while) but those claws are horrendous and there was some gashed skin too.

MARCH

In March we went to the Blue Mountains (another regular and fairly-close-to-home
destination) but my favourite image from March is this one, taken in our back yard, of a
Greenish Grass-dart Ocybadistes walkeri with its proboscis deeply into a
glowing everlasting daisy Xerochrysum bracteatum.

APRIL

In April we spent a few nights in Forbes, a town we're fond of on the south-western
slopes of NSW, some 300k north-north-west of here on the Lachlan River. On its edge is
one of our favourite wetlands, Gum Swamp. However my favourite memory-photo from
this trip is this one taken from a footbridge over Lake Forbes (an anabranch of the Lachlan
in town, now managed as a permanent lake) in the late afternoon. This Australian Water Rat
(or Rakali as it's often known now, an Indigenous name from the Murray-Darling)
swam towards us and eventually right under us, showing off its characteristic
white tail. It was a very nice moment.

MAY

Our May highlight was a camping trip out west to Mungo National Park, nearly 800km
from here on the arid western plains. It is famed as the site of the one of the oldest burial
sites in Australia, some 40,000 years old, and apparently the world's oldest cremation site.
However its 110,000 hectares have some excellent wildlife values too, and one morning
while walking near the campground I came on this Australian Hobby Falco longipennis,
breakfasting on what was I think one of the numerous and raucous Yellow-throated Miners
Manorina flavigula which dominate the area. This one's dominating days ended that
morning however, and the falcon was too engrossed in its meal to be disturbed by
my observing it.

JUNE

June was a non-affair as far as photography was concerned, which gives me an opportunity
to feature a trip we did to Lake Cargelligo in February, when after some angst on my part
the goannas got 'shot of the month' billing here. This is also on the Lachlan River 400k to
the north-west of here, where we visited an old friend. The highlight here was a veritable
cornucopia of waterbirds following flooding across the countryside. But my choice of
photo for the month is this one of a glorious Pink Cockatoo Lophochroa leadbeateri,
part of a flock feeding and squabbling by the roadside early in the morning on Callitris
Pine cones. As I watched, little groups creaked across the plains to join them
until the roadside trees were glowing pink; a wonderful experience.

JULY

In July we finally got to accompany a tour to Costa Rica, originally planned for 2020 before COVID
changed the world and ended international travel for us for four years. Needless to say there
are numerous photos I could have used but one of my abiding memories of this trip was this
extraordinary encounter with a rare, threatened and little-understood mammal, while on a
boat trip on the Rio Suerte ('Lucky River') returning from Tortuguero on the Caribbean coast.
This Neotropical River Otter Lontra longicaudis popped up from the water as we
approached and proceeded to eat its catfish lunch while we watched.
A special moment in a tour of many special moments.

AUGUST

I am glad to be able to offer two (very different) photos from Costa Rica. One morning
this amazing creature was found by one of our group in her room, from where
another of our number (hello Steve) extracted it, identified it and placed it on a
convenient tree trunk to be admired. It is a tailless whip-scorpion (an arachnid but not a
true scorpion or even a true whip-scorpion) in the Family Phrynidae, found throughout
the tropics. However I'd never seen one and was enthralled; the fact that it was at
least 10cm across helped there too! The six back legs are for walking, the front pair stretch
forward as sensory organs, and in front again are the formidable spiked jaws (pedipalps).
I saw many striking animals in Costa Rica, but perhaps none more so than this one.

SEPTEMBER

In September we did a long-planned camping trip to South Australia (my 'state of origin')
to visit three of my favourite parks there. The first one, Dhilba Guuranda–Innes National Park
at the foot of Yorke Peninsula, proved to be our most memorable. This Hooded Dotterel (or
Plover if you prefer) Thinornis cucullatus was foraging on Shell Beach, near our
campground, at dawn one morning while the beach was still otherwise deserted
(I stayed up on the dunes). This is a nationally threatened species and generally shy,
so I was thrilled by this encounter.
And as a bonus I can't resist sharing the exquisite beach it lived on, taken that same early morning.

OCTOBER

That holiday extended into October, so I can legitimately double-dip! On our way home we
had intended to make our last camp in the little-visited Red Banks Conservation Park near
Burra in the mid-north of South Australia. However that afternoon it was raining, very
windy and cold, so we opted to stay in Burra instead (for the record at the old railway station
which is well worth bearing in mind if you're there). However both mornings I went
out early to Red Banks; I saw but didn't get a photo of the Redthroats for which it is
noted, but loved being out in this semi-arid mallee-bluebush scrubland.

NOVEMBER

In November we were back in the Blue Mountains and managed to find a lovely short
walk that we hadn't done before. The flowering was mostly over, but the walk to the
Walls Lookout, culminating here in spectacular sandstone scenery at the edge of the mighty
Grose River Valley, was exquisite and memorable. It is reached from the Bells Line of Road,
then turning off to the Pierces Lookout picnic area; you can walk from the carpark by
the road, or take the shorter option from the picnic area further in.
We just love the sandstone country.

DECEMBER

In December we always spend a few days at Currarong at the north end of
Jervis Bay on the NSW south coast to celebrate Lou's birthday. It's a pleasureland of
sheltered bays, forest and heathland. For some reason I didn't take many photos
this time - probably because I already had so many from previous visits - but I like
this one, taken by Lou with my camera from the car window at the boat ramp. The
tide was full so these Crested Terns Thalasseus bergii had lost their roosts on the
rocky reefs just offshore and had to battle for individual perches at the ramp.
We are looking across the ocean to I think Mount Coolangatta in the hazy distance
(you might need to look at a map to make sense of that).
Perhaps not of general interest but good memories for us.

So once again, this was my year, or at least a version of it. Thank you very sincerely for reading my offerings, and for your support through your comments below. As I've said before, 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 2024 start peacefully and naturally. My best wishes to you, Ian.

NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 18 JANUARY

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