A peaceful day at 'coota

Another warm night, and another good sleep.  We drove to the fishing Jetty and walked to the caravan park.
As always a pleasant walk although Azure Kingfishers continued to be absent.  The most unusual bird related thing was finding this egg floating on the edge of the Inlet.  About the size of a small chook egg,
My memory is that Peewit (Northern Lapwing) eggs looked a little like this, so I wonder if it is a Masked Lapwing egg that has got blown into the water?  The pair of Lapwings near the caravan park had 4 half-grown this morning, but there are other pairs around.

Back at the house a White-headed Pigeon perched on the railing out the front of the bedrooms.  I didn't get much of the green iridescence on its shoulders.
You cannot have too many photos of koalas.  This one should run seminars on zoning out!
Time for a few photos of flowers around the garden.  They mainly seemed to be various sorts of Grevillea.



This isn't a Grevillea but I have no idea what it is!
Our later morning walk was the Heathland walk to Betka Beach.  There were quite a few flowers along the way.  This first one is a Dianella, but not the one that grows around the Monaro.
As with our last trip there are lots of Fringe Lilies (Thysanotus tuberosus)beside the path , starting on the uphill from Davis Creek to the heath.
Billardiera sp.
These are Scaveola sp: this was about the best clump we saw.
I have labelled this "pink flower"  as beyond it being a monocotyledon I don't know what it was/is.
I was hoping to get a snap of one of the big skinks that are commonly seen bolting into holes.  They didn't oblige but a small Jacky Lizard froze well.

I can get this with certainty to 'insect' and will probably say 'wasp' but couldn't do better than that until I consulted Brisbane Insects which revealed it to be Chaoilta hollowayi, a braconid wasp..
This species parasitises the larvae of Jewel Beetles which live under the bark of eucalypts.

Once on the beach we were amused by this Silver Gull (an immature) trying to pull seaweed apart.  On this occasion the seaweed parted suddenly causing the gull to nearly fall over backwards.
This is a sad picture.  I posted it on the Mallacoota Birds Facebook page and the woman who runs the Hooded Plover care programme responded that the Betka pair had lost their eggs today.  Magpies were thought responsible
The Cormorant tree was working well.  The species here are Little Pied, Great (including some patchy immature birds) and Little Black.
We sped up as we headed towards home due to feeling a few spits of rain.  Nothing came of it then but around 1730 some more serious rain arrived, with a little thunder.
Nadgee is out there somewhere!
The rain totalled 4mm: not spectacular but better than nothing.

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