Couthness at Merumbula

 We went to Merimbula for a little retail therapy on 25 March.  After visiting a few temples of commerce we adjourned to the Red Rocks fishing jetty to look at the red rocks, eat our lunch, check for birds and see what was going on.

The red rocks were as usual very attractive.

Eating lunch was done, involving some pepperoni mini-pizza in my case.  There were few birds around apart from an immature Australasian Gannet which landed (?? not quite the best word) came down and sat on the water.

While looking at the Gannet a young fisherperson - who had been catching baitfish - got very excited , yelling "Dad, dad.  Gget the net.  I've got a Kingie."  He had indeed hooked a lovely big kingfish, rated by another member of the (small) crowd as above 65cm, and thus a keeper.  The net arrived and was lowered into the water.  Unfortunately the Kingie got under the jetty and broke off the line.

The young fisherperson must have then spotted some waterfowl which I didn't see, proclaiming "Duck, duck" rather loudly.

Walking Pebbly Beach nearly to Shipwreck ...

.. and back.  This walk is bought to you by the colour Yellow and the letter P.

Let us begin with a double header: a Yellow Flower that begins with 'p': Persoonia levis (Smooth Geebung).

Definitely yellow and I think Coronidium scorpioides (Button Everlasting).

Craspedia variabilis (Billy buttons)

Viminaria juncea (Golden Spray).  I have seen this in the past but not in such profusion as this year.  I suspect this is something to do with the amount of rain we have had.

This one is interesting: definitely Gompholobium sp but the flowers seemed much smaller than expected for G. hugelii.  Possibly G. glabratum - heath habitat matches but out of the range cited by VicFlora.  Let us see what iNaturalist has to say.

Possibly the commonest yellow flower Goodenia ovata.

A crap photo, but Ranunculus sp are not common here, although VicFlora has some 47 entries under the genus name!  Fortunately the Atlas of Living Australia only lists one species in this area: R. lappaceus

Getting in to the 'p's here is a Pimelea linifolia.

Pink Tetratheca sp.

A swathe of purple Comesperma erecinum poking out of the regenerating heath about 2 km from Pebbly Beach

Purple Thysanotus patersonii (Twining Fringe Lily).

A close up of Comesperma, with a few of the buds fully out.

Now to the supporting cast - not yellow or involving p.  Although I have just realised the first 3 are of Pebbly Beach!

This rock gets an award as Nargun Imitator.  It has been there for a while but recent storms have caused it to take a jump to the right: only appropriate for a spirit to do the Time Warp

Getting in to the bush it was obvious that the track hadn't been cleared recently.  That doesn't greatly fuss me: it is the bush, not Glebe Park.  I was more than somewhat pissed that I got caught up in the Kennedia vines and face-planted as a result,

Getting on to the beach about 3km in was a tad tricky as the track was a little overgrown but it isn't Glebe Park!

A view of the beach (rather like the usual English beach - covered with gravel)!

And a rocky gully at the end thereof.

Looking back towards Howe Peak and Gabo from the turn point.

The only butterfly of the day was this Variable Sword-grass Brown.

A couple of Xanthorrhoea spikes amongst all the expired ones from 2020.

The Callistemons would have been stunning when all in flower.  The foliage is still attractive,

There is one particularly damp gully.  Where there is damp there are frogs and where there are frogs ....

 

A visit to Haycock Point

 On our way to Merimbula yesterday we swung into Haycocks Road and went to the Beach.  The road was in average conditions apart from some well beyond average potholes as we turned off the bitumen.  The beach was brilliant.

Some patterened rocks behind the beach.

Peering over a rocky point at the end of the beach we also found it was the end of the track.

Frances recalled seeing a track off somewhere as she came through the picnic area and we soon found it when we both looked.  Its pretty cleared in this snip from eBird track.

When we got to the end of the track the Cormorants (Great and Black-faced) were lined up like the Zulus at Rourke's Drift.

The ledge they are sitting on is on the RHS of the rocky knob.

I am currently re-reading Patricia Wrightson's Nargun series. much of the action of which is  actually set between about here and about Bemm River.  Pick your Nargun from this lot (remembering that the oldest Nargun is less than hand-sized

2 Sooty Oystercatchers on the side of the knob

An Eastern Reef Egret picks its Nargun.

An Old Man Banksia (B. serrata) covers the ground.

A sign of the times.  They did have a good supply left.

Bastion Beach and Point

 We had a break in the damp weather on 25 February so took ourselves for a walk on Bastion Beach.  For reasons outlined below we extended the usual walk to cover the rocks at the Point as well.

The beach was not crowded!  Note also the amount of eel grass washed up as a result of it being swept out of the Mouth.

There have been other people on the beach recently as evidenced by these mini-inuksuks at the mouth.

The Mouth itself is still wide and quite deep.  It is also still cutting down as evidenced by the edges to the channel.

We watched this boat go out to see how navigable the bar was.  Not too spectacular but I suspect equally not for novices.  The bow came a bit more out of the water after I took the photo!

There is a lot of exposed rock at the Point, but the pools continue to be relatively free of life.  Some large crabs were seen so perhaps it is coming back?

I recorded 29 species on the walk which is not a bad total.  I might have got more with a telescope as there seemed to be a few shorebirds I couldn't ID on more distant sandbars.  A Raven posed on the dunes, with the prominent hackles confirming it was an Australian Raven.

We found a family of Red-capped Plovers with a very young chick.

I took this snap primarily for the size comparison between the three species.  When seen on its own I 'feel' that White-faced Herons are quite large birds so its surprising to see the body isn't that much bigger than an Australian Pied Oystercatcher.

A flock of ~5 White-fronted Chats was pleasant.

The reason for visiting the Point was to check the rocks for Tattlers (especially the Wandering Tattler seen recently at Clinton Rocks).  No joy, but there were 7 Willie Wagtails fluttering about.

As a bonus, a seal was happily thermoregulating off the point