Another day done. The wetland continues to recede.
Red (ish) sunset
Tag Archives: wetland
Chiminea night
A fine night to burn some timber offcuts and enjoy a glass of red with Anna and views. I’m certain that the horizon is actually at that angle. Hic.
Tanks done. Almost.
Well, the heavy work is done. The tanks are aligned, and the area has been nicely flattened. Now the fine detail. As I’m discovering in cabinet-making, the construction phase is often the quickest & relatively easiest. The harder and more time consuming is the fine and finishing details.
So, the mad rush is on to connect the house downpipe outflow to the tank inflows, as well as devising a system that connects four tanks and allows for both uphill and downhill water movement.
Mad rush because it HAS to be in place before it rains. It is expected to rain in a few days time…
Summer Rain
A small amount of rain amounted from this threatening storm. Other than some very pretty clouds and the obligatory rainbow, our south western district somehow completely missed out on the drenching, sometimes deluging rains that the rest of the eastern seaboard seems to be complaining of. Water tank and water body levels dropping. Will probably need to buy water soon.
Wetland
There’s still plenty of water about after the recent deluges of rain. We happened to notice a pair of nesting swans return after the several year absence of water. Our rockbank is also starting to take shape.
Mai Po WWF Ramsar wetland
It was with some astonishment that we discovered the Ramsar wetlands of Mai Po Marsh. A historic rice growing region, the river delta is (was) a thriving wildlife area. The super-industrial region of Shenzhen is right next door making a depressingly inevitability for the natural region’s demise.
Unlike the rest of Hong Kong, we had to make an effort to book and get there. Which made what we saw the more worthwhile.
Historically aquaculture worked in this region also, but like a lot of toiling work, the new generations are largely not interested. Additionally areas in dispute or subject to development have mysterious fires, or are ‘accidentally’ made worthless to wildlife but since everything’s dead let’s put some buildings up…
Much the way developers work the world over.
We needed our passports at the ready as the actual Ramsar site was over the technical border of Hong Kong to mainland China. Call me paranoid, but I still have a mistrust of the mainland communist…
A fabulously beautiful area was revealed to us. As the tide was out, we were witness to much birdlife, the fidler crabs of the mangroves and strange walking fish on the mudflats. More power to Hong Kong WWF’s arm.
Walk around the wetland
I thought some assorted wetland photos would be nice to use for my DSLR course homework (this week aperture & shutter speed). Spotted ducks, red-beaked swamp hens, masked lapwings, herons and willy wagtails. Heard lots of frogs.
What a difference rain makes
The wetland started filling after the deluge of 10 Aug 2010, having been dry for almost 4 years. Ducks appeared the very next day. No nesting swans yet.
