Melbourne Adventures

 We felt the need to acquire some prawns so the Footscray Market was indicated. I went hoping to find the Plumed Whistling Ducks that were briefly seen at Flemington (just across the River) but failed.  A helpful Council Ranger told me that another group had been looking for them, and dipping, earlier in the day.  Here is my list for the day https://ebird.org/checklist/S400417118,  I had assumed this was a sign directing people to the (Taoist) Temple of the Heavenly Dawn, but on putting this into Google Lens I got the following result: Key Details: Campaign: This is part of the grass-roots and council-backed "Racism Not Welcome" campaign, which the City of Maribyrnong adopted to raise awareness, reduce diversity-related prejudices, and encourage community members to call out racism. [ 1 , 2 ] Multilingual Signage: Following community consultation and strong resident support, Maribyrnong City Council translated and rolled out versions of these anti-racism sig...

 As the weather seemed likely to be pleasant and the school holiday crowds not there we decided a visit to the Zoo was in order.  My plan was to begin with a visit to seen the Quokka joey.  Unfortunately its Mum had it hidden away in a shelter box so we couldn't see it.  No biggie, on to the Hamadryas Baboons (by chance rather than a cunning plan. A somewhat colourful male was sitting in front of the viewing window. A more distant group.   Grooming time: I was amused that anything interesting found was eaten by the groomer. It was interesting that groups of Baboons paraded past the view-window to the delight of the line of  kids pressed against the outside.  The Baboons looked across at their viewers. leading us to conclude this was a deliberate route to satisfy the curiosity of the primates inside the glass.  After a while we moved on to a different view point, where Frances saw a younger Baboon carrying around what she thought was a sa...

 I wanted to see what the situation was for the Royal Spoonbills (and to get off my tushie and get a little exercise) so walked from home along the Eastern and Northern sides of the Lake to MSAC. There were few birds in the Southern Lake , possibly reflecting the number of rowing boats around. The first brood of cygnets appeared off Gunn Island  where they had ventured far from shore.   The Australian White Ibis colony is going great guns: my estimate (aka guess at order of magnitude) for the whole Lake was about 250 birds.  Another brood was close to shore, but I doubt the cygnets could get out here. This particularly fresh and cute, team (led by K30) were in the Northern reed beds.  Overall I think I saw 6 broods. When I got round to the Lakeside Stadium it was easy to see 2 Spoonbills on part of Mud Island.  They were visible from near MSAC when heading for the tram.  I couldn't see any trace of the second pair recently seen engaged in breeding...

 This is primarily about a return visit to the Dandenong Botanic Gardens, home of the National Rhododendron Collection.  When we left Frances said words to the effect of "That was soul restoring."  I agreed with this saying in addition "There was room for that!" I shall justify my comment with a note about  the first half of the drive towards the end of this post, but let us begin with nice pictures of flowers. We set off heading for the Cherry Grove passing by the valley, which was just beginning to come into flower (I was expecting that the gardens would not be in full blossom). There were plenty of rhododendrons out however.  The next three images show some of the colours. Most of them were of the main type.  The next image is a Vireya type. A combination of colours. When they get going the massed colours are wonderful. This huge tree was some distance off the path.  I think it was a rhododendron. The attraction of this was the carpet of red petals ...