We spent 3 nights at the awesome Mystery Bay Cottages (near Narooma). It
was honeyeater heaven. The cottages are surrounded by a huge amount of
flowering shrubs (Banksia, Grevillea, Bottlebrush, etc) plus the Spotted
Gums were in blossom. This attracted enormous amounts of honeyeaters and
lorikeets as well as other creatures such as:
Yellow-faced Honeyeater (50++)
White-naped Honeyeater (10-20)
New Holland Honeyeater (30+)
Eastern Spinebill (20+)
Red Wattlebird (1000+ migrating in large flocks at 50 every 5 mins)
Little Wattlebird (20+)
Fuscous Honeyeater (4+)
Crescent Honeyeater (1 male)
Scarlet Honeyeater (1 immature male)
Silvereye (40+)
Rainbow Lorikeet (100-200)
Musk Lorikeet (50+)
Grey-headed Fruit Bat (20+) - noisy every night
Common Brushtail Possum (2+)
Common Ringtail Possum (4+)
Other highlights on the property were Glossy Black-Cockatoo (2), Eastern
Shrike-tit (female), Variegated Fairy-wren, Dusky Woodswallow (3), Brown
Gerygone, Cattle Egret (2) and Whistling Kite. In all I believe I added
some 6 new species to the property birdlist.
Non-avian highlights included a Long-nosed Bandicoot foraging around the
cottage, an Agile Antechinus by the Games Cottage and many Peron's Tree
Frogs easily found moving around after rain at night.
Further afield we found 5 White-headed Pigeons at Beauty Point (near
Bermagui), 6 Musk Ducks (1m,5f) on Nargal Lake and a huge array of
waterbirds at Wallaga Lake including 50 Royal Spoonbills. At Bermagui
Harbour were 2 Red-capped Plovers, 5 Double-banded Plovers and a late
Olive-backed Oriole. Small groups of Bar-tailed Godwits still at Bermagui,
Narooma and Wallaga Lake. Also 9 Sooty Oystercatchers at Cape Dromedary.
Along Loaders Beach we found a massive dead bull male fur seal strangely
metres from a washed up TV. It seemed to me a big storm had passed through
recently, which may also account for Wallaga Lake now being joined to the
sea.
And Narooma Harbour and Mill Bay Boardwalk never fails to deliver on marine
life with large numbers of juvenile Green Moray Eels, some 1.5 metres long,
easily viewed from the shore two metres away. They are best seen as high
tide comes in. Also the usual massive Smooth Stingrays and an Eagle Ray
within touching distance. Fishes included a beautiful juvenile Threadfin
Butterflyfish, Mado, One-spot Chromis and Cardinalfish.
Cheers
Marnix
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