Shag on a rock on a hot day. Just near the Veterans Hall ferry stop at Henderson Road Saratoga.
All these walkies I do make me notice stuff I never noticed before. Stuff like the flowers and trees and birds. I don't know a lot of the names of them but I like to see them living along side us humans, floating on the water between the ferries, wandering about on the foreshores, harassing tourists for chips, that sort of thing.
Waiting for fish heads at Correa Bay Reserve Woy Woy Bay Road Woy Woy South.
The bog standard breed of ducks, hoping for free food at Empire Bay. Someone got on the ferry with hot chips and the ducks soon clustered round. Buggered if I know why because if you chuck them a chip they won't eat it.
Pelican soliciting for chips at the fish and chip shop on Brick Wharf Road.
(In the background is an interesting 1950s block of units called "Caprice" in red brick with a pattern of dots on it formed with white bricks. The block was demolished last year, possibly earlier.)
Still can't believe how close I got to this kookaburra. They're normally very timid. This one seemed to be waiting for the local office workers to deliver its lunch.
Kookaburras are seen at all times of day up on the hills and ridges, but here on the flat of Woy woy they come in groups at dusk and laugh in gum trees.
Brush turkeys. They look like such ungainly buggers but they climb these trees quite easily, slowly placing one scaly foot ahead of the other on the gently sloping branches.
Rainbow lorikeet in bottlebrush, Woy Woy. Lorikeets are rather shy birds but as noisy as buggery in groups. At dawn they cluster excitedly in flowering trees, squabbling over the best blooms and waking up the neighbours.
Pink & grey galahs feeding in a jacaranda in someone's back yard in Umina.
Sulphur-crested cockatoo (white bird). Haven't yet got a decent photo of one of these. They move too quick and perch up high in tall trees.
The other birds are a couple of plump owls of some sort, a rainbow lorikeet hanging upside down to feed and there's a nervous-looking tree possum down the bottom.The black birds flying at the sides are black cockatoos, a seldom-sighted bird.
Colin
It's all over the internet that Colin's been put down (euthanased). Poor little bugger lost his mum last week and was found nuzzling a yacht in Pittwater, just across the water from here. A post-mortem revealed Colin was actually Colette and her mum's body may have been found washed up on a beach down south. Wildlife officers had to put the poor thing down as she was getting weaker and weaker and they couldn't feed her.
From the Herald:
"A female humpback whale abandoning her three-week-old calf? Not likely.
Experts say a baby whale alone in Sydney's Pittwater was probably separated from its mother by force. ...
The baby humpback, believed to be about two or three weeks old, was first spotted on Sunday, nuzzling up to a yacht in an apparent search for its mother.
Authorities have suggested that the calf, nicknamed Colin, may have a biological problem, which led its mother to abandon it.
Experts have disagreed, saying a humpback female is very unlikely to abandon her calf, and would nurture it if it was sick.
Wally Franklin, Hervey Bay-based marine biologist with research group the Oceania Project, says ships in the waters off Sydney could be to blame, because they can break up sonic communication lines between whales." (Humans could be to blame for stranded calf)
Sydney Morning Herald
The truth about mozzies
I posted a map and some stuff about the paperbark forest last month, the wee jewel officially known as the Everglades Lagoon Wetland, nestled amongst the paperbarks next to the local golf club.
The crowd that looks after the wetland is having walkies there next month, combined with talkies.
From their flyer:
"Everglades Wetland... Walk & Talk
Saturday 27th September, 2008
RSVP by 24th on (02) 43494756
Email: wetlands@cccen.org.au".
Nose to the grindstone
Spoke too soon about getting some time off. Got an unexpected job dropped into my lap. Some ghost-blogging. The writing sort not the woo woo sort.
So anyways, Tuesday's post may or may not be late. Put yer email in the thingy to get pinged.
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10 comments:
Buggeration! I already did this post in February. My brain needs a holiday.
that shag on the rock is spectacular! thanks for sharing.
That first photo - unbelievable - how the hell did you do that? Incredible pic.
I was going to make some lewd comment about a shag on a rock, but a measure of decorum has kicked in.
I love those pictures - The shag and the pelican look so perfect. They can be such scruffy-looking birds sometimes, but those two are fantastic specimens.
It's such a shame about Colin/Colette and her mum.
Great variety of birds you got.
Currently I am up to my neck in house sparrows!
Botany bird, thank yer kindly.
Great nick by the way.
Suzanne, thank yer kindly. I was quick on the draw but so quick I startled the shag. It twitched slightly but it didn't want to stir from the lovely warm sun.
Kick it back out, dear, for all our sakes!
We are having a much better class of pelican turn up at the fish and chips these days.
The more I look at that shag photo the prouder I am. It looks like one of those bronzes off the Antiques Roadshow.
Ron, we're very lucky. All the bush and water around makes for a feast of birds and beasts.
BTW, the sparrows thing is an entertaining mental image.
The background of the pelican photo is not my only image of Caprice as thought. Found this.
I for all time emailed this webpage post page to all my friends, as if like to read it after that my links will too.
Survival Hunting Tips
I couldn’t resist commenting. Well written!
Duck Hunting for Beginners
Nice picture and brilliant post. Thanks!
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