Scozmo's Photery

I just edited some shots from my first walk at Backwater reservoir in 2026 and realised I hadn’t walked off the patch until then!

I must try to get out more 🙂 but not today, it’s blowing a hoollie and pouring down.

So January 19th saw my first foray up to see how the water level is. Not great but, it was a really good feeling getting out of the car up there, feels like forever since my last visit (December!)

It was a really bonnie day up there but pretty chilly, it IS January after all.

Over 27 metres? I’m pretty sure I could see the number 27 last time … just checked back in phone phots and you could. The water was below the 27 mark so, it has risen slightly, all good and, given the rain we’ve been having, should be rising all the time now.

The water was like glass, a very slight breeze blowing now and again.

I took a selection of shots that then stitched into this 180 degree panorama and it also shows the low water.

I finally made my way up the left side of that shot above, past the white house, where I always walk 🙂

The strands of lichen hanging from this tree, with the raindrops sparkling in the low sun really caught my eye, beautiful.

I hadn’t met a soul, there was a Forestry truck in the car park and one other, empty car, totally alone, just like I love it.

This is the first really clear view of the reservoir as I walk up the road, there are Gorse, Broom and small trees on that bank behind me. You can see the banks and the low levels again. It really is great for the soul being here in total silence on such a beautiful morning, it was now 10:30.

As I turned from that shot, I spotted a Red Kite slowly cruising my way.

I don’t remember it flapping its wings once as it carried on across the water and over the hills.

I had also spotted something across on the far bank, that was now out on the water.

A lone Greylag goose, made me wonder why it was alone? Was it hurt? Lost? I’ll probably never know.

Just under 40 minutes from parking and I reached the picnic bench.

I dropped a couple of small piles of bird food on the bin, behind me and the table but I hadn’t seen or heard anything much at all so far.

From here on, there are trees on both sides of the road, until you reach and pass through the first gate.

Yet again, you see how still the water was, how low in the sky the Sun is at this time of year, hot and high for Australia right now.

I walked all the way through the second gate and around to the turning point area and the end of the paved road.

Once again you get to see how low the water level is. The picnic bench is back in those trees on the right.

I took a set of shots here, attempting to show the light, the banks and the country around the water.

I stood for quite some time, watching the odd vehicle travelling up the road on the left, listening to the forestry work going on to my right, otherwise …. silent.

And back, I started making my way back down the road, through both gates and into the trees once more.

You can see the dark square of the sign, “No Vehicles Beyond This Point” and just beyond it, the picnic bench in the sunlight.

It was as I had approached this area that I heard a bird call, two sharp, high-pitched sounds. I stopped and listened for a while, opened Merlin but, nothing. As I approached the bench I was still puzzling, “what was that?”

I glanced up to my left at a bare skinny tree and there, clinging high up was a Green Woodpecker! The binoculars allowed me the ID but prevented me from dragging out the camera quickly enough for a shot. Exactly the same spot I’d seen one last year as it flew off to the right over the tree line. Hmmmmm.

Onwards, homewards and i spotted something below the branches of a Gorse bush.

Puffballs. Past best but nice to find.

As i continued down the road, back along that first straight, I could see something set up on the verge….

What the ….? Not a soul around but it looks like a surveyors tool, maybe satellite linked?

As I walked on, I was still looking all around me, no-one, not a soul but I thought it made for an unusual point of interest in the landscape.

I named the images Alien on the landscape and, as I turned to carry on ….

An Alien in the sky! Spooky!

Almost back at the car park, I could see a vehicle at the far end of the dam, a quick look through the binocs and ………… the surveyors!

They had some instruments set up over there and as I climbed into the car, launched a drone. What ever happened to theodolites?

By the way, if you look at the. water in that shot and most of them, you’ll see the ice on the surface.

I’d set off around 10am, it was now 12:14. Not bad, 4.3 miles and the sun shone the entire time. I’d spotted a green Woodpecker and enjoyed a truly peaceful walk, back at my favorite place.

Stay safe and well all, see you again soon.