Gluepot Bird Reserve part 2 – reptiles
No Comments »8th July, 2006; Category: Animals
Bearded Dragon lizard
On my visit last year to the Gluepot Bird Reserve owned and run by Birds Australia I spent a whole day driving and walking the various tracks and walking trails. I didn’t have time to walk all of the tracks so I must return sometime later this year.
The reserve has been especially set aside to protect a large number of threatened and endangered species of bird. Birds like the Black-Eared Miner, a honeyeater, are relatively common in the reserve but elsewhere are very rare. Scarlet-Chested Parrots are also hard to find in other places.
Bearded Dragon lizard
The habitat suitable for these birds is also very good for a range of other species. The flora is particularly interesting and so is the insect and reptile life. The two photos featured on this posting are of two Bearded Dragons, a lizard species, I encountered that day. They were quite accommodating, posing beautifully for me while I took a series of photos.
Related links:
- Birds Australia – Australia’s largest birding organisation.
- My photo gallery – photos of birds, animals, flowers and much more.
Gluepot Bird Reserve part 1
Gluepot Bird Reserve
Last year I travelled to a very special place. About an hour’s drive north of Waikerie in the Riverland area of South Australia is Gluepot Bird Reserve. Gluepot was once a sheep station in what is predominantly mallee country. It is called Gluepot because the various tracks through the property become like a gluepot after even a small amount of rain. Some become impassable after twenty or thirty millimetres of rain. Fortunately this amount of rain only occurs several times a year.
A few years back the property came on the market and was quickly purchased by members of Australia’s largest Birding organisation, Birds Australia. It was already known how rich the bird population was on this sheep property. It has now been established that there are more than a dozen bird species present at Gluepot that are either threatened or endangered. It is one of the few strongholds anywhere of the rare honeyeater, the Black-Eared Miner.
Sunset at Gluepot Bird Reserve
I had been wanting to visit Gluepot for sometime but just hadn’t got around to it. The very first course to be offered there was on developing one’s skills in nature photography. Craig Ingram was the facilitator and I enrolled hoping to learn more about using my recently purchased digital camera, the latest Canon Powershot 2S IS. The weekend was particularly good and I learned many hints on photography.
I will share more photos taken on that weekend over coming days.
Related Links:
- My photo gallery (including more shots taken at Gluepot)
Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens part 4
Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens
The lower part of the Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens features a large artificial lake as shown in the above photo. Around this lake many people enjoy picnics and barbecues when they come to visit. A feature of this lake is the abundant bird life, especially the water birds.
Black Swan, Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens
These beautiful gardens are a very pleasant half hour drive from the Adelaide CBD. It is worth visiting at different times of the year. Not everything flowers in the spring and summer months. In autumn the deciduous trees put on a magnificent display.
Related posts:
- The Adelaide Hills
- Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens
- Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens part 2
- Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens part 3
Butterfly in the Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens
Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens part 3
Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens
Parks and gardens are usually very relaxing places to visit. We are fortunate living in South Australia because we have many beautiful and well kept parks and gardens. Foremost amongst those are the various sections of the historic Adelaide Botanic Gardens. Featured in the photos here, however, are sections of the Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens, an easy half hour drive from the CBD.
Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens
On a visit last October we walked through the upper section of the gardens. We particularly enjoyed looking at the vast collection of rhododendrons in flower. They made a spectacular display on that magnificent spring day. In January of this year I had the delight of walking through naturally occurring rhododendron forests on my trek in the Everest region of Nepal. Unfortunately it was winter in Nepal, so I didn’t get to see them flowering.
Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens
To read my journal written on my trek in the Himalayas go the Archives section of this blog.
Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens part 2
Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens
A beautiful part of the Adelaide Hills near the capital city of South Australia is the Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens. On several recent visits I have taken quite a few photos which I am featuring here on my travel bog.
Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens
This garden is a part of the very historic Adelaide Botanic Gardens which are within ten minutes easy walk from the Adelaide CBD. A third section of the gardens is at Wittunga in another section of the Adelaide Hills.
Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens
To see more photos of this park and other places I have been visit my photo gallery here.