Final sights and home

I was a bit occupied in the evening of 27th so you have had to wait a day for this.  I'm sure you have all found good things to do while I get my act into gear.

For a change the sky did not look to indicate a good day in the offing.

 Despite this we did our 'usual'walk into the town and back.  No great excitements but some nice chats with locals and the view is always pleasant.

We then took ourselves off to the Casuarina Walk on the edge of the town.  There were a few birds about (see below) but very little blossom.  Hence a snap of a Brachyscome (one of very few 'daisies') ...

 .. and ditto Wahlenbergia.

 The highlight was finding two flowers of Dipodium variegatum.

Later in the day I went to the heathland in (unsuccessful) search of Emu-wren.  I did find some Hakea in flower.

 I also had a chat with two women who had walked, carrying huge packs from Cape Conran.  This looks to be somewhere close to 100km and had taken them 5 days.  They seemed to have had good fun and were pleased I could take a photo (on their phone).  Mallacoota was their destination and they were keen to find a good coffee  shop: I had to explain my ignorance of such matters!

Getting back to nature, one of the bird calls in the morning walk had frustrated me.  It was like a high pitched horses whinny'.  Eventually I spotted a big lump in a high tree.  This turned into a juvenile Brown Goshawk and I suddenly recognised the call.

 Some years ago Frances read that photography had changed art because photographs could cut people in half by accident, which no painter would do.  This is possibly the sort of thing they meant.

 At least you now know the dihedral of a Pelican's left wing.  And yes, I generally do have something against right wingers!  Of either Party.

A little later I managed to get a better shot, which also covered a question about the distribution of white and black in a pelican's wings.

On the theme of birds the cloudy/stormy weather led to an outbreak of White-throated Needletails, seen in small numbers through the day.  They were going well for Birdoftheday until a Black-faced Monarch briefly appeared in the garden.

Today's reptile is a Mountain Dragon.  Possibly a tad surprising as it was at an elevation of about 20m, and well within the sound of the surf on Davis Beach.

 Not quite as big as the dragon, but just about as frisky, was this Orb Weaver.

We went for what has become our usual dusk walk to Karbeethong Jetty and found that dusk was much duskier than expected for 2000 or thereabouts due to the weather.  This had got the fruit bats agitated earlier than usual.  This shot is from close to Inlet level and shows them pouring out of the roost.

I actually think this image captures the size of the flock better - and it is like this for about 20 minutes.  I might try and do an ad-hoc blog later on the direction(s) they seem to head.

 I'll finish the 27th with a couple of bits of human insanity.  As the tide ebbs a sandbar appears in the mouth of the inlet.  On an earlier evening kids were playing cricket out there.  This binch were just flying a kite.

Wicked Campers occasionally get into trouble with the slogans they daub on their vans.  This one hasn't gone viral yet.

So on the 28th we packed up and headed for home.  Basically a nice drive up the hill.  It was interesting that we crossed with at least 8 double jinker log trucks on Imlay Road.  (We decided to go home that way as a landslide on Brown Mountain meant there were delays on that route.  So we passed on going to the Eden Smokehouse!)