Gigerline Nature Reserve sits astride the Murrumbidgee River just south of Tharwa. I had visited part of the reserve before when I went to Tharwa Sandwash but I had not really visited the rest of the reserve. After heading there once, I ended up visiting it twice because I wanted to see more. My first visit was with the plan to walk along the Gudgenby River as far as I could, thinking that the water level would not be too high. I was wrong, the water level was right up and I could barely get to the remaining banks of the river from the surrounding countryside. As part of that trip I walked up to the top of the ridge of the peninsula that separates the Gudgenby and Murrumbidgee Rivers before they join. I am glad that I did because I came across the path that followed the ridgeline down to the tip of the peninsula. I did not have time to explore that path on my first visit so I knew that I would be back. I ended up having two great visits and saw my first wild Rainbow Bee-eaters, truly a beautiful bird. The second visit was a bit of a macro paradise, with so many subjects to photograph. I hope you like the photographs below.
My first trip was on Sunday, 8 November 2020. The day was a bit overcast, with the remnants of the rain clouds that had provided Canberra with some much appreciated water. Despite the recent rain I was sure that the Gudgenby River would not be flowing too much so I would still be able to move along its banks. I was wrong. So I changed my original plan and tried to get to part of the sandy bank that was above the river’s level. I was able to get there after pushing through some vegetation but the effort was not rewarded with anything of interest around that area.
A sign to show which reserve you are in
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 500, 400mm, f/8.0 and 1/400 SEC])
Exiting my car I noticed two millipedes on the gravel road. I am not sure what species they were but I suspected that they were native ones, not the introduced Portuguese Millipede that I see most often. They were near to each other but I did not see any interaction and as I watched them they kept moving further away from each other.
Not sure what species this millipede was but it was the first creature I photographed on my first morning
(Canon EOS 6D Mk II with a Canon EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM [ISO 1600, 100mm, f/8.0 and 1/320 SEC])
Walking towards the river along the higher ground where the vegetation was reasonably tall and lush, after repeated rain showers, there were three or four Long-nosed Lycid Beetles (Porrostoma rhipidius) flying around. They would land on something for a while before taking to the wing again. They would occasionally fly closer to another one but there was no interaction from what I could see. The colouration of these nectar-eating beetles is a warning to potential predators that they are highly toxic if eaten.
Several Long-nosed Lycid Beetles were flying around
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 2500, 400mm, f/8.0 and 1/640 SEC])
After photographing the beetles, despite walking along the side of the river I did not have any luck with other shots. I decided that it was just not the day for it so I thought that I would finish early. After getting back to the car I had an idea to try down stream on the same side but follow the bank once the river had passed under the bridge. I am glad that I made that choice because almost as soon as I arrived on the river bank I looked up to see a Rainbow Bee-eater (Merops ornatus) in a tree. I then saw a second one. They were a male and female. Unfortunately they did not stay long in the dead tree but flew off to the west, across the Gudgenby River to where the trees were covered in leaves. I was beyond excited to see these birds, and to get some photos although they are not the best shots, because these are really beautiful birds with their mixture of colours and their longer tail streamers.
Rainbow Bee-eater male in a tree
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 250, 400mm, f/8.0 and 1/400 SEC])
I also heard, and then saw, two Noisy Friarbirds (Philemon corniculatus). They looked like they were searching for food in the eucalyptus trees.
Noisy Friarbird
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 100, 400mm, f/8.0 and 1/400 SEC])
As I was getting ready to depart I a Nankeen Kestrel (Falco cenchroides) perched on the power line, which ran from the ridge I was on across the Gudgenby River to the opposite ridge. It was a male given his grey head. The kestrel perched on the wire for most of the time that I was watching it but then flew across the river to a clump of trees on the far side. This species is very adaptive, living across of Australia as well as in parts of Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. Its wide range is matched by is varied diet of almost any small animal that it can see therefore giving it more eating options. The open area that I saw it in was typical of what these birds like to hunt in so that it has a better chance to see prey moving around.
Nankeen Kestrel on a power line
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 500, 400mm, f/10 and 1/400 SEC])
I decided to head home after the kestrel. While I was feeling a little disappointed that I had not seen more animals I was very happy that I had seen the Rainbow Bee-eater and I am always excited to see birds of prey, such as the Nankeen Kestrel. In trying to photograph the kestrel I realised that there was a trail running along the ridge from the top of the slope where I parked the car. I had never been along that trail and thought that it may be worth exploring so I put it in the list for a return visit.
In fact two weeks later, I returned to that trail, with the idea that I would follow it to the end of the peninsula formed by the Gudgenby and Murrumbidgee Rives running parallel until they joined. I was not sure what animal life to expect but the sun was shining so I was looking forward to the good conditions for photography.
As a way to work out my camera settings I took this shot of a wool shed across the Gudgenby River from me. I have photographed this structure before when I was visiting the nearby Tharwa Sandwash. I just liked the rural nature of the building, with its rusting corrugated iron contrasting with the green of the bush behind it. I also liked that the sheep were heading to the shed.
A nearby woodshed, with sheep approaching, that overlooks the reserve
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 200, 135mm, f/10 and 1/400 SEC])
The ridge that I was on was a little down stream from Tharwa Sandwash. I took this photograph because I liked the way that the morning sun was lighting up parts of the Murrumbidgee River and the trees on the western bank. You can just see the sand of Tharwa Sandwash where the river disappears in the back left of the photograph.
Looking almost to Tharwa Sandwash
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 200, 100mm, f/10 and 1/100 SEC])
I walked through the pedestrian entrance beside the locked gate of the trail along the ridge. Fortunately the parallel tyre-worn, packed, dried mud made the trail stand out because the grass, like most places in Canberra that spring, was very high. Due to the grass being so high, the for first time I was concerned about walking off the trail because I could not see the ground beneath me meaning that I could not see what I might tread on.
There was no real need to move off the trail because there were so many insects and other small creatures on the verges of the track giving me plenty of subjects to photograph. There were so many butterflies sunning themselves on the ground. I felt guilty when I spooked this Meadow Argus (Junonia villida) making it fly away, fortunately it didi not fly too far so I could still get a shot of it. This butterfly species is from the nymph family and is widespread across Australia and parts of the south-west Pacific. In a reverse of the usual tale, this butterfly has made its way to the United Kingdown where it was introduced accidentally but appears to be to living well despite the cold.
Meadow Argus sunning itself on the ground
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 200, 300mm, f/8.0 and 1/400 SEC])
There were the ubiquitous Cabbage White (Pieris rapae) butterflies, possibly outnumbering any other individual species that morning. This introduced insect has done well in Australia and is probably the butterfly most urban Australians are familiar with.
Cabbage White drinking from a flower
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 160, 400mm, f/8.0 and 1/320 SEC])
I also saw a number of Australian Painted Lady (Vanessa kershawi) butterflies, with the one shown in the top photograph shot when I was almost at the end of the trail, while the second one I shot on my way back along the trail. These appear to both be males, taking advantage of the morning sun to warm themselves for the day ahead. These butterflies are semi migratory in that during spring they fly inland in large numbers away from the coast. This butterfly is also from the Nymph family and has the interesting behaviour of sometimes defending a territory as a way to mate with a female. The male will choose a location where females are likely to visit so that he has a better chance of finding a female that has a wide choice of food plants to eat from. Another fact about this butterfly that may be of interest is the taxonomic debate on this species, whether is a uniques species of just a sup-species of the global Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui).
Australian Painted Lady
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 160, 400mm, f/8.0 and 1/320 SEC])
Australian Painted Lady
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 400, 400mm, f/11 and 1/250 SEC])
There were also many Common Grass Blue (Zizina labradus) butterflies in the area, flying from plant to plant.
Common Grass Blue
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 200, 400mm, f/8.0 and 1/400 SEC])
I also saw several, what I believed to be, Heliotrope moths (Utetheisa pulchelloides). I am hesitant to identify them completely because there are similar species and it takes a real expert to look at the spot patterns to determine which species is which.
Heliotrope moth on a flower bud
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 100, 400mm, f/8.0 and 1/400 SEC])
I covered the moths and butterflies in one section because I saw them throughout my walk and rather than list every individual sighting I figured it made sense just to note what species I saw that morning.
While I was photographing the Heliotrope moth I placed my camera bag down on the trail, which had vegetation growing on it because of the recent pro-longed rain. When I went to sling my bag onto my back I noticed this Long-jawed Spider (Tetragnatha sp. (genus)) crawling along it. I am more used to seeing these spiders beside creeks where their webs trap the flying insects that use those watery habitats. After taking a few shots of this spider I used a stick to gently lift it off my pack. I was not worried about being bitten, I just did not want to pick the spider up the wrong way and hurt it.
Long-jawed Spider on my camera bag, with a zipper showing scale
(Canon EOS 6D Mk II with a Canon EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM [ISO 800, 100mm, f/6.3 and 1/160 SEC])
I saw these insects flying around a eucalyptus and I have no idea what they are but the antenna suggest they may be beetles, although there are no visible wing coverings. There were at least three of them. They did not land much, they were mainly flying loops in the air. Then, they all just disappeared. I could not see if they had flown to a different tree or were hiding in the foliage. I will post these pictures to Canberra Nature Map and hope that somebody can identify this insect. I will leave an update once I know what it is. [Suggestion is that it is a type of crane fly, which makes sense.]
Unidentified insect flying around a tree
(Canon EOS 6D Mk II with a Canon EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM [ISO 1000, 170mm, f/10 and 1/1000 SEC])
Same type of insect but different angle
(Canon EOS 6D Mk II with a Canon EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM [ISO 1000, 400mm, f/10 and 1/1000 SEC])
This is the trail that I was following. As you can see there were prominent wheel pads that made the trail obvious but the vegetation off to the side was longer than I had seen it in Canberra for a number of years.
The trail I was following along the ridge, although this is looking south, back to where my car was
(Canon EOS 6D Mk II with a Canon EF40mm f2.8 STM [ISO 200, 40mm, f/16 and 1/80 SEC])
My camera bag was again useful when this grasshopper nymph jumped onto it before jumping back onto some vegetation, but not before I could see where it had gone. The grasshopper must felt secure in its camouflage because I was able to photograph from a close range without it hopping off again. I have no idea what species it was but I believe that it was a nymph and hence why it was hard to positively identify.
Grasshopper nymph
(Canon EOS 6D Mk II with a Canon EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM [ISO 320, 100mm, f/8.0 and 1/100 SEC])
Continuing my walk north along the path, still heading to the where the two rivers meet, I could hear cicadas in the area around me but I had not seen them. It was not until I came upon the tree in the first photograph below that I saw around five Redeye Cicadas (Psaltoda moerens) on the tree, making a very loud noise. Some started moving along the branches as I was watching them but most remained still.
Just to the north of that first tree, was a second but much younger tree. It also had four cicadas on it, despite it being smaller. I tried to get a picture of two of them together on the trunk but they were just slightly off line from each other and the bottom one flew off before I could try to take additional shots for later focus stacking.
Redeye Cicada on a tree that seemed to be filled with cicadas
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 200, 400mm, f/8.0 and 1/320 SEC])
This small tree also has a number of cicadas on it, two just below the crow on the right-hand side
(Canon EOS 6D Mk II with a Canon EF40mm f2.8 STM [ISO 100, 40mm, f/6.3 and 1/160 SEC])
The same two cicadas on the tree just above
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 200, 400mm, f/8.0 and 1/320 SEC])
Agin, while I was photographing the cicadas I put my camera bad down and when I looked at it, there was a Heroic Orb-weaver (Backobourkia heroine) crawling over it, and the surrounding vegetation. The spider was trailing silk and moved across my camera bag a couple fo times. It was moving quickly, not very bothered by any gaps between vegetation, just reaching a leg out until it made contact with an object that would let the spider continue its course. It was hard getting a decent shot of the spider because it was moving quickly. I am not completely confident about this identification because I am not sure if this species has been recorded in the ACT before, it certainly was not on Canberra Nature Map. I am just going off the information on page 65 of White and Anderson’s A Field Guide to Spiders of Australia that shows a Backobourkia that looks very similar to the picure below. I will post this sighting to Canberra Nature Map and leave any updates here. If you want to read about the difficulties in identifying the species that make up the Genus Backobbourkia then please look at this paper.
Heroic Orb weaver, moving at speed through small plants and my camera bag
(Canon EOS 6D Mk II with a Canon EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM [ISO 320, 100mm, f/8.0 and 1/100 SEC])
I photographed this Lauxaniid fly because I liked its red eyes and other colouration.
Lauxaniid fly on an acacia
(Canon EOS 6D Mk II with a Canon EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM [ISO 320, 100mm, f/8.0 and 1/100 SEC])
I also liked the colours of this Flesh fly. Flies get a bad wrap but they are very useful because they pollinate cetrtain plants and their larvae contribute to the process of breaking down dead animals to get the nutrients back into the soil.
Flesh Fly on the ground
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 400, 400mm, f/8.0 and 1/500 SEC])
After all those interesting insects and spiders I arrived at the conflux of the Murrumbidgee and Gudgenby Rivers much later than I had planned. By this stage some cloud had rolled over, reducing the light but that may have been useful because it meant that there were less shadows being cast. I really like using the DJI Mavic Air 2 to photograph, especially vertical shots because they are not the normal angles that people looking at photographs expect. I like how these two rivers look ‘different’ in that the less powerful Gudgenby has silt piled up where it joins the more voluminous Murrumbidgee. I took a couple of shots of this confluence because of the contrast in the rivers. I flew my drone a little further north and I also liked that shot of the sand bank that continues north and the lone shrub trying to grow on that unstable surface, the third picture immediately below. However, the plant must be doing well because it has obviously grown to that height already. This build-up of sand may be the start of a small river island eventually.
Conflux of the Murrumbidgee River on the right with the Gudgenby River
DJI Mavic Air 2 [ISO 100, 4.5mm, f/2.8 and 1/160 SEC]
Looking back south at the conflux, with the Murrumbidgee on the left
DJI Mavic Air 2 [ISO 100, 4.5mm, f/2.8 and 1/160 SEC]
I just liked this shot of the Murrumbidgee just downstream of the conflux, it was an interesting pattern and composition
DJI Mavic Air 2 [ISO 100, 4.5mm, f/2.8 and 1/160 SEC]
After photographing the confluence of the two rivers I started my walk back along the ridge. I photographed some more insects and spiders but I have covered those species above so I will not repeat them here. I was a little disappointed that I had not encountered a bird or other wildlife to photograph but I had really enjoyed the opportunity to do some macro shooting.
I packed my gear into the car boot but, as always, I kept the Canon EOS 7D Mark II with the Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM near me in the front if I came across something that I wanted to photograph quickly. I was glad that I did because when I was driving out along the narrow road I saw a number of birds flying around a group of trees. I think there were several species in those trees but the birds that I was able to photograph were White-plumed Honeyeaters (Lichenostomus penicillatus). There was at least one adult and one immature bird. They moved between the trees on both sides of the road, often flying between branches in the same tree. I could not see exactly what they were doing but I am guessing they were feeding. If they were indeed looking for food then the immature bird was capable of finding food itself because I did not see the adult feed it.
White-plumed Honeyeater adult in a tree
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 640, 400mm, f/14 and 1/100 SEC])
White-plumed Honeyeater juvenile in a tree
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 640, 400mm, f/14 and 1/100 SEC])
A bit further on from that tree I noticed three House Sparrows (Passer domesticus) flying among the long grass stalks. I was only able to catch the female below in a photograph. I was surprised to see them this far away from a suburban area but I supposed this is a good spot because of food and the nearby water sources.
House Sparrow female enjoying some grass seeds
(Canon EOS 7D Mk II with a Canon EF100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM [ISO 400, 400mm, f/8.0 and 1/400 SEC])
The two visits that I made to Gigerline Nature Reserve were different to each other in that the first one did not go to plan at all while in the second visit I achieved the picture of the confluence that I wanted. I also think that I found a place that is worthy of further visits. I was so happy to see, for my first time, the truly beautiful Rainbow Bee-eater, and I will keep looking out for more this spectacularly coloured bird. I was also happy with the insect and spider life that I came across. I will be back and I will make sure that I pack all my camera gear because I think that I will need it to capture the variety of subjects that I am likely to see.
Thanks for reading this post and thanks also for looking at my photos. I hope you come back again to read more about some of the wonderful natural things that the Australian Capital Territory has on offer. All the best until the next post.