Lyrebirds and Shorebirds

After yesterday's exhausting activities we felt like a bludge this morning so drove to the halfway mark into town, parked and walked the second half of the walk.  The excitement started with seeing 2 Azure Kingfishers at the town end of the lagoon loop.  Unfortunately they were very active so no photo is available.

Getting to the start of the Shady Gully Boardwalk Frances spotted a male Superb Lyrebird digging in the litter beside the road.  It was very accommodating and we got within 10m of it.  This is the best of my photographs.
After getting nearly back "home" Frances spotted another Lyrebird on a track at the foot of Mt Karbeethong (or as it is officially known Karbeethong Avenue).  I took some photos but think this one, taken later when I walked back down, is better.
The reason I went back was to try to get some better photos of the remaining bats.  I think I succeeded.  A clump shot.
 This is my favourite: cropped from a larger image.
I went to peer at the shoreline opposite the bat-camp and found it well populated with Pelicans and Teal.
 Male Chestnut Teal.
The next three images are included to illustrate the weird looks that the Pelicans can achieve.  And the nice photos that are coming from my new camera.


Our second walk for the day was along the Betka River and Fisherman's Point elements of the Mallacoota Coastal Walk.  This is a pleasant walk with a variety of vegetation and views.  On the clifftop bit the views are better than the birds as much of it is though Meleleuca forest with no understorey and few birds.  It was a bit windy today so in addition to there not being many birds the squeaks of the trees rubbing together kept sounding like strange calls.  The best bird seen was two Australian Gannets .

After a nanna-nap I went out to Captain Stephensons Point (effectively the opposite view to that obtained from Bastion Point).  The first two images show how much sand is visible in the rain-deprived Inlet.

The remaining photos were taken on my phone, linked to my telescope.  The limiting factor in this process is the capability of the phone with the telescope on full zoom at 60x magnification.  So the snaps are not exactly "crisp" but do I think serve to illustrate the species they are meant to.  The first is 4 Red Knots (with a couple of very red ones) and 2 Bar-tailed Godwits.
Two Eastern Curlew were also browsing.
A selection of Crested Terns and Silver Gulls (fair number (~40 of each) but a lot less than seen yesterday.
 A Caspian Tern terned (sic) up to offer a comparison with a Crested Tern  ....
 .. and a Bar-tailed Godwit.
Given that the doomsayers are always predicting terrible things for Oystercatchers it was pleasing that my count of that species was 43.  A flyover by a White-breasted Sea-Eagle caused much angst among the waders which was particularly annoying as I was just trying to read the leg Flag on one of the Oystercatchers when it took off and landed somewhere I couldn't relocate it.

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