Of Ospreys and Powerboats
They will come a little later in the post, but at least one of them is worth waiting for!
The day started with a dog-walk along Topi Rd and then a bit down Wattley Hill Rd. Contenders for Bird of the Day came fairly briskly with Torresian Crow and Pied Butcherbird putting their hands up before Scaly-breasted Lorikeet got a bit mob-handed (10 of them) and stomped the competition. Unfortunately no photos of any of them.
Some cattle were very photogenic and obliging in staying still.
On returning to the house I did get a snap of an Eastern Yellow Robin outside the kitchen ...
.. and a Lewin's Honeyeater above the deck.
We went into Forster later in the day and began with a stroll along the Lake. I couldn't get a quick photo of this Darter swallowing a rather large fish. However the arrow points at how far the fish had got when I finally pressed the button.
I also failed to get a photo of a dog taking a dump in a large flower pot on the balcony of an apartment overlooking the Lake. I will leave that image for you to contemplate.
Several locals have plastic owls on their boats to keep the guano-generating waterfowl away. I am unsure how well the owls work, but a synthetic falcon merely seemed to induce yawning in Pelicans.
At one point we visited a headland (no cetaceans visible) and a juvenile Australasian Gannet did a large dive. After some far few seconds underwater it surfaced and took off.
Along the Lake there was a good crop of mangroves ..
.. and palms.
We were intrigued by the carpet laid on a small track from a walkway frmom some houses down to the lakeside!
Meanwhile over the bridge in Tuncurry powerboat racing was happening. They had a good crowd (including several kids who wanted to pat our "puppy")!
The boating action was pretty spectacular (and loud - we could hear the boats about 3km away) but everyone seemed to be having fun.
This antique Harley Davidson was interesting. I particularly liked the gear stick alongside the petrol tank and the running boards! (An old guy who visited us in the UK in the 1960s had an even older one which featured pedals for those hard to start days!)
A seaplane was I think doing good business with scenic flights over the boats.
As we headed back we saw a lady with a long lens peering into some trees so I pulled over to enquire as what she was at. She was snapping an Osprey, dining in the background.
I had noticed a nest as we drove out and while chatting to the nice lady a bird flew in carrying something. It was getting a response to its call from within the nest. Sure enough, two birds were in there. I really like the glare we are scoring from the one on the left.
Here is a portrait.
We will be going past the nest later in the week so they are likely to become bird of the day then!
On theway home we went past a Metro Servuice Station, offering diesel for 112.9c/l!! As opposed to the 133c/l in the town. We filled up and found that again we'd managed about 8.5l/100km: in conjunction with the good price this got our fuel cost to less than 10c/km for the first time since we haveowned the pajero.
The day started with a dog-walk along Topi Rd and then a bit down Wattley Hill Rd. Contenders for Bird of the Day came fairly briskly with Torresian Crow and Pied Butcherbird putting their hands up before Scaly-breasted Lorikeet got a bit mob-handed (10 of them) and stomped the competition. Unfortunately no photos of any of them.
Some cattle were very photogenic and obliging in staying still.
Several locals have plastic owls on their boats to keep the guano-generating waterfowl away. I am unsure how well the owls work, but a synthetic falcon merely seemed to induce yawning in Pelicans.
On theway home we went past a Metro Servuice Station, offering diesel for 112.9c/l!! As opposed to the 133c/l in the town. We filled up and found that again we'd managed about 8.5l/100km: in conjunction with the good price this got our fuel cost to less than 10c/km for the first time since we haveowned the pajero.
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