#new south wales
Annie Wegner and her mother pose in front of a fine motor car (Mount Blackheath, Australia, 1930).
Post link
Two children play in the morning light while chooks scratch in the garden (Blackheath, Australia, 1930).
Post link
These Mighty Shorebirds Keep Breaking Flight Records—And You Can Follow Along
Bar-tailed Godwits regularly travel more than 7,000 miles non-stop. One enthusiast is spreading the word of their amazing migrations, with the help of a research project tracking 20 tagged birds in real-time.
A tagged Bar-tailed Godwit, #4BBRW, in Australia in October—after flying 239 hours nonstop from Alaska and breaking a flight record. Since landing in New South Wales, 4BBRW’s tracker has intermittently gone offline, which is common as birds rest because their feathers can cover the solar charging panel. It is likely to continue on to New Zealand soon.
Photo: Geoff White Photography
Post link
2021: Indo-Pacific Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) aggressively feeding on a salmon bait ball over the rocks at the south end of Maroubra Beach. Drone I used was a Mavic Air2. How cuddly do you think dolphins are now?
2021: The granite exposed along the ridge of Evans Crown is thought to be considerably younger (312 Ma) than the surrounding Tarana Granite. Both form part of the famous Bathurst batholith (mid-late Carboniferous).
Post link
2021: When you meet up with your Sydney Uni geology mates from 40 yrs ago for a weekend and end up finding a headland with five different igneous rock types in the one suite (the Bingie Bingie suite, part of the Moruya Batholith, early Devonian).
Post link
2021: Never, never, ever underestimate the power of the ocean. Also don’t build your holiday house on a sand dune. Lasting damage to houses on Wamberal Beach from big seas in July 2020 (from the famed “east coast low”).
Post link
2020:Nobbys Head is an outcrop of Permian coal measures at the entrance of the Hunter River. Originally an island, first described by James Cook, it is now joined to the mainland by a breakwater. The main bed exposed is the Nobbys Tuff, thought to be the result of an ashfall on a swampy environment. The drone came into its own here.
Post link
2020: Conjunction of Moon, Jupiter and Saturn. Apparently they are going to be even closer next month
Post link
2020: The Breadknife, a trachyte dyke (formed 18-13 Ma), along with plug known as Belougery Spire, dominate the Warrumbungles landscape. Only the radial dykes emanating from Ship Rock are more spectacular.
The Grand High Tops trail will take you along the base of the Breadknife and then above it.
Post link
2020: Crater Bluff (trachyte) and Tonduron Spire (trachyandesite) are classic examples of volcanic plugs found in the Warrumbungles range, a volcanic complex formed in the mid-Miocene.
Post link
2020: Belmore Falls in full flow over the ubiquitous Hawkesbury Sandstone.
“Endless Life” The Verve
2022: Parents introducing their kids to the friendly Southern Eagle rays (Myliobatisaustralis) of Boat Harbour Beach. This has been going on for generations.
Post link
2022: Normal fault in Kempsey Beds (late Carboniferous-Early Permian) exposed at the southern end of Gap Beach, with deformation likely associated with the intrusion of the Smoky Cape Syenogranite in the Triassic.
Post link
2022: The Rocky Creek Glaciation Area, Bingara. Nice examples of tillites from the Carboniferous. A great place to swim on a hot January day!
Post link
2022: Sawn Rocks, Mount Kaputar National Park. As the Australasian plate moved north during the Tertiary, there were continuous volcanic complexes developed down through QLD, NSW and Victoria, getting younger as you went south. Mt Kaputar is a former shield volcano (18 Ma) that formed part of the Nandewar Range.
Post link
2022: Wilpinjong open cut, north-east of Mudgee, NSW. Seams mined here are from the base of the Permian Illawarra Coal Measures.
Post link
2021: Glacial dropstones in the Permian Berry Siltstone at the oft-visited Mudgee Rd overpass cutting, just out of Lithgow. It is conformably overlain at this outcrop by the Marrangaroo Conglomerate. Other brands of soft-drink are available. ref
Post link
2021: A male Superb lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae) near our camp at Wollomombi Falls. These birds are amazing mimics, and this one was giving us its full repertoire - kookaburras, whip birds and currawongs amongst others. Some even copy human sounds like car alarms and chain saws.
Post link
2021: The imaginatively-named “Wind-eroded Caves”. Cross-bedding - check. Honeycomb weathering - check. Pebble-lag beds - check. Next post I promise to have something other than the Hawkesbury Sandstone.
Post link
2021: The Waratah (Telopea speciosissima) is the New South Wales state flower. These ones are from the Grose Valley side of the Blue Mountains. It is illegal to pick them in the wild; in fact NSW National Parks have been actively spraying them with blue dye is some areas to prevent theft.
Post link
2021: Red-browed Finches (Neochima temporalis) taking a puddle bath. They have a small, itinerant flock that continually moves around the golf course and I have been trying to photog them for ages. EOS5Dmk4 and 400mm5.6L.
Sorry … no rocks. Sydney has been in lockdown for past 11 weeks and these birds are one of the few things cheering me up atm.
Post link
