Hola amigos

 This is a new blog I am starting up to hold posts about our explorations around Melbourne (and probably the rest of Victoria) from our apartment.  Material about life in the apartment will continue to appear in The Houses of FranMart and matters relating to Mallacoota and surrounds in Mallacoota Weather and Wildlife.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sparrows-R-Us

Image
 A birding friend recently sighting a Eurasian Tree Sparrow (ETS) in Woolworths at Altona.  This frustrated me as I had recently seen a sparrow in the store but had assumed it was a House Sparrow.  So today I went back loaded for Passerine, as ETS would be an addition to my Australian List.   I wandered up and down the aisles and round and round the store for 40 minutes.  Despite my atypical attire, equipment and behaviour no fellow shoppers queried me and security staff were not deployed.  Perhaps everyone assumed I was on day release from Collingwood?  They didn't even question me in the canned vegetable aisle - which is where I think my friend got her tick - when I played a little call back .  After about 40 minutes I left, pausing only to pay for some groceries. So I thought I would check out the car park area assuming the bird was was not an obligate shopaholic.  And there was a Sparrow! Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) my com...
Read more

A birdy walk at Albert Park

Image
 I hadn't been to Albert Park for a while and having paid for a tram ride to town and back in the morning it would cost me nothing to ride the rail to MSAC.  Well, nothing except a lot more time than expected and a rise in blood pressure.  The 16 tram took forever to arrive at 505 and then, at St Kilda Junction, the driver announced that as he was running late he was avoiding St Kilda and going along Dandenong Rd.  So half the passengers, including me got off and climbed on another #16 which was following. The #96 to get to MSAC turned up on Fitzroy quite quickly. Here is the route of my birding walk. The driving range was well covered with balls, but no indication how many shots were birdies. As soon as I got to the edge of the Lake (point1) I spotted the cocked tail of a Black-tailed Nativehen. A very good addition to my year list. The I spotted another bird of the same species. Eventually I got the two together. With some coots for comparison. Moving on around the...
Read more

A snuffle or two on the South Side

Image
 We needed to get the car serviced today so headed for City Mazda, with a plan to walk back to 505.  Here is the intended route.  The basic route is Montague St; York St; Kingsway; St Kilda Rd. To get the weather out of the way.  It used to be said that if you don't like Melbourne weather wait 5 minutes and it will change.  Not this day: a foul wind at 0805 and it was still howling at 1500hrs. The first - but not the last - graffiti was under the tram line on Montague St.  This also features in today's second adventure. I am unsure what to call this decoration on the Golden Fleece Hotel.  It doesn't have the look or feel of graffiti: perhaps it is just decoration? This joint, when approached from the direction we came, definitely appeared to be a venue where affection could be negotiated.  However the building is very large and this is the back entrance: the front bit looks much more like a remedial massage operation (with the photos all of female...
Read more