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I'm going to organise a field trip for us on either 19 or 26 of Feb in the Shortland wetlands in NEWCASTLE. It's about 2.5 hours easy drive from Sydney along the freeway. To give an idea of what's there see my gallery at pixspot here

Numbers are restricted to 10 members. First in etc. etc.

The wetlands homepage is http://www.wetlands.org.au/

The wetlands are well laid out, with a number of walking trails and are home to "many species of birds such as Straw Necked Ibis, Magpie Geese, Reed Warbler, and four different types of Egrets" (taken from the blurb). There's a hide in a tower built next to the egret nesting colony and lots of other spots to take good shots. Ground is level and it's reasonably family friendly. There is a cafe/kiosk and a picnic area and a canoeing area - you can hire a canoe and paddle along the creek that feeds the wetlands (underwater housing for your D70 advisable!).

If you want to bring the family there are activities to keep them interested while you wander off and shoot the birds

Entry is $5 adults, $9 family and canoe hire is $7.50 to $9 per canoe.

Start time is 9:30 sharp (birds are more active in the morning and at dusk).

Sound interesting. Please vote for the date and indicate, by posting, how many will attend.

Any questions either ask here or PM me.

Cheers

Matt.K and myself will take the 19th Feb.

19th is good for me too. I'll be on a leave of absence from work. Evening time would be nice. Perhaps an opportunity for some sunset shots of the park too.

killakoala wrote:Evening time would be nice. Perhaps an opportunity for some sunset shots of the park too

I'm going to talk to them about it, but the "official" hours are 9am-5pm so I'm not sure if we can get them to stay open long enough for sunset!

stubbsy wrote:

killakoala wrote:Evening time would be nice. Perhaps an opportunity for some sunset shots of the park too

I'm going to talk to them about it, but the "official" hours are 9am-5pm so I'm not sure if we can get them to stay open long enough for sunset!

Maybe we could jump the fence

9:30 sounds fine then.

count me in if it's the 19th - the family can visit the brother inlaw for the weekend while I go off photo'ing

OK

I've chosen 19th Feb for this since it was best and I've created a new thread for people to show their interest. based on comments here I've prelisted birddog, Matt. K, killakoala, Sheepie and myself.

The new thread is at http://forum.d70users.com/viewtopic.php?t=2503