This was fun. Yesterday afternoon*, the central Tablelands area was smothered by smoke from a scheduled burn off down on the coast. The smoke must have been channelled up the Gillies Highway between the Lamb Range and the Bellenden Ker Range. Honestly, what good is it having great big granite ramparts between us and the coast if there are gaps like this. Barricade the Gillies, I say! Make haze, cyclones, tourists etc go the long way around.
The only good thing about yesterday's thick, stinky pall of burnt stuff was the ameliorating effect it had on the temperature. It has been warmer than it really needs to be at this time of year. One of the reasons I moved to the Tablelands was to get away from Melbourne summers with their fires and high temperatures...This isn't funny, Nature! This is definitely not funny.
The hot weather has brought more birds to the water bowls. Today, a small gang of thornbills turned up, but were too skittish to photograph. (I think they were varied thornbills, the north-eastern form of buff-rumped thornbill, but we all know about my birding skills.)
In fact, so many birds are taking advantage of the free baths that I am considering installing little beak-operated taps so they can refill the bowls themselves.
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| Dusky honeyeater |
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| Helmeted friarbird |
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| White-browed scrubwren |
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* And today.
