Kanangra, I find it not easy to be outside taking photographs before sunrise in Winter. The atmospheric rewards are very good but my fingers sting, so that is my only atmospheric image this winter.
I went for a windy walk and hiked my bike heaps yesterday, on the Bicentennial National Trail. From Lerida Outstation up and along the Cullerin Range, across cattle grids, through unfenced farm paddocks and the open woodlands to Yorkdale Travelling Stock Reserve near Yankee Jack's Hill on a flat part of the Great Dividing Range, and finished at the lookout high above Murray's Swamp on the Lake George Range. It was very cold and windy.
I got within 10 metres of two Wedge Tail Eagles at Yankee Jack's Hill. I had forgotten how big Eagles are (or did I really not know). Their wingspan(s) left me in awe. At one time, there were six Eagles flying in a tight circling formation about 50 metres above the ground, looking straight up. Until yesterday I had only seen soaring eagles hundreds of metres away, mere specks ... apart from one Eagle that I once saw in a cage. Seeing the Eagles doing their stuff up close yesterday, was a thrill.
Skeletal objects on the Cullarin Range.
The unformed road and gate of Yorkdale TSR (called Lerida TSR in the new BNT guide book).
A Red Gum or a White Sallee? ... or a Black Sallee? ... almost standing in water, on the Great Dividing Range. I'm up on trees, but this tree has got me stumped. This is most unusual, I will return and identify it (in Spring). I walked up to the tree because I was surprised to see what I thought was a Black Sallee growing here on flooded ground (seen from a distance). After 16 years of drought and now there is standing water, if only several centimetres deep. It has been a good year for rain, at last. There is good water in the farm dams and some creeks are continuing to flow.
The track above Murray's Swamp.
Lake George has water in it. Apart from only seeing the odd tennis court size puddles in Lake George, during the past decade or two, Lake George is now attempting to impersonate a real lake ...
well, go Lake George. In the foreground is a somewhat soggy Collector Creek Travelling Stock Reserve. After yesterday, I now know which way Collector Creek flows. It flows into Lake George. I hope that you find that interesting? I always thought that building a million dollar bridge over the slight depression called Collector Creek was some kind of sick bridge contractor's joke, when a low level gravel crossing is all that was needed on the Federal Highway. I had no idea that some bridge builders could foresee the future.
Warren.
