Sydney Park – Wetter than ever

Sydney Park in St Peters, inner-west suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

I live not far from here so it is a very convenient place for me. But I haven’t been there in a while and there has been a lot of rain, and the wildlife is pretty happy with it.

The Spoonbill, below, is an occasional visitor to the area. With the abundance of water comes an abundance of life, very tempting for a hungry bird.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Pied Cormorant here, before. This one was quite happy to let me get pretty close for this photo. Even when people went by on bikes, it didn’t fly away.

The usual Black Cormorant, much more flighty. It seems to have a permanently worried expression to go with this character.

In parts of the wetlands, there is an abundance of weed floating on the surface, and the ducks and moorhens etc. took delight in this, swimming through it, diving beneath it, presumably eating it.

The moorhens are still having babies – they are such prolific breeders!

Another happy duck, its face covered with green.

And a Little Grebe nesting on the pond, even at this time of year.

Finally, a short video showing the creek with actual water in it, and the spoonbill has a funny altercation at the end.

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Brazilian Coogee

It’s taken me a while to get this post up, but here it is.

About three weekends ago we were in Coogee taking a walk along the cliffs. On my way back down, we could hear the drumming coming from the back of the beach, on the grassy area. People were playing soccer and having picnics and the like but by far the main attraction was a Brazilian drumming group called, I think, Brazilian Rhythm.

They consisted of a number of men and one woman and they certainly got some people in the crowd dancing. They played tightly and were having a great time.

Below: see the Brazilian version of Shakin’ your booty.

You can hear and see on the video below:

A little time in Coogee

Coogee Beach is quite a nice place – haven’t really been there much as I’m not a beach person, myself.

So I climbed up onto the cliffs (well, walked up the footpath to them) where there was a wonderful sense of separateness from the bustle below.

The above picture is Gordon’s Bay, just around the corner. There is a fishing club there, this next photo from 2005.

The sandstone here forms beautiful patterns in rich, earthy colours.

And at times, there are mysterious goings on, such as these four men in very swanky suits standing about on the cliff.

Maybe it was a commercial or fashion shoot, maybe a wedding – I’m sure there’s a logical explanation.

Out to see, a yacht sailed, looking like the living expression of FREEDOM to me.

And using my handheld stills camera, I made a bit of a video, just to give an idea of what it was like to be walking around up there. It’s nothing snazzy, but quite peaceful on the windy clifftops.

However, I did eventually come down – to Brazilian Drummers! See the next post, soon 🙂

OH! I forgot to add a couple of night shots, so here they are:

I was just experimenting with the new camera. I didn’t have my tripod on me so I had to rest it on the wall.

Indoors

Indoors, originally uploaded by smallfox2.

Using the Retro Camera (Pinhole) app on my phone – a bit of fun 🙂

Work in Progress – Currawongs

Currawong A5, originally uploaded by smallfox2.

I am currently working on the Currawongs video, the footage for which I recorded a while ago.

I’m using Windows Movie Maker, and it kept stuffing up on me before, so I abandoned it for a while.

Seems to be working now, though.

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh, originally uploaded by smallfox2.

How tough is Gilgamesh! Even with pigeon poo in his eye, he still holds on to that lion.
(Statue at Sydney University.)
If you’ve never read the Epic of Gilgamesh, I recommend it. It’s not long and you’ll be reading one of the world’s oldest written texts.
I just imagine what the world was like then, living in those days before Seinfeld…

Sydney University Building with Palm

Sydney University Building with Palm, originally uploaded by smallfox2.

As the title says… .
There are some lovely old buildings at Sydney Uni. I sometimes wonder how people aren’t too distracted by these to be able to study. The Uni that I went to was more modern and made largely of poured concrete.