Scenes of the Mouth and Ocean

The first three photographs were taken at Captain Stevenson's Point on 28 September and show the extent of sand exposed at low tide.

The next image is 29 September, also at low tide, taken from the steps at Bastion Point.  There is not much depth of water there!

We went to search the rocks for interesting things.  Lots of seaweed of various colours (Frances has read that the red, brown and green weeds are actually different phyla) and mussels.  Not much else.

The first clump of Sea Hare eggs we have seen in quite a while.

A Black-faced Cormorant setting on one of the light poles,

The rest of the photos are a series I took of a bold parasailer out in the ocean.  When first spotted he was quite a distance out from shore and several kilometres down the beach.  He'd got closer by the first image.

Oops.

The red arrows show this was not crying wolf!

The accumulated views on iNaturalist (ie everyone except me) reckon this is a Tiger Snake rather than an Eastern Brown Snake.  I have asked them why this is so.

And I got a very detailed and helpful answer:

"Tigers have a more robust , wide head and overall stockier build than EBs, EBs have a smaller finer head that narrows towards the nose and overall look more rope-like. As for the colour, both Tigers and EBs are very variable, but this one has an olive tinge with a contrasting underside of yellow-olive that's Tiger. Also the scales appear a little larger and more 'coarse' than in EBs"

Green Cape trip

 Needing to get fuel for the Pajero in the near future I noticed that the price of diesel at the cheapest place in Eden was 199.9c/l: 32 cents less than Mallacoota. Is the Mallacoota servo (or their wholesaler) working on a business plan that says they have a captive market so gouge it before the tourists leave? No surely not. 😂

There were also a few groceries we needed that would be better priced in in Eden, so off we went, deciding that we would call in to Green Cape on the way home.

The drive in to Green Cape was enlivened by crossing with a few Muppets who seemed to either think it was a one way road or not have worked out that it was a dirt. (Note from the future: on the way back I estimate we crossed with at least 15 cars, all displaying this quality of conductivity.)

Our first stop was Pulpit Rock which on our previous visit had been our first sight of the Shearwater migration. This time there were only about 50 here rather than the 10,000 I estimated last visit. Here is an optimistic shrub growing above the rock platform.

This is the view to the North.

A clip showing the colour of the water off the rocks and the pattern of the backwash.  The larger waves were breaking into the pool visible above the run off.

Definitely a Hakea: I suspect H. decurrens.

The most common shrub was Banksia serrata known as Old Man Banksia or Sawleaf Banksia.  Most plants had some nice flowers.  It being a National Park they are all still there.

A view over the heath.

Spot the birdie!  A New Holland Honeyeater: the closely related Tawny-crowned Honeyeater was Bird a Day.

We finished by driving down to the Lighthouse, which we found a lot more exposed to wind than Pulpit Rock or the heath.  There were more (~300) Shearwaters here as well as a Gannet and a Kestrel.

Coastal events- natural and otherwise

 This post will stretch the wildlife element a little, but the weather near Mallacoota is important to the Sydney to Hobart yacht race.  The disaster of 1998 was focused offshore from here with the Mallacoota Airport used as a base for the rescue effort.   The Bunker Museum has a collection of accounts by rescuers describing their efforts in saving people which is well worth study.  So it was interesting to look at the position of the fleet on the morning of 28 December to realise they were just off shore.

Closer to our house I gt a couple of good (by my standards) photos of a New Holland Honeyeater enjoying a Red Hot Poker (Kniphofia sp,)

Our expedition for the day was to do the Shipwreck Creek to Seal Creek walk. It was a good day for it according to the weather forecast: sunny but not too hot,  The road down was still in fair condition - better than expected after the amount of rain earlier in the month.  A few potholes are beginning to appear but it has been a lot worse.  The campground was reasonably well occupied, including some antisocial git playing loud music.  We left rapidly and got down to the beach where the creek was easily forded without getting our feet wet.

Frances spotted a large Goanna (~1.5m) at the Heath end of the beach.

Looking out to sea one of the competing boats was visible.

According to my Marine Traffic app it was Highly Sprung!

At the far end of the beach it was good to find that Parks have finally opened up the track.  Until now it has been a matter of bushbashing through about 20m of 2m high scrub.

They have also mown along the path through the heath.  This makes it easier walking (and gives a better chance of spotting any leg-challenged reptiles) but has trashed a few orchids.

Getting into the forest and down to a creek crossing there were some spectacular specimens of Bursaria spinosa (Blackthorn).  Surprisingly there were no insects on them (except some honeybees).  In fact there were few insects all day - and I can't find it in myself to complain about the lack of mosquitoes and blowies.

Getting close to Seal Creek Frances spotted another reptile which I think is Egernia saxatilis (Black Rock Skink).   This one looks to be gravid.

The final bit of track has been cleared and graded, but is still steep and slippery.  We both made it down without face-planting.

The waterway was interesting with the carved edge on the beach.

Frances' favourite rocks!

Hoodie SL is still occupying the beach, together with its unflagged partner.

So was this grasshopper.  Identified on iNaturalist as Cirphula pyrrhocnemis.

On the way back more yachts were still passing.  I suspect these were competing, not just recreational cruisers.

As we neared the end of the heath a flower was visible on one of the Banksia serata (Old Man Banksia).  Good to see them recovering from the fire (after 2 years).

A somewhat drier and bird-enhanced day

 It was still bucketing down at 0700 ...

... so we deferred our walk for a while.  By about 0830 it has calmed down so we donned the rain gear and took off.  There was a fair amount of water around.  This was running out of the gully on the opposite side of Angophora Drive to our place.

It went under Lakeside Drive and into Bottom Lake.

Someone's drain was running well!

Goodbye to the Jetty for a while.  The level of the Inlet at the official gauge is 90cm (up from 30 cm a couple of days ago).

The Lagoon boardwalk is managing to stay above the fray at present.

Lakeside Drive past Broome St is getting a bit damp.  This is unusual with the Mouth completely open.

A little later in the day I went out, so that people didn't start calling me a wimp, or otherwise dissing my manliness.  First stop was the wharf to check the gauge.  The parking lot is under threat!

Then to Captain Stevenson's Point to check for terns on the sandbars.  Neither terns nor sandbars were available.

It is a tad difficult to pick the mouth due to the height of the water this was about high tide.  My estimate was that it was at least 100 m wide and running very strongly.

On to Betka which was open again and running very well

I tried a seawatch at Fisherman's Point,but all the pelagic birds were well out to sea  so I didn't stay long.  I decided to drive the Gun Club Track, realising that it was going to be a bit slippery due to the rain.  There was a lot of water running down the road and the track along the fence was in deed greasy.  However, that ceased to be a concern when a female Flame Robin moved along the fence in front of me.  A strong contender for Bird of the Day.

I then saw what might have been a male Flame Robin on the wooden fence around the yellow phallic object,  It was too distant for my binoculars to resolve so I got out my telescope.  By the time I had that set the bird had gone so I scanned the heath  and found a Tawny-crowned Honeyeater.

That took over as Bird of the Day, as I am hopeful of seeing a Flame on the way to Canberra.

In the afternoon we went for a walk to the beach at Bastion Point.  It was very well endowed with foam.

Out at the Mouth small plovers were scuttling around in the clumps of foam.  They were doing a good impersonation of Sanderlings, but I couldn't persuade myself .....  The next images are of a Double-banded Plover.

This one is a well coloured Red-capped Plover

Bothe these species were in numbers on the inside of the Mouth, where the water was very high.

While no sandbars were visible it was clear that the water was  only shallow where the flock of Royal Spoonbills (usually seen at the Broome St Lagoon) was standing.

At that point Frances asked "What sort of Egret is that?".  It took me a couple of goes to get on to the bird - a bit surprising as it was only about 40 metres away - but then it was clearly not a Cattle or Great Egret.  The colour of the bill made it clearly a Little Egret (confirming that it wasn't just a small egret). 

A size comparison with Bar-tailed Godwits.

A view of the Mouth with attendant Pelicans and Cormorants. 

As I have never recorded a Little Egret at Mallacoota (and only ticked them a couple of times anywhere) that became bird of the day. It is strange how occasionally the uncommon birds turn up in numbers - must be something to do with the weather.