Much walking at Mallacoota


After a good nights sleep all round – except possibly for the possum – the day dawned with a sunrise (possibly sun-before-rain). 
 The boaties were out in force, heading to fishing spots.
 After breakfast we wandered off along the Inlet towards Mallacoota to check out Shady Gully.  This was where I had lost my phone in September 2011 and there was a joking thought that I might find it again.  The amount of regrowth, particularly of Senecio and Goodenia, made it clear there was no hope of that.  (It also says something about the pointlessness of hazard reduction burns!)

 We had a pleasant stroll around and added a few species to the birdlist and some images to the plant list.

Dipodium roseum was the only orchid seen in the entire trip!

 Exocarpus cupressiformis does have flowers: just not very exciting ones!

By the time we had got home we’d walked about 11km – the small dog was still going well at the end - so a bit of lunch and some R&R was in order.  This was followed by a walk without the small dog to part of the National Park. 

The walk was basically a bulldozed track along an arm of the Inlet.   
From my view it was not a well designed track for people interested in wildlife as it was between the water and the woods and that was it.  More interesting walks could have been designed to run a little further from the water so that they entered the gullies etc.  We did get to see a few interesting plants


 Solanum densivestitum was in flower ...
 .. and fruit at the same time!  Tomatoes anyone?
 Linum marginale
 Prostanthera sp. 1
 Prostanthera sp. 2
This was a vine, growing where I would expect Wonga vine to appear, but the description of Wonga vine seeds in Plantnet does not match this!
 Daviesia sp
Unlike our earlier walks there were a few insects around.  I am sure these blue blobs are insect eggs laid on the inflorescence of a vine.
 A beetle!
 Ibelieve these to be longocorn beetles.  There are likely to be a lot more of them in the future!
A moderate (a tad over 1m long) sized Goanna (aka Lace Monitor Varanus varius) wandered across the track in front of us.   It was not greatly fussed by our presence and gave us an opportunity to look at it for quite a while.
 Hind leg - notice the skin sloughing off at the top.
 I am unsure if it was just having a pause or feeding in this shot.
 A close up of the eye and one of its front claws.  No wonder they can climb trees so well.
 After finishing the walk I dropped Frances off at the house and went to fill up with petrol, to save some time the next day.   I had thought to drop in at the Police Station to thank the guy for being very helpful in the matter of my phone on our visit a tear ago, but no-one was there so “Pole sana na asante sana.  Hakuna matata!”

Back at the ranch we put out some mango peel for the Bowerbirds.  
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 Before they arrived a couple of young Magpies turned up and gave the small dog some exercise. 

They were followed by a full-grown Silver Gull that nearly didn’t make it out of range: obviously not used to terrier’s rates of acceleration.

A few other random bird images follow.

Laughing Kookaburra
 Chestnut Teal
 Little Black Cormorant.

Here are links to other parts of this saga:

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