More on Bears (and the Inner Pelican)

There was a bit of growling last evening (15 December) before we went to bed, but no disturbance during the night.  In the morning a fat boy was located in the usual tree next door.

 In the afternoon as we came back from a short walk loud growling was heard and Frances spotted another Koala waving its head around on a tree half way up the (major) hill.

Then I spotted one slumped in a fork, doing its best to promote the myth that they are always stoned. 

 Apparently this is no more than a myth: they just have to work very hard to get nutrition out of gum leaves so need a lot of rest.  Our friends have asked that we keep the koalas out of the house as they'd scratch the floors.  I think this is the sort of thing they are worried about:

This was the first time I have seen several Koalas so close together.  This map gives the idea: it is about 120m from 1 to 3.

On the morning of the 17th one koala (I have been chastised for using the b word) was sitting at point 3 - well out on an exposed branch as we stared our dog walk.  By the time we had finished it was back slumped in a fork against the main trunk.

Moving on to the matter of the Inner Pelican, which got a mention a couple of days ago.  As we were about to go out, Frances checked that I had my wallet.  That was a negative.  There followed several minutes of searching everywhere, and I was beginning to think that trying to retrace our steps at Bastion point was the go.  Then Frances asked why the glove box on the Pajero was locked!  Pheeew.

Birding was again quiet, although seeing a Grey Goshawk from the bedroom on 16 December was very good.  We did have a mystery bird in the shape of a small quailish-looking thing running around under some pittosporum bushes next door.  It looked rather like a Little Button-quail but the nearest eBird record for them is about 250km away on the far side of the Ranges.  However, they are said to be irruptive.  Needless to say it has not been sighted again.  By the morning of 17 December my tally was 53 species: far from good.

The evening of the 16th gave rise to interesting skies, and the trunks of the trees on the opposite side of the Inlet looked like sandstone cliffs in the orange light.

There are some nice flowers about in the garden.  An Anigozanthus (Kangaroo paw) is coming into full flowering

 .. and a cultivated Grevillea is proving very attractive to honeyeaters of various species.

Our friends had made a determined effort to control the Pittosporum that were looking to take over the whole block.  However some weedlings were beginning to appear ...

 .. but after consultation, some therapeutic ministration of secateurs improved the situation ..

.  and hopefully some spirited dabbing of glyphosate will have served as prophyllaxis.  For some reason we have in the past had trouble remembering the word "pittosporum" but Frances has come up with a nice mnemonic "Tis pitti shes a spore.".  Apologies to John Ford who wrote the 17th Century potboiler referenced therein.

Our recreational walk today was the Coastal walk fro Betka Beach to Fisherman's Point.  As might be expected with 3 of the past 4 months well below both mean and median rainfall the bush was pretty dry, with not much in flower.  This plant was rather eye-catching - we think some species of Dianella?

All in all  a rather quiet couple of days, but we don't mind that!