A longish walk

 After our tramp to 2 Heath Cove we decided to try a slightly longer walk starting at Betka Beach and turning back at Pebbly Beach.  The route followed, effectively 5 km each way, is shown on the following image snipped from Google Earth.  It had the great benefit of being quite flat with small hills at Betka, Quarry and Pebbly beaches.

A view towards the West End of Betka.

The regrowth gives the walk somewhat the feel of a box hedge maze from England: given my view that official Parks agencies want the manicured look of Stately homes that is to be expected.

The good thing is that this trimming has given a bit of air for some orchids to be visible,  There were a lot of Caladenia carnea and quite a few of these Prasophyllum sp. visible along the way.

Lomandra sp were also visible - I think this is the female plant of L. longifolia.

Burchardia umbellata was seen, but not in profusion.

In contrast in some areas Lasiopetallum macrophyllum was forming the bulk of the shrub storey and revealing its flowers.

A cluster of Dampiera stricta.

An unusually large outbreak of Hybanthus vernonii.

Leptospermum laevigatum.

Stackhousia monogyna

There was a lot of Comesperma sp visible in the more heath-like areas.  As well as the very common pink C. ericinum a few specimens of the blue C. volubile were seen between Quarry and Secret beaches.

I don't usually photograph Billardiera scandens but this large and visible specimen won the day.

Kennedia rubicunda is still flowering well, with a floriferous backdrop.

Dianella tasmanica (the specific ID reflecting its height).

Goodenia ovata

 is taking on the role of dominant shrub in many areas, filling in the position occupoed in 2020-21 by Solanum aviculare (Kangaroo Apple)

There were a few birds around, especially around Secret Beach.  Fan-tailed Cuckoo.

Immature Great Cormorants (a group of 12 adults of this species were at the West end of Pebbly Beach).

Dusky Woodswallows were hawking above the bush.

Getting back to Betka, the mouth has closed again after a brief opening in a rainy spell.

2 Hooded Plovers were inspecting the sandbar: probably checking out nest sites.

Wildlife around town

A few interesting bits and bobs from a scout around the centre this morning.

I stopped at Fisheries Jetty to count the Black Swans as they seemed to be in good numbers on our morning walk today. The answer was 240, which would seem to imply there is a good growth of eelgrass in that area as well as towards the Goodwins.

Then a juvenile Striated Heron came off the Marsh just upstream of the Jetty.

It flew off towards Seagull Island - one of the species usual haunts. That sighting is particularly exciting as almost at the same time Frances saw one near Schnapper Point Drive. So definitely at least 2 in the area.

A flotilla of Little Black Cormorants came by, continually diving after a school of fish.

I had been in the area of the Pumping Station where I got the answer to "what is better than a koala?". The answer is of course "2 Koalas."

Another question from the same area was "can I - or at least Photoshop Express - improve a photo of a Lyrebird in deep shadow?"

I think the answer is "Yes."

Green Cape etc

 Although not strictly in my Mallacoota District Green Cape would be included if stupid eBird offered a custom polygon facility, as does Birdata.  The area is 23 km off the Princes Highway on a reasonable road (dirt-with-potholes for the last ~18km).  This snip from Google Earth shows the 3 main areas covered below.

Before getting to the target area (sic, in view of what follows) as we turned off the highway on to Edrom Rd we noticed a fenced off area with signs saying OD Depot and indications this was a Commonwealth facility.  WTF?  

• My first go at Googling "OD Depot" took me to something on the Border Force (BF) website.  I rang BF but the charming lady I spoke to there couldn't help me further, but we did have a nice chat! 
• Frances then Googled "Eden OD Depot" for which the first hit was an 2013 announcement by Mike Kelly in his Ministerial role rather than as an electorate issue.  However I thought that Kristy McBain, the current Member, might know so rang her office.  Another very pleasant conversation - and very fast follow up - confirmed it is an ordnance depot for "ammunitioning" Naval vessels at their wharf out near the Chip Mill.

Once past the Depot our first stop was at Disaster Bay, primarily to donate some funds to NSW Parks.  The stupid people require exact change: who carries cash these days?  Also, I have a memory that if you put 8 x $1 coins in the envelope it doesn't fit through the slot!  Probably good to know that NSW Parks is as daft as their Victorian counterpart!  Excuse the rant: the view was stunning!

As we headed down the road there were many white flowers visible.  The first of these was clearly a Pimelea, possibly P. linifolia: certainly not the usual P. humilis.  Jackie Miles, an expert observer on iNaturalist has identified it as P. l. linifolia.

The iNaturalist AI has come up with Poranthera corymbosa for this umbellate jobbie.  Confirmed by Jackie Miles.

The initial guess by the AI was Acosta sp: a native to South Africa.  I don't think so.  On asking again the suggestion was Coronidium elatum!  The latter agreed by Jackie Miles.

We then descended the rather steep track to City Rock, feeling pleased we were in the Pajero rather than the Mazda!  Walking from the car park to the rock we passed this Pomaderris.  Over to a human for getting this to species.  (I have put some images of leaves to the app, but they are rather boring,)  The human was Jackie Miles, and from her comments I suspect she saw the same plant in 2018: she submitted a specimen to the Sydney Herbarium who identified it as Pomaderris prunifolia var. prunifolia.

The track was of deluxe standard: my mind boggles at the cost of schlepping all this rock and road metal to this area and then getting it along the track.  Then building the steps etc.  It seems that, as with most Governments they will happily pay their private sector mates for 'stuff' but not employ the staff needed to monitor what is going on with the wildlife etc.

A couple of views of City Rock.  Apparently a popular rock fishing spot.

Ascending the steep track was not a problem and neither was going down to Pulpit Rock.  The latter was not challenged by Ground Parrots, possibly due to some Parks workers manicuring the walking trail with a brushcutter.  On getting to the coast our gast was well flabbered by the stream of Shearwaters going by.  I put down 10,000 as my guess at the number we saw (that works out to 5 per second over 30 minutes which is possibly conservative - drawing lines across the following images touches 5 -15 birds, depending on the line).

This is the view to the North.  It doesn't show the 20 m vertical drop to the red rock, on to which my cap got blown.  I didn't even think about going after it: that would not have ended well.

More shearwaters!  A Peregrine Falcon was soaring in the distance over the flock: it didn't stoop, possibly being embarrassed for choice of victim.

We then moved on to the lighthouse  where I captured a passing Gannet!

Here is the lighthouse.

The view North.

We then moved on towards Merimbula, stopping at Wheelers fish restaurant .  An excellent meal was had, accompanied by a very pleasant beer (see below).  As we visited the Fishpen to check birds on the oyster beds some blokes were working on the beds.  To my surprise the water barely came to their knees!

As usual, lotsa Crested Terns.

This is the lunchtime beer.  In the beer list it was shown as Ryefield Hops Bemboka which being very local encouraged me to try it.  I think the brewery 'Dangerous Ales' is at Milton, but not too far away.  The brew is not too dangerous at 5.1 ABV but was very pleasant indeed.  A light body and rather rather sharp which made it very refreshing. 

For the evening I had a first sample from a Plonk box.  It needed a bit of thought but this offering from BentSpoke got the gig.  At 8.8% some caution is warranted!  Very fruity and full bodied.  I have yet to have a bad beer from this crew.

Back in the Kayak

We have been very slack about getting out in the kayaks for the last year.  Either it has been too windy or too wet, or too many powerboats around.  So today the forecast looked very good for the morning: sunny and wind 2-11 kph.  So we loaded up the Pajero and set off for Fisheries Jetty.  

Surprisingly we more or less remembered how to set things up and launched.  A very polite person on the jetty commented that we looked very professional.

We were so professional I didn't get the eBird tracker going for about 500m but here is our route.  I wasn't sure where the entrance to Harrison's Channel was and the wind was getting up so we turned.  The wee loop on the way back was trying to get too close to Rabbit Island and having to search for deeper water to keep the foot paddles going.  But no biggie.

I think that is Horse Island in front of us.  There were at least 4 Pied Cormorants around as well as quite a few Little Pied.  Bird of the Day was a White-bellied Sea Eagle which flew over, getting escorted from the area by a bolshie Australian Raven.

A nice view of Stingray Point with a distant Genoa Peak in back.

The image below comes from  Gippsland Ports site which I consulted to learn the meaning of the different colours of the channel markers.  Lots of nautical stuff about port and starboard and upstream, but basically keep the green ones on your right and the red ones on your left.  But also keep an eye out for eel grass getting close to the surface!