A drought may be imminent!

Thus far we have scored 180mm of rain since we arrived on Saturday.  However it hasn't really rained for about 5 hours, so in Hanrahan terms we must be moving into a drought.

It certainly wasn't a drought when we set off for our walk this morning.  Note the foam (more foam later) down this drain.

The jetties had disappeared under a swollen Inlet.

This one, usually full of fisherpersons and about 1m above the water, was empty and close to submerging.

 Rearranging time a bit, a little later in the day these jetties had gone completely under, apart from providing perches for Great Cormorants, Silver Gulls ...

 .. and Pelicans.

Getting back to the morning walk (it can't be called a dog walk, as the small dog wimped and was returned home) this long boardwalk was very close to going under.

The Inlet was Outletting, at the point shown below, on the dog walk.  When I drove past about 3 hours later it was pretty much completely across the road.  When I came back a couple of hours after that I couldn't, as the Shire had closed the road.  Probably a pretty sensible thing to have done.

There were a few other places where water was running across the road.  Why did I choose a plodmobile to photograph coming through this lot?  The driver seemed quite amused by my efforts.

Later in the day I escaped and headed down to Betka Beach.  On the way I stopped to photograph this scene: I have added red lines to show where the Heathland Walk Swim goes.

 About 3 hours later Frances and I went back to Betka and the water level had dropped by at least 1m,  This was a result of the creek eroding sandbanks at the mouth and the tide dropping.

There was still a good swell at the dreaded breakwater.

 And on the beach.

As expected the mixture of strong surf, wind and a heavy outflow of water  led to a lot of foam on the beaches.  This is Bastion Beach.

 Here is Betka, at lower tide levels.

This is the scene in the campground.  Yesterday the water was nowhere near the road.

 This is a shot from the end of the campground looking back up the Inlet.

Getting back towards nature photography, here are a couple of Fungi which have found the climate to their liking.  I suspect this is Hygrocybe sp.

 Definitely a stinkhorn Anthurus archerii.

This Whistling Kite stooped on to our lawn and caught something, but by the time I got my telescope on to it the prey had been consumed.

 An immature Australian King Parrot came to visit!

 So did an adult male of that species.

 A Wonga Pigeon perched (and 'wonged') in one of the garden Banksias.

While at Bastion Point I was astonished to see an Azure Kingfisher sitting on one of the lumps of iron at the boat ramp.  I associate them with gently running streams  rather than 5m surf!

This was briefly Bird of the Day until I noticed an Australian Gannet through the spume.  Then both of them got knocked off by two Double-banded Plovers on the beach.