Snow on Mount Buffalo (2019), part 1

Only a week after we moved here last year, we drove up to Mount Buffalo for a bit of sightseeing—not only because it was an easy activity (a relatively quick jaunt up the road) but also because the days of constant rain brought snow at higher elevations, and it had been five years since we had seen any snow more than the light dustings we had experienced in the New England.

Given its name from some early British-Australian explorers to its resemblance to a reclining buffalo, Mount Buffalo is a granite plateau within the Australian Alps mountain range. The park was established in 1898, which makes it one of the oldest established National Parks in Australia and is often heard referred to as the “Family Mountain” due to its long-standing accessibility and popularity. We are conveniently located about five minutes from the park entrance, however the winding road up to the plateau is approximately a 45 minute drive, more or less depending on conditions and the number of cyclists on the road (it is a very popular cycling route.)

The granite outcrop.

The view from the top looking north east. On clear days you can see Mount Kosciusko (NSW), Australia’s highest peak, 134km away.

Looking down into the Buffalo Valley below toward Porepunkah.

Paraglider launch pad.

Pepperberry plants under snow.

The sparsely snow-covered plateau at Cresta Valley.

Looking toward The Horn, the highest point of Mount Buffalo.

Australian alpine winter colours.

Australian King Parrots

 

Photos from August 2019, not long after the move.

We see king parrots often, although it is less common for them to so close to the house -- all of these photos were taken standing on the verandah. Usually they're a bit further from the house and stay in or under the hedge which separates us from our neighbours.

There was also that one time in early September when I looked out the window and saw a small flock of king parrots perched on the jazz...

Eastern Spinebill (Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris)

I was quite chuffed to get a couple in-focus snaps of the eastern spinebill honeyeater on the flowering quince. This is the time of year for us to see them from the house, with the quince and daphne in full bloom. They are small, quick-moving birds, and in the thick of the branches and blossoms this was the first time I was able to get a couple good photos. If you're wondering why the quince flowers look a little worse for wear, it's not because we've had particularly rough rainy or windy weather, but rather because the satin bowerbirds pick at the petals and eat them. And just as a bonus - one shot of a superb fairywren at the end, taken only moments after these other photos.

[Relocation to] Victoria

I wrote this post in December 2019 and just hadn’t quite gotten around to selecting and resizing all the photos to go with it to publish. Then there was Christmas, which was somewhat unnecessarily hectic, a few days off work trying to hasten through a much-larger-than-I-thought-it-was-going-to-be graphic design project I volunteered for, and then New Year’s Eve came, the day the Abbeyard/Mt Buffalo fires started. Fast-forward two evacuations and weeks on constant alert breathing air heavy with smoke, and a month recovering from it all. It was already an unusual start to the year, and this was before coronavirus became a worldwide pandemic and everything shut down.

Time has been strange these past couple months, and honestly I have not had much energy to write or take photos the way I normally enjoy. It is not just the pandemic as I have being feeling a bit out of alignment for this past year here. I had settled perhaps a bit deeper into Uralla than I had thought, and the move has been a difficult adjustment for me, perhaps moreso in that my work is still in Uralla and I can’t let go of the ties I hold there. There is a lot of uncertainty for the future, as my work there will likely come to an end in the next month or so.

So we press forward, one day at a time. I am trying to prioritise my health, wellbeing, and creativity, and hoping bit by bit to get back into the swing of things.

Kookaburra, July 2019. Dacelo novaeguineae. While we are used to hearing kookaburras every day,
now that we live outside of town there are certainly a lot more of them.

6 December 2019

We made the official move to Victoria in July and will have been here now nearly five months, which have flown by. Of course any kind of move has a number of chores which come along with it (whether changes of address, setting up new utilities, or just learning where to find certain things in new surrounds) and as we moved interstate there were a few extra tasks to undertake (new car rego, drivers licences, insurances). That all on top of getting used to the way of life south of the border and the unique VIC lingo (you’ll give yourself away coming from NSW if you order a midi instead of a pot!) And of course, I haven’t even mentioned the unpacking…

Coming from drought-stricken New England, it was a welcome change to see green paddocks and to have frequent rain during the spring, although the hills are already tinged with brown as the grass dries out as we head into the hot summer. We are renting an farmhouse on a cattle farm, about a 15 minute drive from the town of Bright and just five minutes from Mount Buffalo National Park. Being so close to the park is fantastic – hard to make an excuse not to go on a weekend when we want to take a walk or simply get out of the house when it’s so close.

A crimson rosella Platycercus elegans preens its feathers.

Being out of town, we have more birds in our backyard on a regular basis than we did in town in Uralla. There are an enormous amount of crimson rosellas which can be heard chirping all day long and I very much enjoy seeing the fairywrens hopping about, which were uncommon visitors in Uralla but quite regular here. It has also been fantastic to see all the new birds from a new area: grey fantails, scarlet robins, and more which have yet to be identified. The magpies and the currawongs have slightly different calls, as if they, too, have a Victorian accent to their northern cousins.

Scarlet robin, Petroica boodang.

Brown Thornbill (?) Acanthiza pusilla.

These amazingly tiny birds are incredibly fleeting, so difficult to capture!

The female satin bowerbird, Ptilonorhynchus violaceus. A bird I'd never seen before we moved
to VIC, now we see them nearly every day in large groups, hopping through the paddocks or
in the garden. Last summer they ate our capsicum plants, leaves and all.

Australian king parrots, Alisterus scapularis.

A male superb fairy wren, Malurus cyaneus.

The much less flamboyant female superb fairy wren.

My one and only sighting of an Eastern spinebill, Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris.

Scaret robin (Petroica boodang)

The striking (and adorable) scarlet robin, glimpsed from inside and photographed from the verandah, mid July 2020.

I only catch a glimpse of the male scarlet robin and his bright red plumage from time to time, as the robins are much more elusive and shy than the other birds I see every day. I have read that the territorial pairs move from forest habitats into open grasslands/pastures for the winter, which would explain why we have only seen them at our place during the coldest months.

This sighting brightened up my afternoon considerably, I wouldn't mind taking a break every day from work to photograph a passing bird or two!

Last few months in the New England

Much overdue, but as they say it’s better late than never. I never made the time to update this blog last summer after I posted the last of our Mongolia trip photos. After we returned to Australia, spring quickly turned into summer and I was kept quite busy with my new job and more and more time spent in the garden. A few days before Christmas we first entertained the idea of relocating out of Uralla, not knowing it would quickly turn our lives onto a completely new and different trajectory. Come January, time was inevitably taken with various projects to spruce up the house in preparation to sell. As time went on, updating the blog became one of the last things on my mind, and the more time that passed the easier it was to put it off even longer. I’m optimistic to get back into it – at the very least a monthly update or so.

Despite committing nearly all of our time to the imminent move, we did take the time for a few trips during the summer: a weekend in Urunga on the coast over New Years, a stopover at Dorrigo National Park, a quick day trip to Port Macquarie to buy a new car as well as a quick stop at the beach while we were there. Of course we also spent two fantastic weeks in New Zealand (another post on this with some recap photos coming soon.) 

Newry Island, Urunga

Urunga boardwalk

Windy beach at Urunga

New Years at the beach

 

  

Dorrigo rainforest, still one of the most beautiful places in NSW.

Thunderbolts Way to Port Macquarie

 

Quiet Lighthouse Beach at Port Macquarie.

Not many swimmers because the water was cold!

Apart from those few trips, though, the rest of the few months was spent at home. There were photos of the birds who visited our backyard, fantastic skies and clouds that happened to pass overhead, spent a lot of time in the garden examining plants and insects. Time spent cleaning the house and hanging with the cats.

Galahs on a dramatic sky evening

A group of cockatoos were overjoyed when we got a bit of rain and frolicked
in the tree, drinking water dripping off the leaves.

 

Trio of willy wagtails

Ripper clouds over Uralla

Getting ready for the lantern parade

The end of the summer garden.

Despite the prolonged drought, we had green in our backyard up until we left: rocket, dill, kohlrabi and broccoli, and shallots all tolerated the frosts as winter arrived.

 Tidying up and taking care of the garden meant there was a bit of this

And of course... a bit of this guy.

Cleaning up and emptying out the house.

Uralla, our little town, as viewed from Mount Mutton

Packing up