The House(s) of Fran_mart

Looking from Angophora Drive this morning the sea looked rather rough by the outlet so I took myself off to Bastion Point to see if this was the case,  Nope, pretty calm despite the strong wind, but there were some white caps further out, Go West old man! As I crossed Betka River I noticed a lot of birds in the Cormorant tree,  Was one of them a Black-faced Cormorant?  Nope, but there was a visitor. A Whistling Kite, looking neater than usual! A Great Egret, with some aigrette plumes, nearby. Then a Cattle Egret flew in.  I have no idea what that was doing her as the nearest cattle were 6 km away.  Perhaps it had been grazing on the golf course? I pressed on to Fisherman's Point where the inshore sea was relatively calm nut some monster waves were visible offshore (ie nearly to the horizon). The highlight of this stage was a flyby by 2 Shy Albatross.  Only my second sighting of this species. I didn't get a photo. In the afternoon we wen...

Or, as will appear more appropriate from what follows, here they blow! Today was catch up for missing on the whale watching yesterday.  Quick dog walk and off back to Forster.  We counted the changes of speed limit as we went  and totalled 13 over 40km - quite a bit of the time it wasn't at all obvious why the limit changed. The boat left on time (full again, about 100 punters) and rumbled around the Lake dodging sandbars and oyster leases.  Under the bridge and, wearing life jackets as per the rules out to sea.  A few Inshore Bottle-nosed dolphins were seen as we went. Getting a bit out to sea we came across a massive pod of Common Dolphins.  Possibly 100 of them and very active. This was the view South as we went further out looking for a Motherand Calf Humpback seen by their spotter.  Looking North the sunshine on the water was a good reference point.  We soon caught up with the two target whales. The rules define how close...

Possibly stupidity is not an uncommon visitor to this blog, but this afternoon's sample was a doozy.  But that was then, and after looking at a still and cold dam ... ... the day started with an early and short dog walk before heading off to Forster for a morning getting closer to some cetaceans. So we got there well before sailing time only to find the ship is booked out,  Whale oil beef hooked!  So we booked for tomorrow's expedition and headed back to Pacific Palms for a walk we had done on a previous visit.  En route we were pleased to see the Osprey sunning itself on a power pole close. We then swung into Elizabeth Bay and the start of the Booti Booti Hill track within the Booti Booti National Park. It was pretty uphill with a fair few steps and a lot of palms.  After about 500m we found these large sacks of gravel beside the track.  This caused a brief pause - not that we were puffed or anything and needed a pause - to contemplate why th...