Bula bula

No, we haven't been to Fiji  Instead we went to Pambula and then on to Merimbula.  We stopped in Pambula to acquire a Wild Rye steak and kidney pie for my lunch: excellent as always.

I ate this at a small wetland on the Southern side of the town.

The principal aim of visiting this site was to try to twitch 2 Magpie Geese which have been reported there in various fora for a few weeks (the first eBird record here is 9 June, but I think the birds were there a few days earlier than that).  On our last visit we failed totally to find them, and I thought today was going to be a repeat.  But still an interesting place to inhale a good pie.  Then a Swamp Harrier flew over the reeds and about 30 Pacific Black Duck flew out on to the open water.  And there were the Magpie Geese!

The usual range of the species is hinted at in this image from eBird.  The records nearest to Canberra are a captive group at Tidbinbilla, and thus not really countable, but apparently wild ones have been see a few times near Lake George.

So that was all very satisfactory.  On to Merimbula.  Before getting to retail therapy, we went to visit the old wharf area as it was listed in a tourist brochure as having some interesting geology.  (The geology of the general area is explained in this excellent post.)The key rocks are red Devonian mudstone.

A close up of the rocks and one of the very few birds seen here.

This large rock on the inland side of the wharf shows the discontinuity between the mudstone and a lighter coloured sandstone.

Looking back at the bar.

Although the ocean was rather flat a few surfers found something to ride!

Sperm whale (and surfing)

 A post was made to MCN FB Group on 1st June about the discovery of a Sperm Whale lower jaw on Davis Beach.  

We thought it worth going to take a look, even if there was a risk of it having been washed out to sea in the intervening 24 hours.  Not only had it not been washed out but it would appear it has been dragged up the beach so save from being washed away.  Judging by the number of footprints I suspect most of Mallacoota has been to look at it!

This gives the scale.  The person is about 1.6m tall so the bone is about 3m long.  From "Great Whales" by John Bannister the head can be 40% of the body length and the lower jaw looks about 50%  of the head suggesting the whole beast might have been 15m long.  That arithmetic suggests it would have been a male, and a relatively large one.

No teeth left - the images shown on another visitor's phone suggest they are very impressive - which would be one of the things of interest to cetacean scientists but -astonishingly - no-one is currently studying them.

There were do dolphins visible in the sea but a few humans were enjoying the waves.