Another day, another sunrise

I looked over Jordan the Inlet and what did I see?  Nothing "coming for to carry me home", but a low bank of cloud that looked propitious for a nice sunrise.  So I pointed the Pajero uphill, regarding this as an educational outing.

The Gabo lighthouse was emitting the occasional flash of light but I couldn't get my timing right to catch that.

 The surface of the Lake was very calm so the wake of this swan stood out nicely.

 A Red-necked Wallaby either checked me out, or paused to take in a bit of the ABC Breakfast show.

 Some gold began to appear in the clouds at 0718.

 Getting better at 0722.

 Here is 0724 ...

  ... and the show finishes at 0725

Birding in March

Here are links to a couple of reports on recent birding in Mallacoota.

1. The first three months after the fire.
2. The month of March

Sunrise 28 March

I glanced outside at about 0645 and it looked though there was enough cloud on horizon to give an interesting sunrise .  So I grabbed the camera and took the Pajero up to the top of Angophora Drive.

A wide shot at 0653.

 A bit lighter at 0702.

 The lower clouds are starting to glow at 0712

 Here comes the sun at 0716.

 The camera ran out of battery at 0717!

Sooty Oystercatchers

On the Big Weekend Jack Winterbottom took a brilliant photo at Bastion Point of a Sooty Oystercatcher giving beak to a polychaete worm.

Every time since, when  we have been to the beach I have watched the Sootys for a repeat performance with no luck.  On Monday 23rd one of the trio was giving a cunjevoi a serious going over.  I suspect the dark tip to the beak was staining from cunjevoi juice.

I couldn't see exactly what this one was probing, but it stayed in position for several minutes so was evidently tasty.

The waves eventually got a bit frisky for rock activities so all three birds moved on to the sand.  They seemed to freeze, with one foot raised and the head cocked to one side, before ramming the beak into the sand.  I presume they were listening for small invertebrates moving around under the surface.  I didn't get a snap of this.

Gipsy Point

The Wednesday Walkers followed up on a report of Parsons Bands (Eriochilus cuculatus) at the Gipsy Point cemetery.  They were there in numbers: and it was a big number - at least 100s.

 Apart from the petals resembling parts of clerical attire, from which derives the vernacular name, the overall appearance of the flower reminds me of an evangelist ranting about hellfire and damnation!

We covered the area fairly well.  (For some reason eBird prefers to record this as 0.91 km rather than the more sensible 1.29 Ha.)

Possibly the second commonest flower was Hypoxis geometrica.

A couple of colonies of Brachyscome spathulata were evident.

 Several examples of Lagenophora gracilis were found.

 One flower of Leptorhyncos nitidulus was found, and fortunately photographed.  Rumours of a "better clump over there" turned out to be Fake News!

Much of the bush around the cemetery was well burnt.  While the eucalypts seem to be sprouting well a quick glance suggested the sheokes were dead.  However raising one's eyes showed good greenery and some unburnt fruit in the top of the trees.

I suspect, based on suggestions from iNaturalist.org, this is Lycoperdon marginata.

 A Wolf Spider was ready to repel boarders!

 After checking the cemetery we went to the main part of Gipsy Point.  A large Goanna was swimming under the main jetty.

 In case you ever wondered what colour a goanna's tongue is, wonder no more: its pink!

 Looking across the Genoa River the crown of the woodland there looked to be in good order.  The understorey apparently burnt but the fire didn't crown until the top of the ridge.

Rock pools and sand at Bastion

As the tides are still low in the afternoon we took ourselves to Bastion Point to see what was around.  We stayed on the beach side of the ramp and found a few interesting items.

Two Brittle Stars (I think ) making nice.

 I'm not sure that this image shows what was intended but it was a clump of life all stuck together.  I found it impossible get them all appearing together but 1 is a largish shell (of which a second is out of frame to the right) glued to a turban-type shell (2) with its foot showing (3).  A Sea-star (4) was stuck over the back of the shells.

 A very clean Triton.

 One of the more colourful Sea Anemones I have found.

 A shield limpet.  We have been told these can be cooked like abalone and eaten.  Pass.

 Quite a few Sea Stars were off the rocks and making tracks in the sand.

 As was this winkle - the track was much deeper than the stars.

We saw this life form at Secret Beach the previous day.  This one was further from the waves and thus much easier to photograph!  From probing iNaturalist.org it appears to be some type of Sea Squirt.

We were briefly back in the area the following day and got a couple of photos of the exposed rock.  The first shows a couple of exposed pools in the top of a ridge.

 The second shows the whole reef looking towards the breakwater.

With a little help from the tide

Following advice from someone that it was possible to walk from Quarry Beach (which astonishingly is still open) to Secret Beach at low tide we took that walk on 9 March.  Here is the route:

Getting there at 2:30 the tide was indeed low.

 This is the gap in the rocks between the two beaches.  When the tide is higher this is quite deep, but it would be possible to access Secret Beach by climbing the rock off to the left of the image.

 An attraction of Secret Beach is the cave.  This is the entrance on the East (town) side.  I suspect that on a higher tide it is completely under water and it would be partially flooded on any high tide.

 There is a surprising amount of light inside.  Also many foot and paw prints in the wet sand.

 Looking back out through the East entrance.

 Much folding in the rock.

 The West entrance.  Its about 1.5 m high, so not a struggle to get in.

I found that it was possible to scramble over the rocks at the West End of Secret Beach to get onto Pebbly Beach,  I'm not sure that would be a wise thing to try at high tide with a bug sea running.

Heading back we prowled around the rocks between Secret and Quarrybbeaches.  A good array of kelp in this area.

 The sea was quite vigorous  so here are a couple of breaking wave images.

At the base of these rocks some curious red-orange items were seen.  Frances waded out to look and concluded they were animal rather than vegetable but that is about as close as we could get.  I'll call them 'polyps'.

A cooperative Australian Pied Oystercatcher with flag 85.  This was put on by the Victorian Wader Study Group at Corner Inlet on 14 August 2010 when the bird was 4 years or more of age.  Thank you Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme for that information.

This bird was cooperative, but the flag was less so and I couldn't get a read of the number.  Definitely 2 of the 7 birds had flags.

Mussels are always cooperative.  Come in large numbers and stay put!

Some get passengers.  (Fun fact: barnacles are crustaceans not molluscs.)

Other mussels just get festive strands of algae.

A very pleasant walk.