Girls like that don't go for guys like us
Mar. 9th, 2005 07:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gemfyreThis morning I did my first psuedo-tour. It almost turned out to be a full on baywalk with at least 3 people but ended up as a nice one on one with the current guest here. We spent a while at the viewing platform and I noted down some of the engraved flags on the birds. It was quite sweet to find that black-tailed godwits number E6 and E7 (i.e. tagged one after the other) were right next to each other in the flock.
Saw an orange-naped snake near the shadehouse at lunch, pretty fella. I'd post pictures but the connection up here is so crap that I can't use FTP even or easily e-mail full size pics. *sigh* I think I'll have to burn lots of photos to CD and post them to Perth where someone with a decent connection can upload them for me (i.e. Matt).
This afternoon the miniskip man came. Hallelujah, we were literally OUT of bin space, the wader study group produced so much rubbish, mainly bottles. Bloody bunch of pissheads. Anyway, there are bad smells and there are BAD smells. There is that general rubbish smell which is unpleasant but tolerable. Ricki described the malodor of this bin perfectly. "If someone told me that bin contained Sydney's disposable nappies from last month I'd believe them." It REEKED.
But anyway, after that was migration watch, which started a few days ago and ends in early May. Pretty much we head down to the bay at 4pm and sit around till 6pm (when it gets too dark to see anything). This time of year, about that time of day, the waders make preparations to leave. They line up, they stretch their wings, they stop feeding, they make weird calls to each other, they take off and get into V formation and cruise around the bay around a few times to test the weather conditions. If they decide all is well they head straight over the Observatory and don't land again until they reach the Yellow Sea. It's pretty mindblowing stuff. Last night the curlews cruised around the bay a few times and just after dark we heard their calls VERY loudly over the Obs. Likelyhood is that they weren't flying high enough to head off yet but any night now they will be off.
It's just a great way to chill out, sitting on the bay watching the birds feed. Plovers and terek sandpipers make mad dashes for crabs. Greenshanks do this bizarre thing where they spin in circles. Knots do their "sewing" feeding style and godwits just plunge their beaks straight in. There are also loads of crabs on the flats. Hermit crabs and flame fiddlers and reef fiddlers and sentinel crabs, accompanied by 2 different species of mudskipper. The rainbow bee-eaters are massing in preparation for thier own migration and...
A large flock of small birds flew overhead. Ricki got out her binos and announces "One hundred pied honeyeaters!" (the nomadic desert species that we drove to Anna Plains to see and found about 20 of them). Ricki is always kidding about rare birds, so I figured she was doing the same here. I got out my binos and took a look. Black heads, white bodies, black terminal tail band, honeyeater flight pattern. "You're serious aren't you?"
Yep folks. ONE HUNDRED pied honeyeaters over the bay/Obs. Bloody amazing. Will be keeping an eye for them at the birdbaths over the next few days indeed.
Currently there's another of those beautiful distant lightning storms. God this place is spectacular.
P.S. - I found a copy of the first Harry Potter book in the resource room. I'm reading it to see what all the fuss is about.
Saw an orange-naped snake near the shadehouse at lunch, pretty fella. I'd post pictures but the connection up here is so crap that I can't use FTP even or easily e-mail full size pics. *sigh* I think I'll have to burn lots of photos to CD and post them to Perth where someone with a decent connection can upload them for me (i.e. Matt).
This afternoon the miniskip man came. Hallelujah, we were literally OUT of bin space, the wader study group produced so much rubbish, mainly bottles. Bloody bunch of pissheads. Anyway, there are bad smells and there are BAD smells. There is that general rubbish smell which is unpleasant but tolerable. Ricki described the malodor of this bin perfectly. "If someone told me that bin contained Sydney's disposable nappies from last month I'd believe them." It REEKED.
But anyway, after that was migration watch, which started a few days ago and ends in early May. Pretty much we head down to the bay at 4pm and sit around till 6pm (when it gets too dark to see anything). This time of year, about that time of day, the waders make preparations to leave. They line up, they stretch their wings, they stop feeding, they make weird calls to each other, they take off and get into V formation and cruise around the bay around a few times to test the weather conditions. If they decide all is well they head straight over the Observatory and don't land again until they reach the Yellow Sea. It's pretty mindblowing stuff. Last night the curlews cruised around the bay a few times and just after dark we heard their calls VERY loudly over the Obs. Likelyhood is that they weren't flying high enough to head off yet but any night now they will be off.
It's just a great way to chill out, sitting on the bay watching the birds feed. Plovers and terek sandpipers make mad dashes for crabs. Greenshanks do this bizarre thing where they spin in circles. Knots do their "sewing" feeding style and godwits just plunge their beaks straight in. There are also loads of crabs on the flats. Hermit crabs and flame fiddlers and reef fiddlers and sentinel crabs, accompanied by 2 different species of mudskipper. The rainbow bee-eaters are massing in preparation for thier own migration and...
A large flock of small birds flew overhead. Ricki got out her binos and announces "One hundred pied honeyeaters!" (the nomadic desert species that we drove to Anna Plains to see and found about 20 of them). Ricki is always kidding about rare birds, so I figured she was doing the same here. I got out my binos and took a look. Black heads, white bodies, black terminal tail band, honeyeater flight pattern. "You're serious aren't you?"
Yep folks. ONE HUNDRED pied honeyeaters over the bay/Obs. Bloody amazing. Will be keeping an eye for them at the birdbaths over the next few days indeed.
Currently there's another of those beautiful distant lightning storms. God this place is spectacular.
P.S. - I found a copy of the first Harry Potter book in the resource room. I'm reading it to see what all the fuss is about.
