Banks' Botany Bay botany

Views from the nature trails of the Kamay Botany Bay National Park the other day. I retraced the steps of historic botanist extraordinaire, Joseph Banks.

Below: termites tackling a Sydney red gum/smooth barked apple (Angophora costata) & a very scribbly scribbly gum (Eucalyptus haemastona)

Above: the trunk of a very tall cabbage-tree palm (Livingstona australis)

Another bleeding angophora.

Some burnt-out black boys/southern grasstrees (Xanthorrhoea australis)

Solander Point - whales galore!

Is it a bird?

Is it a bird?........ Is it Superman?.........     No.    IT'S A PLANE

(Used to be lots of those around!)

Nicely re-interpreted

I revisited the Kamay Botany Bay National Park at Kurnell the other day, generally known as Captain Cook's Landing Place. It's been a while.

There's much debate about tearing down statues of historical bad guy colonialists (or in this case, master navigators with secret orders). They've done a good job here of showing how it can be done properly: keep the history, but also put it into a better context.

Here's the tiny creek that provided an adequate water supply for the 1770 expeditioners. (A different story of course when the First Fleet turned up 18 years later, and were severely disappointed by the drought-stricken ditch it had become.)

There are some fine new sculptures now, created for the 250th anniversary. There's a group of whales, plus an intriguing abstract that's to do with both the ribs of the HMB Endeavour and some whale bones.

And the park is a rather lovely spot too. It's also the starting point for the little botanical bushwalks that lead you to the ocean and one of the finest spots for watching live whales.

Austrian Club back to booming business

The All Nations Bushwalkers called in at the Austrian Club in Frenches Forest today for lunch. Huge platefuls of food got eaten, and quite large volumes of Austrian beer got drunk, so it was a bit of a wonder that the walk was able to resume and get completed otherwise uneventfully.

Covid-19 distancing restrictions have been eased recently, but I was still a bit surprised how many patrons were somehow packed into the place. It's business as usual now, I'd say.

Peak Hill variations

Another trip up the delightful Peak Hill the other day. Delightful, as in it's everyone's favourite pointy-shaped little mountain. It's fairly accessible, and there are lots of variations to how you can get there and back.

It's close to Brooklyn, on the Hawkesbury River, and one round trip we often do involves going in via Porto Ridge, and then bashing our way down a now horribly overgrown creek to Sandy Bay.

There's a spectacular and little-known rock overhang on the way, which houses some aboriginal hand stencils.

The descent this time was by an unexplored (by us) route to the west and then north of the Peak. It was a bit challenging at first, with the usual cliffs and other such obstacles.

It all came together in the end though. Always has done so far.

And there we were, down in Sandy Bay again.

Empty!

A perfect morning for a cold swim at North Narrabeen ocean pool, I thought. I checked the maintenance calendar, and yesterday was the scheduled day. Today should be fine.

Still empty though! Looks like the next high tide might fill it.

Not sure how  this all works. Better luck next time.

PS: I just discovered that Narrabeen is mentioned in a Beach Boys song! Surfing USA in fact! They even played a concert in North Narrabeen Reserve in 1992. Listen here:

Getting the blues to get the girls

I came across this yesterday while bushwalking in the North Rocks area. It's a satin bower bird's bower.

The male bird builds this thing, which is not a nest, but a place to do ritual dances around, and then collects blue things. He's extremely fond of blue things.

And presumably, so are the females. The more blue things he's collected and showing off, the better his chances of getting the girl.

Presumably bright blue things used to be rare and precious. Now there's lots of them and they're nearly all plastic bottle tops, straws, or suchlike. The magic must still work though.

More on them here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satin_bowerbird

We were wondering why blue is the chosen colour. Maybe it's the relative rarity of the colour in nature. A bit like we're often attracted to gold? There again, the male bird himself has a blue sheen, and bright blue eyes. We didn't see him yesterday, but here's a picture from the Wikipedia article.

                                          Photo: Joseph C Boone

Back to the beach

North Narrabeen and Turimetta beaches in fact. The water was a bit cold but the sky was blue and everything was as clear and colourful as it gets.