Incredible landscapes - welcome to Eastern Australian temperate broadleaf and mixed forest!
#bluemountains
#naturephotography #photoforwildlife #bluemountains #australia #landscape

Welcome to the flight path. #WesternSydneyAirport #WSA Up to 8 departures on full takeoff power over Leura in the day/evening period.

It's a tiny tourist burg with a lot of outdoor activity. If I wanted to sit on a footpath with a coffee and enjoy the jet traffic, I'd be in Leichhardt.

No curfew
No sleep
No thanks

#bluemountains https://youtu.be/pCROMOt2Tn8

Glad I saw this sign off to the side of the track, it’s exactly where I was heading. Would have been a frustrating walk back to the Giant Stairway if I’d missed it. #BlueMountains

#sunrise #bluemountains #friendship

This Morning,
A dawning.
Adorning,
Our hearts.

With colour and warmth.

We give thanks,
For sunrises.

We give thanks,
For each other.

There is an 11pm-6am noise curfew on the Sydney Kingsford-Smith airport. Check out the furious whinging from those in the area when runway repairs necessitate curfew violations. The threatened Western Sydney Airport will overfly the #BlueMountains 24/7/365 with NO curfew. https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/homes-near-sydney-airport-face-aircraft-noise-disruption-during-curfew-20230807-p5duhi.html

Beyond the back garden gate is the #BlueMountains National Park.

Wattle it be!

#bluemountains #rain #snow

And hold onto hope folks, for snow. Who knows, we may be gifted a late winter fall or even snow, into spring. It has been the most snowless winter in over one hundred years, so far.

How do we know that? Well, the Blue Mountains hasn't seen a single flake this year. Only sleet.

Oh, the wattle. Made even more beautiful under moody skies.

#BlueMountains #plants

@SrRochardBunson yes, you do go through the #BlueMountains to get to Orange from Sydney.

NB: I am a recovering American, lived in Aus since 1996, Aus citz since 2003, contemplating renouncing US citz. The US Consulate in Sydney wants roughly $AUD3300 to formally renounce. I reckon it's cheaper to cut my US passport in half & send them a letter telling them so long and thanks for all the wars.

Beyond my back gate is the UNESCO World Heritage listed #BlueMountains National Park, soon to be rattled with jet noise from aircraft night and day... but this morning it is warm, still and silent.

Fuzzy yellow wattle flower poufs are popping. Tough seed pods of Hakea pachyphylla. Tiny seed inside that tough nut but yellow tailed black cockatoos love cracking them open. Allocasuarina seed pods are the primary food source for the very picky Glossy Black cockatoo. In the distance at 13km NW, the Mt Hay 'round top' peak on the right and the 'flat top,' aka Mt Hay Wall on the left.

Pretty terrible place to be, you shouldn't ever come here. 🤭

The Blue Mountains National Park and Kanangra-Boyd National Park Draft Plan of Management is on public exhibition until 26 September 2023.

From the NSW Government Website:

"Public exhibition of the draft plan provides an important opportunity for community members to have a say in the future management of the Blue Mountains and Kanangra-Boyd national parks. Once adopted, this plan of management will replace the existing plans for these parks, which were adopted in 2001.

The draft plan is accompanied by the Blue Mountains National Park and Kanangra-Boyd National Park Draft Planning Considerations report. It is recommended that readers of the plan refer to the planning considerations report for detailed explanations of the parks' values and management considerations.

These parks are a part of Darug and Gundungurra Country. The parks form the core component of one of the largest and most intact stretches of protected bushland in New South Wales. They are part of the Greater Blue Mountains Area World and National Heritage property, contain significant areas of wilderness, occupy a large part of the Sydney Drinking Water Catchment, and are one of the key attractions in a major tourism region.

Key management directions proposed in the draft plan include:

improving recognition of the parks significant values, including World and National Heritage values, and providing for adaptive management to protect the values

recognising and supporting the continuation of partnerships with Aboriginal communities

providing outstanding nature-based experiences for visitors through improvements to visitor facilities.

For all the details on how to have your say:

https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/topics/parks-reserves-and-protected-areas/park-management/community-engagement/blue-mountains-national-park/blue-mountains-national-park-and-kanangra-boyd-national-park-draft-plan-of-management

#nationalpark #environment #Sydney #BlueMountains #nature #Australia

A New Holland Honeyeater, at Ngula Bulgurabang #bluemountains #birds

An Eastern Yellow Robin doing it's thing (Leura #bluemountains )

#rain #drought #elnino #bluemountains

What's that? Rain you say? The rains are comin'? Well, maybe. We will appraise the deterministic and ensemble charts into the new week, to see if this potential holds. Could be good rain for some. A nice upper feature marrying with a surface trough.

going to a meeting to protest the bloody new western Sydney airport that is going to put jet noise all over the UNESCO World Heritage listed #BlueMountains today, the white elephant airport that nobody but the developers want, the one the clowns claim is needed because Kingsford-Smith airport's runways are built on reclaimed land out into a bay and sea levels are rising (WHY exactly are the sea levels rising?) oh yes and K-S is only at 61% utilisation and it has a night noise curfew because the flight paths are over the millionaires in the Easter Suburbs but the peons in Western Sydney & the Mountains get no such consideration

When you hear peals of Billy Bragg's verse of The Internationale sung loudly over the jet jerks' moans, that'll be me, go ahead & drag me out, I'll be on my mobility scooter... manhandling disabled old people makes fucking GREAT television

so everybody SING!

Stand up all victims of oppression
For the tyrants fear your might
Don't cling so hard to your possessions
You have nothing if you have no rights!

https://youtu.be/8N7_LyGEEAw?t=122

#frost #bluemountains #meteorology #friendship

What a gorgeously cold and frosty morning on Wednesday. Thursday will bite, too. Get your kindling ready tonight.

#bluemountains #snow #elnino

Finally. Will we actually see some genuine, snowy/wintry weather? Well, maybe. Just maybe.

Get your beanies and jumpers/coats ready.

This fern tree was mislocated in Drummoyne near Sydney Harbour for about 15 years. Too warm and sunny for it there. Grew to 2m but super spindly 150mm dia trunk. Nearly falling over. Rescued it and brought it back to its #BlueMountains home. Put 1m into the soil. Trunk is now about 400mm and it throws out huge fronds that have to be pruned back frequently. Has put on about 500mm height in 4 years, too.

The wollemi is 12m tall now and not slowing down a bit. We are only about 70km from the discovery stand near Newnes NSW. Not surprisingly, it likes the #BlueMountains

One of many Eastern Spinebills at Ngula Bulgarabang today #bluemountains #birds