Fat Boy gets active

No, this is not about my personal endeavours!

In fact I was a little less active than usual today, thanks to the battery in the Pajero celebrating its upcoming 5th birthday by crapping out.  Fortunately the RACV (since we're in Mexico) came good and arranged for Mallacoota Automotive and Towing to come and a) test the battery and b) get me to their shop to replace same.

How did this affect my activities you ask?  It meant we didn't get to our new start point which involves a drive, but reverted to traditional values and walked from home.  For some reason this meant Tammy spat the comforter and we turned back after 1 km rather than 4!

That all occurred slightly after sunrise.

As herself was fragile the larger members of the household left her at the house and went for a walk to Bastion Point.  At first this seemed rather quiet (in terms of wildlife: there were plenty of surfers and pooch walkers around.  Then Frances spotted a Caspian Tern.

 The usual flock of Little Black and Great Cormorants were noted (and counted).

 As we wandered across what used to be the mouth of the Inlet - now a sandbar - a few small plovers appeared. At least three were somewhat larger than the common Red-capped Plovers and were clearly immature Double-banded Plovers.  They would have arrived recently from New Zealand.

Obviously a tad hungry after the flight!

Frances noted that these yellow flowers seemed to grown in clumps.  They must stabilise the sand while the wind blows it away between the mounds.

Here is the sandbar.

This bit of land-art was in situ on our last visit 6 weeks ago.  Its holding up very well.

After seeing the first Black-faced Cormorant for my area list, a very pretty shell was going to become a souvenir ..

.. until it's inhabitant was noticed.

Here's looking at you kid!

I carefully placed the shell back on the edge of the water.  Then watched as the waves spun it and rolled it around, taking it back into the water.  My guess is the viting crab was definitely nauseous after that!

I was sure whether this guy was auditioning for a job with the religious right or - judging by his ankle bracelet, on day release from somewhere.

OK, I do realise it was just a strap to keep his board under control.

On returning to the house I rose up myself  - to the roof to de-leaf the gutters.  To my surprise there was a large furry lump in a mistletoe in the nearest gum tree.  Our portly visitor from last night was still up there, albeit hard to spot.  By the time I got back with my camera it had moved.  We spent quite a while watching it scramble about and stuff food in its mouth.  It was, by day-time koala standards,hyperactive.

Its claws are quite impressive.  I had focussed  on its back half as there was something pink protruding and we were unsure if it was a very young joey poking out of a female's pouch or wedding tackle poking out of a male.  Then it stood up and a colourful bit of bark fell off.

Skipping a little bit, just before teatime it had vanished again, but on closely looking at the mistletoe it was back in there.  I wonder how many times one has been curled up there and I haven't spotted it.

Our final outing was to Captain Stephenson's Point to check for waders.  In the avian sense there were a few (with stints being a nice addition to my list).  These two blokes were the only human waders,   They were after bait but didn't seem to be having much luck.

Here is the view from the point.

As I type the bats are hurtling overhead again.  They seem to be going more Northerly tonight, and a bit lower - perhaps the low cloud is affecting them.