This has taken me a while to post these images. However better lat than never I say.

While the country was rushing to the polls we decided to head out west to see the water at the Macquarie Marshes Nature Reserve (about 3 hours north of Dubbo, NSW, Australia). My yummy man Dave worked worked there as a wetland ecologist for a couple of years. We originally were going to Dubbo to help a friend of his who was the local Greens candidate to hand out leaflets at the polling booths but this opportunity to venture out into the Marshes with the Dubbo and Orange Field Naturalists groups was too good to resist. We did however put up some signs at the polling booth in a near by town called Warren. We didn’t get a very hospitable reception (this is National heartland afterall) and we wonder if the signs lasted more than 5 minutes after we left but it was fun though to see how ruffled everyone got.

These wetlands are huge and have been degrading over the last 40 or so years as the water has been taken out of the system by farmers and irrigators. Now however with all the wonderful rain we have been having this year and the extra water the goverment has been buying back the water is beginning to flow back into the wetlands and birds that used to breed there are now coming back. Being a city slicker and a greenie I have always been quick to judge how the water is being used in the rural areas of the country. While my  fundamental views haven’t changed I learned so much more about the politics of water and how the water is allocated and just how much the government is buying back.  I was really heartened to see that change is happening and most people (farmers and government) looking after this land genuinely care about restoring its health and protecting it for the future.

All the people on the trip were avid bird watchers (twitchers). We stopped constantly and in one spot I think they counted about 20 different types of birds. I was having a hard time just seeing them let alone all the different ones.  Here are a few fun shots and yes I most definitely got my feet wet several times during the weekend. xox