A bonus day

Our plan had been to head home on 26 June as an irrigation guy was due there on the 27th for the last major subproject of bush fire recovery.  However it turned out he wasn't coming until the 29th so we could grab an extra day out of the heavy frost.  As I had let the fire die out at Mallacoota (so I could clean out the stove before we left) it felt quite cold (4oC outside, 8oC inside) there!

The sky was clear but there was still some good colour along the horizon.

 We had begun the day with out usual short walk along the Inlet to the Park boundary.  A couple of items of interest were another 2 Bassian Thrush at Schnapper Point Drive and lots of Rainbow Lorikeets and Honeyeaters in some flowering eucalypts up on the ridge.

On return we found out about the bonus day, so I took another short walk to check out the flowering gums.
 Here is the blossom.
 I had my telescope set up to take photos with my phone and got a few close-ups of a dining Lorikeet.

 I was a tad surprised that I couldn't find a Musk Lorikeet in the noisy hordes.

On return to the house I found that the Koala was in view.  This photo was taken with my camera.
I decided to do some comparison shots with the 'scope/phone combination.  This is setting the scope to 40X magnification.
This is how close it is possible to get with 60X.  Of course the phone wobbles a bit so the images aren't as crisp as could be achieved with a monster camera lens and good trio.
We then did a gentle walk along Coulls Inlet, driving there to save our legs, to the bakery where I acquired a traditional pie.  My belt was pleased that they didn't have any apple turnovers!

The final outing was to the Water Quality Plant (aka, the poo pits).  The main gate was opened, but we decided that it would be stressful to drive in as we'd be constantly on edge worrying if the gate would get locked while we were inside so parked on Watertrust Rd and walked.
The first 500m were a tad cool as we were in shade but once to the ponds the sun was quite warm.  I didn't take any photos, mainly because the birds kept moving around.  The ducks in particular were very mobile, especially when a truck drove through.  This made counting them a tad difficult but my overall conclusion was that while diversity was quite good, numbers were relatively low.  The largest number for a species was 57 Pink-eared Ducks.  There were quite a few paddock and bush birds around as well, getting the outing total to 32 species.

The day added 12 species to the trip list which has totalled to 88 species.  That is about normal, which is pretty good for mid-Winter



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