The House(s) of Fran_mart

Today began with the call of a Channel-billed Cuckoo just before daybreak.  The first I have heard down here.  What I thought was going to be a spiffy sunrise turned into a selection of sunbeams. In family mythology these are referred to as "prophet lifters" relating to stories about Old Testament prophets rising up to Heaven  On checking with Professor Google there are no such references in the Christian Bible! This post is set up thematically rather than chronologically.  I hope it doesn't confuse people (especially me) too much. ' There are a lot of flowering Callistemons around at the moment (I spit on people who have lumped them in with Melaleucas ).  They do not seem to be getting much attention from Honeyeaters, but the Rainbow Lorikeets are having a fine time. We took our early morning walk to Broome Rd. This was quite a productive walk in terms of bird diversity but no major unusualnesses.  We extended a little bit to the Lagoon...

I seem to have brought a cold down to Mallacoota with me, but hopefully it will soon waft off to count the Gannets out to sea!  The sunrise was pretty good.  While looking at the sunrise a noise drew my attention to the lawn.  Its always good to see a Lyrebird (unless they are scratching out your shrubs).  Shortly after I took this a second bird appeared and they ran up the drive.  Our dog walk was as always very pleasant, but I can't recall any excitements.  Due to my cold we did one of our shorter walks along Quarry Beach.  The tide was very low so we were able to get to a small cove a little further North than we often do.  A lot of seaweed was also visible on the rocks, suggesting that not only was it  low tide, but a Spring tide (coinciding with a full moon as should be the case).  The traditional group of Australian Pied Oystercatchers were on the beach, but only 10 of them this time rather than 30 as last visit. ...

So we had a busy Friday in Queanbeyan and headed off down the road.  As we passed Michelago the Tinderry range looked excellent: to my mind they have still not fully recovered from the fires that hit them in 2009 (7 years ago).  The drive down was uneventful.  I don't recall a single example of pelicanish driving!  After a rumble along Imlay Rd and a touch of the Princes Highway we crossed into Victoria and were immediately greeted by a Superb Lyrebird scurrying up a roadside bank.  Getting close to our destination and another Lyrebird was scratching in the dirt at the side of Karbeethong Rd! Keeping in touch with Australian icons a Koala was in residence in the gum tree next door. On our last visit a large frog was in the bog.   As a complete change this time a former Feathertail Glider was dead on the carpet in the study.  Poor little blighter.  This is why they are called feathertails. The next morning, as is so often the case ...