In 2009 I bought a pair of comfy hiking boots for a trip to Tasmania I was planning to take with Conservation Volunteers Australia. Sadly, the trip ended up being called off.
A decade later, and my boots and I finally made our way to Tassie.
invertebrates
September 2018 Field Visit – The Rock Nature Reserve
For September’s Field Trip I headed to The Rock Nature Reserve with a friend of mine, and two of her kids. They had never been there, and I’d only been once before, when I visited a couple of years ago with my dad. The last time I was there we only made it about two-thirds of the way up, so my friend and I were determined to make it all the way up the hillside this time, kids and all.
February 2018 Field Visit – Yanco
I don’t seem to be off to a good start with field visits in 2018.
After last month’s failure, I decided to try again to find Turkey Flat wetlands, near Yanco. Despite a dearth of signposting, I succeeded this time.
June 2017 Field Visit – Galore Hill
Today I visited Galore Hill in Lockhart Shire. I visited Galore Hill last August, and it was a bit of a shock to realise that that visit was nearly a year ago now.
April 2017 Field Visit – Narrandera Koala Count
Today was the Annual Koala Count in Narrandera. I have been every year for the last several years, except when it’s been called off because of rain or flooding, and as I did last year, I decided the Count could be April’s official field visit.
January 2017 Field Visit – Yarradda Lagoon
Welcome to 2017!
My year got off to an exciting start when I was contacted by someone from the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) asking me if I’d like to visit one of their environmental watering project sites with some field officers doing a wetlands health survey. Naturally I said yes, and so last Tuesday I headed to Yarradda lagoon (within the Yarrada precinct of the Murrumbidgee Valley National Park) near Darlington Point with four field officers: two from OEH and two from Charles Sturt University (CSU).
December 2016 Field Visit – Campbell’s Swamp
I was at a loss as to where to visit for my final field trip of 2016, when a friend on Twitter unwittingly provided inspiration:
So off to Griffith I went to visit Campbell’s Swamp.
October 2016 Field Visit – Fivebough Swamp in flood
I must confess to a spot of laziness this month. With plenty of time available, and much sunnier weather than we’ve had in months, I had many opportunities to head out for a field visit during October, but I left off doing so until the final weekend (I did get a lot of washing and some yard work done, though, so I’m counting it as a productive month from a non-blogging perspective).
My tardiness was then capped off by a spot of not thinking things through properly, and I decided to head to Leeton’s Fivebough Swamp for this month’s trip. I managed to forget the part where this has been a high-rainfall year, and although Fivebough is now actively managed, it has for millennia been a drainage depression below a line of hills – aka a place that catches water in high-rainfall years (I don’t know, I was distracted, the brain cells just did not connect).
I have previously blogged about visits to Fivebough in January this year and last, so you might like to compare with the photos from those visits.
Currently, the main entrance to Fivebough looks like this:
September 2016 Field Visit – Narrandera Common under flood
I believe I have previously mentioned that this has been an unusually wet year – well it’s gotten wetter. All the creeks across the region are over-top, as is the river in several places, and there is so much standing water in paddocks just from rainfall that it’s impossible to tell if you’re looking at flooding from a waterway or not.
I was tempted to just drive around and take photos of all the water everywhere for this month’s field trip, but in the end I decided to head to Narrandera Common, so you can compare this month’s photos with ones I’ve taken there on previous visits.
With both Bundidgerry Creek and the Murrumbidgee River to contend with, Narrandera Common currently looks like this:
November 2015 Field Visit – Guise Hill TSR
This month’s field visit was to Guise Hill Travelling Stock Reserve near Wagga Wagga.
Riverina Wildlife 