A few bird snaps

I went for a ride round a few spots at lunchtime today and found that most birds were sensible and were hiding from the 32^oC heat.  However when you are a Lurid Lorikeet it is hard to hide.

As an aside, it seems to us that there are more Rainbow Lorikeets around than there has been for a few years.  I am unsure why that is,

In the afternoon I went for another (failed) attempt to find the Powerful Owls off the Casuarina Walk.  I did however find a Rufous Fantail, as expected just past the bridge.

A range of loud strange noises in the bush just past the Black Stump resolved to a Satin Bower Bird,  It was very vocal and eventually bumbled off towards the creek.

BLEG does Bottom Lake

The visiting group from Birdlife East Gippsland (BLEG) chartered the Loch Ard and skipper Dale for a tour of the Inlet and some historic sites near the original site of Mallacoota.  We had been told in the past how good these trips are but hadn't got around to doing one until now.  It was really excellent!

I was surprised that once out on the water Genoa Peak was the backdrop to a view of Stingray Point.  (I was also surprised at the extent of the timber next to our block, which  meant our house was rarely visible from our route today.)

 A White-bellied Sea-Eagle came past.  Spoiler alert: this is not the last photo of this species in this post!  We saw a huge new nest being constructed towards the Mouth.

 One of the sandbars making up the Sands.  This one was quite well endowed with shore birds.  We didn't walk around as some of the birds were possibly nesting.

The diet of the Eagles was slightly supplemented with some chook offcuts.  The meat had air injected into it so that it floated.  Sorry about the other photographers finger, but the birds are travelling switly when they drop.

 A Silver Gull investigated one of the offcuts.  This would have to be contending for a Darwin Award: Silver Gulls are a more frequent element of the Eagle's diet than chook.

 Two views of a larger island in the Sands.  The Pelicans have bred with the chicks now quite large living in a creche.

 It was quite exciting to see Pied Cormorants.  The official count was 5 birds.

Several anglers were around the place.  I have obfuscated them in case they had called in sick and th boss happened to see this post.

 A Pelican came by.

 As did a Caspian Tern.

 At one point there were 3 Sea-Eagles and 3 Whistling Kites over the boat at once.  There was considerable discord between the Kites so this must have been the boundary of two territories.

 This is my best shot of an Eagle

 My second-best shot.

 On landing at the Spotted Dog Mine site an attractive Lace Monitor (Goanna) shinned up a tree.

 Here is an image of the bush as it is now around the mine site.  It was considered that at the time of setting up the mine the under-storey might have been more open as a result of regular burning

 Parks Victoria have put a lot of resources into the areaincluding fences on the mullock heap to stop punters falling into the mineshafts etc.

 A memorial to James Smellie in the historic Cemetery on the walk to Allan Head..

Our final walk was around the original settlement area of Lakeview.  The view from under a Bunya Pine was interesting.

 A Coal Tree had a few flowers.

 Here is the view back to Lakeview,

As I commented at the beginning, n excellent outing.

Quarry to Pebbly and Back

On 26 October we decided to walk from Quarry Beach to Pebbly Beach and back.  We found that the tide was well out at Quarry Beach ...

 .. but still decided to walk along the clifftop track rather than risking not being able to get round all the headlands.  Looking back from Secret Beach we concluded that we could have made it on the lower route.

The first kilometre was not that exciting with the dense canopy of Melaleuca armillaris preventing anything else from growing under it.  However when close to the path down to Secret Beach many pink finger orchids began to appear.  I believe that most of these were Caladenia fuscata  rather than C. carnea.

 On the way back we stopped at the lookout to the East of Secret Beach and noticed some big splashes in the water about 1km offshore.  A humped back was soon evident -

  and the occasional fin.

 Then a broach!

Not the greatest photo of a Humpbacked Whale but is does as a record.  My guess from where the bits and pieces of mammal appeared is that there were about 6 in the pod.

Figbirds and Bastion

I began the day with a visit to the fig tree.  No Topknots but an array of Figbirds.  This male took his loot across the road to pose in a palm tree.

As the sky was overcast I had to post-edit the exposure of the snap to show his colours. Thus the colourless sky.

In the afternoon we went to Bastion Point, with an aim of looking at some rocks to  identify ythe features shown in this webpage.

The weather was quite warm when we arrived - about 29^oC with a strong NW wind.  When I got to the furthest point on the blue line the wind suddenly swung round 180^o and the howled along the beach, dropping the temperature about 10^oC.

An earlier visitor had been creative.

A serrated shore platform: most this had been covered with sand.

Honeycomb weathering

I don't know the technical name for this form of weathering but is looks attractive..

The tide was not as low as we were expecting.  A pool had a colony of Southern Fan Worms (Sabellastarte australensis)

We spoke with a snorkeller, who turned out to be a chef, looking for seaweed to cook.  He pointed out this lot of Neptunes Pearls (Hormosira banksii) which he assured us was very tasty when fresh and ate some he had found underwater.

I was surprised to see a Great Egret on the rocks.

Not so surprised by the Eastern Reef Egret.  A second bird flew in on the gust of the Southerly.

Sooty Oystercatchers have been thin on the ground recently so it was pleasing to see 2 on Tpip Beach.

I was hopeful of an interesting Cormorant in this group but, alas, only Great and Little Pied.

The aim of this photo was to catch the blast of sand being blown by the gust.  I think it sort of gets the idea.

The excitements of 23 October

We have joined a Mallacoota group who go for natural history walks on Wednesdays.  On 23 October the venue was the Captains Creek trail.

At the start of the walk large clumps of Pultenaea sp (I think P. mollis) were evident.

 At the usual spot we found an on-going clump of Caleana major, the Large Flying Duck orchid.  That simply started the appearance of this species which seemed to be everywhere along the track

 A few clusters of Lyperanthus suavolens (Brown Beaks) were also found early in the walk.

 Thelymitra ixioides (Spotted Sun-orchid), with variable amounts of spotting, were common.

Then I found this one: pure white apart for the tip of the labellum which didn't match anything in the book or the wisdom of those assembled.

Here is the leaf and stem. The species I looked at in the book all seemed to have a dark green leaf with red at the base.

 A close up of the column/labellum.

 On seeking advice from experts it appears that it is an albino form of Thelymitra ixoides. which s quite unusual.  That was thus the first excitement of the day.

There was a lot of Burchardia umbellata (known for some reason as Milkmaids) along the way.

 At the conclusion of the walk we went to Bucklands Jetty for tea and chat.  A very large mistletoe is growing in a nearby eucalypt.  I suspect it is Dendrophthoe vitellina which has large orange flowers and will be very pretty when it flowers.

 A member of the group found this jumping spider and demonstrated how it jumped (in this case from one finger to another) but kept a web harness.

 A group of kayakers - presumably from Marshmead - came by.

 We were joined by a nearby property owner who commented that 4 Topknot Pigeons had been observed in a fig tree in Radley Pl.  So after returning home I took myself off to check this site.  There they were.

 Here are the figs - of which there are a lot.  The tree will need to be checked frequently.

 Here is the whole tree.

 After a few minutes the Pigeons flew off to the North landing in a eucalypt and sitting there for a while.

The excitements continued on 24 October when I revisited Radley Place.  3 Topknot Pigeons were in the tree but soon retreated uphill.  However there were a good number of Australasian Figbird.  In case you wonder why they are called Figbirds check this female's beak.

 There is a male in there somewhere...

 ... also scoffing figs.