Henry Wheeler Place

(Gosford walkies #17)

Nice blue sky again today. Did a few streets up in Gosford. Seventies government offices and the back of a shopping centre. Yawn.

But up in Henry Wheeler Place, bordering on Rumbalara Reserve on the hill above Gosford, there was a kookaburra.



See him? Right there in the middle sitting on the sign.

Kookaburras are shy buggers and for one to be sitting out there in the open in a carpark and to let me get so close is unusual.



But then he let me get closer. I was holding my breath and moving as slow as a glacier.



And even closer. And I didn't even have a fat juicy earthworm to bribe him. He took a couple of long slow looks at me but was otherwise unperturbed.

I know some people living next to the bush can tempt one onto their veranda with food but getting this close with a camera and no food is unusual. Perhaps he felt safe being barely 50 yards from the bush of Rumbalara Res.

He was still sitting there when I left. Perhaps one of the Red Cross workers was going to bring him a fat juicy lunch.



Casurina Track in Rumbalara Reserve. 50 yards from the kookaburra. Turn left into Albany Street off the top of William Street Gosford, then right into Henry Wheeler Place & up beside the Red Cross.

Looks like a good spot for a wander. Plenty of nice walking tracks on the hill, according to the map, and three lookouts. I'll drag a couple of mates up there with me when the fox baiting's finished and the track's re-opened.