Farewell to 2024!

I've now established this as an annual tradition, a review of our year as represented by one photo - occasionally two where necessary - 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, photo-heavy months.) We didn't leave the country in 2024 and sadly my days of taking people overseas, especially to the wonderful Neotropics, are over. 

I have to confess that birds are probably over-represented in this collection, more than for any other year. I wasn't aware of it while I was taking photos, but sometimes that's just how it turns out. Shockingly there are no mammals or reptiles featuring as 2024 memories; there were of course a couple that could have, but they were over-shadowed in each case by an unusual bird or one with a story to tell. Oh well, there it is. But, having written that, one mammal image suddenly came to me and refused to be ignored, so there are now two images for October...

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 misguided belief in their excellence.

 JANUARY

January is usually a fairly low-key month - we don't see much point in travelling
anywhere near the coast during school holidays, and it's usually too hot inland. Typically
my January photos are taken in and around the ACT and 2024 was no different. For some years
now a solitary Common Sandpiper Actitis hypoleucos (which is actually not very common
in southern Australia) has turned up in the same locality in Tuggerangong
in the southern Canberra suburbs, and stayed for the summer before returning
to the Arctic where it presumably breeds. It's a great story, but I've been generally
totally incompetent at finding the bird and getting near it. However in January finally I managed
to get quite close to it as it pottered and bobbed along the creek. What a little star!

 FEBRUARY

Like the sandpiper we're quite predictable in at least some of our travels, and each
February as soon as the school holidays end we head down to the far south coast of NSW to
Beowa NP (formerly Ben Boyd) and camp for about five nights. There are generally
Superb Lyrebirds not far from the campground but this year they were amazingly
relaxed and fossicked for invertebrates in the leaves, called and even put on partial displays
like this one all around our campsite. It was just breathtaking.

 MARCH

March was a quiet one and I have no photos from then; Lou was commuting to Sydney
every week for uni, so we didn't get away and I apparently didn't get out much
around here either. Hence I've 'borrowed' a surplus photo from our winter trip
to south-west Queensland (see June and July below) to fill the gap.
This is from Idalia NP, a true park beauty south-west of Blackall, which I'll post
about next year. It's a Lesser Wanderer butterfly Danaus chrysippus feeding
on Blue Pincushion Brunonia australis along the roadside.

APRIL

In April we had a few nights at one of our favourite camps, which we also try to
visit at least once a year, in Cocoparra NP near Griffith in the Riverina district
of New South Wales. One of the lovely aspects of this dryland park in a range
is the still dark nights. We love watching the moon and stars through the
surrounding eucalypts; you'll probably need to click on the photo and enlarge
it to see them properly. The stars look light little lights in the trees.

 MAY

For some time I've wondered if the very shy and skulking Little Grassbird Poodytes gramineus
(a non-migratory dweller of the reed beds) owes some of its elusive reputation to being
bullied by the bigger Australian Reed Warblers Acrocephalus australis which share their
habitat during their summer stay here. An experience at a local wetland in the nearby suburb
of Coombs tends to support this, as the birds were unusually bold in coming into the open
now that the reed warblers had left them to it.
It was the first time I'd ever managed any sort of acceptable photo of one.

 JUNE

I mentioned earlier an excellent four week camping trip through the semi-arid lands
of South-west Queensland, a delight (at least until the rain came later in the trip).
This photo brings back to me the glorious clarity and tranquility of the land, here
on the Barcoo River in Welford National Park, alongside the camp ground.
It's early morning and the moon is still in the sky.

 JULY

After the rain we couldn't get into our planned last camp in Currawinya NP, so we
went to the campground offered by Alroy Station, north of Eulo. We'd not
previously been aware of it, but it was a very pleasant experience.
Here is the suggestion of more storms coming, in the campground on
the last evening of our stay there.

Meanwhile alongside our camp, this female Australian Darter Anhinga novaehollandiae
was repeatedly tossing her hard-earned fish to get it properly oriented. I think she
was young and inexperienced, and we groaned when she eventually dropped it!

 AUGUST

Jerrambomberra Wetlands in Canberra is one of my favourite haunts, and
I never tire of it. I watched this normally very shy and wary Australian (Spotted)
Crake Porzana fluminea for some time as it pottered about at very close range on
the mud and in shallow water.

SEPTEMBER

Spring gave us a week's break at the end of September and start of October to
explore the lovely mallee country of north-western Victoria, where we camped
in two wonderful parks. In Hattah-Kulkyne NP (an old favourite) we were thrilled
to come across a flock of the delightful, and threatened, Regent Parrots
Polytelis anthopeplus flying across the road. Of course we got out and followed
them and watched them for some time feeding on saltbush seeds before flying
up into the nearby Black Box Eucalyptus largiflorens. This is a male.

 OCTOBER

This corner of Victoria is the only part of the state where the mostly desert-dwelling
Red Kangaroo Osphranter rufus, the largest living kangaroo, can be found.
It was strange seeing them in open forest rather than the open plains,
but this magnificently huge old male looked right at home there.
This photo and the next were taken in Wyperfeld NP, one of Victoria’s oldest. 

I couldn't decide between these two photos, but fortunately it's my blog so I don't have to...
I have a particularly soft spots for quail-thrushes, mostly dryland ground-dwelling
birds which are often not easy to approach. This Chestnut Quail-thrush
Cinclosoma castanotum however didn't know that. On an early morning walk
it flew over the track a few metres ahead of me and under a bush, then
emerged and foraged about my feet quite obliviously, a lovely experience.

 NOVEMBER

This is one of the most handsome flies I've ever encountered, and it was feeding
in our front yard by the driveway in a profusely flowering Kunzea ambigua.
It's an Orange Cap-Nosed Fly Pelecorhynchus fulvus which is coloured to
imitate the highly toxic Long-nosed Lycid Beetle Porrostoma rhipidius, one of
several non-toxic insect species to do so.

And here's the protecting beetle itself feeding almost alongside it!

 DECEMBER

And in December we always spend a few days at Currarong, on the northern end
of Jervis Bay on the NSW south coast, to coincide with Lou's birthday. I've amassed
quite a bird list there over the years, but here's one I'd never seen there before, and had
never managed to photograph anywhere else before either. This is a Large-billed
Scrubwren Sericornis magnirostra, not especially uncommon but ever on the move
and usually in shady leafy situations. I was pleased.

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 2025 start peacefully and naturally. My best wishes to you, Ian.

 NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 23 JANUARY

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