OUR WORLD, Wild Bird Wednesday & Nature Notes - Arno Bay

The baked landscape around me makes me think of cooler,

happier times when the Prof and I went on short holidays.

Now, without a travelling companion, 

these long drives are out of my reach.

The Eyre Peninsula, in the west of our state has plenty of 

wonderful beaches and when heading further down the coast, 

we stopped for a couple of nights at the caravan park in 

Arno bay.

Looking back at the township.

We stayed in a charming little cottage right on the beach.

The only blemish to our stay was this young Pacific Gull

with a substantial lure dangling from it's nose.

Humans can piece their noses and hang bricks from them if they 

like but wildlife should not be endanger by our detritus.

Unfortunately I had not the means for catching this 

youngster to relieve it of it's burden.

 Discarded by the sea, something that looks like a 

collection of oddly shape eggs

and a lonely cormorants waiting for shoals of fish with little

hope on an outgoing tide.

I feel refreshed just thinking about it.

Linking with OUR WORLD

Wild Bird Wednesday

and Nature Notes

World Bird Wednesday - In Memoriam . . .

Last Saturday our beloved gander jumped the fence into the cow

paddock. The cows are very territorial and although they tolerate

the humans who feed them and even muzzle up to them to be

scratched, a few sheep who crawl through the fence and small

mobs of kangaroos, they have even looked askance at me crossing

their turf. The appearance of a large white, waddling bird seemed

cause for investigation, they all went to look and the result was one

dead gander literally cornered in the corner of the fence. Whether

he died of shock or of being muzzled we will never know . . .

My heart is heavy with loss, I found him as I climbed through a

kangaroo hole in the fence to feed him. He was my friend and

bridge to the wild birds accepting me as well and is sorely missed

and with him my hopes of goslings in the Spring.

Not much else to report except the European house sparrows

digging up those died up grass areas we laughingly call lawn.

They descend in numbers but are skittish to get a shot of.

Ha, gocha in the faraway tree.

At the lonely pond an unidentified cormorant circled and left.

My bird finder does not feature one with a totally white head and

dark belly and white around the vent. My hopes rest yet again

on Stuart M being able to identify it.

Thanks once again to Springman for hosting this wonderful bird meme.

Our World & World Bird Wednesday - Goose on the Loose

Nothing really special, just one of my evening walks . . .

You may remember our goose forever sitting on infertile eggs?

Well, someone hearing of this at the cherry orchard our

granddaughters help out at during their holidays, offered a

gander. Granddaughter thought it was a kind gesture but laid

not much dependence on it. Imagine her surprise when next day

the lady was back with a box full of gander as a present.

The gander was duly installed in the farmyard but goosie was not

much interested as she had grown up with another gosling and a

matriarchal duck who was superseded by a bouncy, bossy bantam

who had met her untimely end by flying into the German Shepherd's

pen to steal his food.

What with one thing and another, Mr.Gander decided to

emigrate to the dam in the park where Goosie, who feels at

home among the dogs, cats and cars, occasional sheep and

horses in the farm yard, goes to visit and for an occasional swim.

Mr.Gander is more concerned with over-flying birds than with my

presence.

To get there, I climbed through a barbed wire fence, using the unavoidably

rattling chain on the gate instantly alerts the parrots who raise

the other birds.

While doing a photo session with the gander, a couple of cormorants??

lifted off our old diving platform. Sorry I can just show you a glimpse

of one, I inadvertently erased the shot of both of them.

The pond was teeming with life, the whole family of little grebes

was at home as well as a number of wood duck and black duck

and blackbirds coming down to drink.

One of the adults near the far side of the dam

and a very curious youngster who hotfooted over to within six

feet of where I was sitting on the crossing stones.

Isn't he just the cutest?

Some of the other residents keeping to the other shore

or having a quick bath on Golden Pond.

Just one more shot of the gander as the light fades, doing

his swan impression after an Olympic swim around the pond.

Since these few shots, the temperatures have been in excess of 40+C

so I have been housebound under a fan to prevent my brain melting

and leaking out of my ears.

Wishing you all a wonderful New Year and lots of fun visiting both

OUR WORLD and World Bird Wednesday. Both accessible from the

relevant Logos on my side bar.

Also linked to Weekend Walkabout, Watery Wednesday and Nature Notes

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.