Some nature notes

 This covers a few activities in the Mallacoota area on 3rd and 4th February.

The first entry is a stroll around the woodland opposite the Pony Club.  It can be a quite interesting area and we hadn't been there for a while.  It was in fact very quiet, apart from the noise of the strong wind in the trees.  We did the full loop.

On the first leg through the heath we found a tea-tree looking shrub.  From consulting iNaturalist and Flora of Victoria I have concluded this is Baeckea linifolia.  This and the two plants which follow have been confirmed by Jackie Miles (an expert  from Brogo in Bega Valley) on iNaturalist.

Next is a pea, which we quickly had to a Dillwynia, and consulting iNaturalist, Flora of Victoria and Wildflowers of the Wilderness Coast have it to D. glabberima, based on downturned tips to the leaves visible in the second image.

The payoff for doing the loop was spotting some Dipodium variegatum on the second leg.  I initially identified it as D. punctatum but apparently the force of taxonomic evil have split that and the second  Mallacoota version is now D. variegatum.  This is less common in our area than  D. roseum but more common than punctatum (and the spots on the pedicel are deterministic).

On the morning of 4 January I decided to throw COVID caution to the winds and go to Captain Stevenson's Point as it seemed the density of semi-wild life in the campground had dropped a fair bit.  I wrote down quite a few species of birds but the only unusual one was an adult Pacific Gull sitting on a sandbar.  Nearly all the Pacific Gulls I have seen at Mallacoota in the past have been juveniles.

Driving around town on the 4th I noticed this pink flowered Eucalypt (??) in the main street ...

.. and a white jobbie - possibly the famous Mallacoota Gum - at the start of Betka Rd.

We went for a stroll from Bastion Point.  We are not anti-tourist but the contrast in the beach between now and a week ago was astonishing.  We saw 5 other people in the hour we were down there.

This "line in the sand" seemed very friable and I think was the remains of layer of charred vegetation laid down after the fire.

Another line was composed of shells of various sorts.

These vertical lines were left as the rhyzomes of grass were dragged out by the waves.

This bank was about 1.8m high and had obviously been seriously undercut.

I think it was somewhat after high tide but the sea was still washing over the sand into Develings Inlet.

There were a number (~20) of Red-capped Plovers running about on the inland side of the sand bar.  A single Red-necked Stint was also there, presumably stacking in the food before heading off to Siberia to breed.

A fair frenzy of gulls was happening at the Captain Stevenson's Point end of the sandbar.

I took this to capture the various wing positions adopted by the gulls.  Few of them seemed to be actually getting food just acting as though they had had a good serve of red food colouring. 

I saw what looked to be a strange patterned tern and took lots of pictures trying to capture it.  I failed in that endeavour (and have found that it was merely a rather young Crested Tern anyway).  However I have ended up with some pretty fair shots of Crested Terns in flight!

You can just see the small fish this one has caught