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I?ve just watched a televised episode of cirque de soleil ? poetry in
motion indeed.
This morning Zulu and I met at Cunninghams Gap for a Cordeaux circuit.
We started our walk from the bell bird dominated picnic ground ~ 2km
from the Gap, where the first treat for the day was a group of musk
lorikeets [don?t often see them round this neck of the woods].
We crossed Gap Ck and followed our noses up a ridge to the "pinnacle".
No GPSs were required for this leg of the walk as:
1. we were going up hill
2. there had been a fire through the area a couple of weeks ago, so we
had an absolutely scunge free ascent. Some would say it must have been
a perfect fire as it had only taken the grass and not singed the trees.
There were certainly plenty of birds about, with quite a few plant
species in flower. A lot of grass trees, for example, were blooming and
were providing a great feed for the scarlet, white naped, yellow faced
and lewins honeyeaters and the eastern spinebills. We even saw a red
wattlebird [also uncommon in these parts].
We had some nice views from the summit, and a grey goshawk circled us
while we were eating a few "snakes". A male satin flycatcher [another
uncommon sight] popped in while we were discussing the virtues of
different football codes [including the advantage accruing to the Irish
from the use of a round ball in the international rules games.]
We then traversed a ridge leading towards the main range ? there were
some lovely ?banana? orchids blooming prolifically on the boulders and
the fan tailed cuckoos and white throated treecreepers were calling
melodically.
We reached the edge of the burnt area and passed through some pleasant
wet schlerophyll and rain forests. One point had some interesting tree
ferns ? one was about 60 cm across the base and had eight trunks [5 with
live canopies].
There was the odd pitta about, a crew of crimson rosellas that tail
wagged about us for half a kay, and plenty of rufous fantails, black
faced monarchs and eastern whipbirds etc.
We hit the divide round midday and followed the track out to Bare Rock,
where we had lunch overlooking our last atlas site. A flock of top
knots flew through it, and so were retrospectively added to the list.
I saw a rufous skulking bird on the way back to Cordeaux. Cordeaux was
a sight for photographic eyes, with masses of orchids in flower on two
cliff faces, with heaps of grass trees and spear lillies [nature?s stop
sign] also blooming. More great views from the lookouts, the odd snake
on the track [beige with smudgy spots] and the odd ground thrush and
brown cuckoo dove along the way back to the car.
Next time I must come back with a camera.
Laurie.
.
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