While hosting our very good friends Steve & Helena, visiting from Bristol in the UK, one of our days was spent relaxing around Shaws Bay. Not only did they get to relax, but managed to experience some of our real "wild"life. This post shares some of those with you 😀.
It was a lovely February morning, clear blue skies we take for granted and very gentle breeze. Consequence this time of year is plenty of people like us out to find a shady spot, maybe even a covered picnic table as a base for swimming and walking and relaxing. Just a day at the beach! And your hat, towel, esky, water and suncreen, of course!! With people comes food ... birds are not silly feeders and if seagulls don't turn up quickly you can always count on white ibis ... now in previous posts I have shared a few photos of these very bold and expert scavengers and even hinted their "much maligned" bin-chicken nickname mis-represents what they offer in terms of their sculpture. So, the first photo set in this post offers various poses (and another a couple more a lilttle later) to demonstrate (I hope) some features I see as worthy of "sculpture" recognition. What I am attempting to convey is something of their elegance (yes, seriously!) and raw features that are actually quite wild and still manage to show off how a tinge of red/pink can set off the more stark black and white, which even looks like finery around the tail. Of course, the very functional and purpose-designed heavy curve of the black beak shows a real sense of command. Over to you to form your own opinion ...
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| Just walking |
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| Obtaining a wider view, but oh so steady! |
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Now showing off the balance
(or perhaps the fence bar was just too hot?) |
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Showing off the finery & make-up
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And quite the skull cap!
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And fulfilling every Englishman (sorry Steve, I know at heart you remain deeply Australian!) and woman's nightmare of being outdoors in Australia we recevied a tip from some fellow picnicers nearby that a healthy visitor was heading our way - healthy indeed!! We alerted another guy right in it's path who was having a doze on his towel and it indeed did not deviate so he was very grateful for our intrusion on his nap. So, the first photo in this set is to offer sense of scale of the brown snake on the move ... we back-pedaled as it veered up away from the water a little to the relative safety(??) of the top of a picnic table where my full zoom was employed for the second and third shots of the sequence - don't worry I was not as close as the images might suggest 😰. All part of the adventure and great stories to perpetuate the reality when they got back home!
Now, you be the judge of reality or poetic license here, but I included these next two to "talk up" the white ibis again ... seems logical to me? The first one below is the sensible bird being cautious and up a post so as not to tempt the snake! The second image, same bird, same post, different angle shows how caring they are by taking on lifeguard duty and overseeing the welfare of the swimmers enjoying keeping cool on a beautiful summer day - how could these birds be maligned?!!
Setting off on a walk along the path around the eastern edge of the water offered the following examples of local birds. Even some with energy to be playful in the hot summer sun of the day, however, mostly just resting on a perch conserving energy and hoping for a cooling breeze but ever on the lookout for some sustenance. Enjoy this wander through a gallery of the ever-photogenic little corella.
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First though, a pied butcherbird - note the HOOK!
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The defendant
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| The opposing counsel |
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| The full bench sitting in judgement! |
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A crested pigeon kaleidoscope in full view!
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| Playful, angelic and translucent tinged with yellow |
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Peaceful pair befitting the summer heat
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Alert guardian, comb alert.
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| A munch for lunch |
And yes, after the walk and just as we were about to pack up, our earlier interloper was spotted retracing (literally and identically) it's track presumably back to whence it came. And just beyond it, foraging among the mangrove shoots was a masked lapwing (plover) - striking bird for the bright yellow mask and droopy cheek flap and looking deceptively harmless.
To cap off our day at the Bay, we headed over for a walk along the wall and the beach (special treat for our visitors on such a lovely day). For a different reason it was worthwhile for me ... capturing these two shots of the osprey - the first in full hunt soar over the waves of the beach and the second perched and scanning the river from atop a power pole - VERY imposing and a "not to be trifled" with look! Ah, we have so much to keep enjoying ...
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