MY WORLD, World Bird and Watery Wednesday

Here I go again, proud as punch of - no, not the photos - ,

but the five mile hike around Griffiths Island off Port Fairy,

Victoria, Australia! With two bionic heart valves and legs almost

3/4 of a century old, this old girl made it all the way along paths

and beaches, hills and dales . . .

The Shearwaters had left but the chicks (invisible) were still

there. At the beginning of the trail, a dripping Pied Cormorant,

Phalacrocorax varius, you guessed it, a shag on a rock.

A beautiful little shark-proof pool for swimming in . . .

and, be afraid, be very afraid, this demonic apparition, the

Australian Raven, Corvus coronoides, swooping on the unwary

Mutton Bird or Shearwater.

The chicks are big enough for the parents to have left them,

now it is open season for foxes and crows to help themselves

to free take-aways.

These two were obviously enjoying their lunch

and these are the grisly leftovers . . .

A little further along the path I almost trod on this White-Faced

Heron, Egretta novaehollaniae, I just managed to click, sorry

about the blurring, he was close and fast but oh so beautiful

with his deep blue flight feathers.

Hup two, three, four, keep it up two, three, four . . .

A pair of South Island Oyster Catchers, Haematopus finschi,

one of whom unfortunately had a limp so I resisted going any

closer.

The coastally ubiquitous Singing Honeyeaters, Lichenostomus

virescens, were having a slight altercation

while we had a dip in the freezing water of the great Southern

Ocean and tried to get our boots and socks on without additional

very fine sand.

On this side of the island there was another White Faced Heron

clambering among the lava rocks,

and looking back at the lighthouse on the point, it was just

500 yds to our starting point.

I know this was a long post but hope I did not bore you too much.

Who knows when I will have another chance to post. I miss you all

so much and look forward to signs of life from my fellow bloggers.

All pics. enlarge and I hope to be visiting you all again when I

am back on my own connection.

We are in Melbourne at present and I have a backlog of more than 1,000

photos already!

With thanks to the co-ordinators of all three memes . . . your faithful foreign correspondent.