Thursday, April 12
4:00 PM Canberra, ACT, Australia
4:10 PM Geocaching
I wanted to try to find at least one geocache in the Canberra area as I was sure this would then count as the cache furthest from my home in Lethbridge. I knew that Ken & Di had planned to Tidbinbilla and so I found a cache in that area on the geocaching.com website and made a note of the coordinates. Then when we we arrived at the spot where we planned on parking the car, we all went off to find the cache. We soon encountered a sign indicating that the trail was closed due to recent flooding but I decided to ignore the sign and we soon left the trail to walk in a direct line to the cache location. Along the way we met a few kangaroos but they left as we approached. Once in the immediate vicinity I had no difficulty finding the cache.
- GC2MPZN - Tidbinbilla Wonder/Wander
This is find #12 for Australia.
Cache site
5:00 PM Birding
After we found the cache we visited a section of the park that was fenced off to protect the wildlife inside from foxes. The path through the enclosed area was a delight and we saw our first Emus as well as some Australian White Pelicans, a Musk Duck, a few Magpie Geese, some Moorhens, and a Brolga. Unfortunately a check at the gate revealed that most of these birds had their wings clipped and could not leave the enclosed area. Therefore they are not eligible for birding.
The good news was we saw a pair of Emus while having lunch at a nearby picnic area. We really wanted to add the Emu to our bird list while in Australia and we were rewarded. Excellent!
- Red Wattlebird [first for 2012]
- Variegated Fairy-wren
- White-browed Scrubwren
- Australian (Richard's) Pipit [LIFER]
- Emu [LIFER]
- Wedgetail Eagle [first for 2012]
- Crimson Rosella [first for 2012]
- Eastern Rosella
Australian (Richard's) Pipit
Emus!
Crimson Rosella
10:10 PM Life
The bushwalk and picnic were ideal. This is the best way to spend a day in this part of the country. Thank you!
We spent the evening with Don & Wendy, Rob & Jen. Time was divided between Grizzly bears and cognitive research. Then we walked to a nearby Croation restaurant for dinner. Then back to Don & Wendy's for more bears and research. Perfect!