Blue is the colour of my true love's tongue

 Mid-morning of 27 September Frances spotted a large lizard on the lower lawn.  The tail looked a little pointed, but referring to Reptiles of Victoria confirmed it was a Common Blue-tongued Lizard (Tiliqua scinoides).

Shortly thereafter she found two of them near the washing line.

The one of the upper level decided to go visiting.  Was it going to make love or war?

Love was definitely looking like the answer here.

Perhaps it was the reptilian equivalent of come and see my etchings?  Nothing more active happened while I watched.

As the lower one stayed still I took a close -up of its head.

On the 28th the Lizards appeared again.  They seemed to move quite quickly since the following sequence commenced very son after I had mown that part of the lawn.  And they were definitely reveling in the throes of fornication when I noticed them.

Still affectionate?

The male - I assume the lighter one was the male - seemed keen for a second round.  The female, less so!

TOPC rules!

On 24 September we walked along the Track Opposite the Pony Club as I thought the flowers might be in good condition.  I was right.

This is a view of the heath near the start of the track.  Note the many stalks of Xanthorrhoea (Grass Tree) left over after last season's astonishing flowering event.

There are many new Grass Tree plants coming up, but it seemed initially that none of them were going to flower.  Then we found these buds ...

.. and finally a flower spike.

We did come across a colony of flowering specimens a little further in, near the woodland boundary.

Acacias are well represented in the flora with A. myrtifolia particularly evident in the woodland.  This track is the site where I have usually found A. mucronata.

Another less common wattle is A. oxycedrus, aptly named the Spike Wattle.

Some orchids became evident when we got in to the woodland.  Caladenia carnea.

Diuris pardina

Glossodia major.

Ricinicarpos pinifolius (Wedding Bush) is common along the track.

We have been unable to name this member of the Fabaceae: hopefully iNaturalist will do the business.  Indeed, their expert on plants in this area has nominated Aotus ericoides: I have 100% rating with this species as I never identify it myself and every time I do so label a plant, I am wrong!

An array of the yellow Fabaceae in the woodand

Some mixes of colours beside the track.

There was not as much Kennedia rubicunda here as on the tracks closer to the beach.

I think this is Platylobium parviflorum, although my photo has cut off the poointed tips to the eaves.

There were a lot of Pimelea linifolium along the length of the track.  We didn't remember that from past visits.

Beach sights

This is included here largely due to the Silver Gull image.  The photos were taken on a walk along the beach from Bastion Point.

There is still a notice warning about sharks at the top of the steps.  As the whale carcass is now well out to sea I suspect the danger is down to the normal level for the beach: not zero but not dramatic.  Whatever: there were many grommets catching waves.  Here is a snap of one of them.

The dog gets an entry due to the ratio of size of stick to size of pooch.

The seagull (Silver Gull) gets a run due to the bubbling sand/water around its feet.  It and several othere were doing the stamping dance to stir up edibles.

Photos of an evening

 It was an interesting evening on 22 September.  This began while we were sitting in our lounge having a beverage and looking out the window (as we usually do).  The current near SChnapper Point looked strange.  Its hard to capture in a still image ..

... so I have added arrows to show that there seemed to be a strong current flowing out towards the Sands, while another nearby current seemed to be flowing in almost the opposite direction up the Narrows.

This is just because it is the first photo I have taken on my iPad!  And it's pretty.

Some snaps of moonrise from Fisheries Jetty.  This first set are from 1908 - 1920 hrs (not years).

We then went in to town for a few minutes (see below) and snapped these on the way home about 1930.

The reason for going in to town was to see the fish lanterns installed in Coulls Inlet.  A stunning display.

The lanterns stand out quite dramatically in daylight.  Here are a couple of snaps from the far side of Coulls Inlet taken on the morning of 23 September.

We'll be passing by later in the day and get some closer shots.

More random stuff

 These are some photos without a particular theme beyond just interesting stuff I have seen around Mallacoota in the past couple of days (ie 18 and 19 September 2021).

The first photo was taken from the top of Angophora Dr and show the extent of the sandbars on the Goodwin Sands.  I suspect that has been partly a result of Northerly winds pushing water out of the mouth (and/or a low tide).  Unfortunately someone has parked a barge so that the official depth gauge at the Wharf cannot be read.

Looking from Cap'n Steve's pPoint there is lots of sand towards Harrison's Channel ...

.. and the Mouth looks rather narrow, twisted and shallow 

A little later I went to Bastion Point to check for seabirds.  There were none, but some seal body parts were visible.

On getting right out to the Point it seemed that there were 2 seals thermoregulating showing one front flipper each with one also waving a hind.

On the 19th I went for a drive along the airstrip fence where the high point was a Nankeen Kestrel with some prey.  I was about 250 m away so the photo doesn't show much detail.

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