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Benj's coastal posting prompts me to report some
interesting sightings from last weekend at the coast, Potato
Point/Blackfellows Point area to be precise. I drove down from Durras for
a spot of fishing. And Jemison's Beach did not disappoint. In
addition to producing some fine fare for the table it provided excellent views
of a pair of dueting White-bellied Sea Eagles, later joined by a third
bird, two Pied Oystercatchers on the beach, a couple of Gannets diving, and
about 30 Silver Gulls squabbling over entrails from the catch. At one
stage while gazing out to sea I saw a huge splash right on the horizon, which I
took to be a whale breaching. Then about half an hour later came the real
highlight - I was looking in the right place at the right time when not 100
metres off Potato point a huge whale lunged upward and forward
in spectacular fashion. Kind of put me in mind of the submarine in an add
the Navy is running on TV at the moment. It was one of those things that
if you blink you miss it.
Other sightings were a MDF (mixed drinking flock)
of Yellow faced, White-naped and New Holland Honeyeaters, Eastern Spinebills,
and several small brown birds that wouldn't stay still long enough to be
identified, drinking water from wheel ruts on the track to Jemisons Point;
Azure Kingfisher, and 50 plus Rainbow Lorikeets. At Blackfellows Point
there 6 Emus on the beach, and a Little Pied Cormorant gulping down a fairly
large brown creature which I think was an eel.
From the top of the headland at Potato Point I saw
a large albatross, wings all black, with a white body in between, matching
one of the illustrations in Simpson & Day for Royal Albatross. So
that's my best guess as to what it was.
Meanwhile, back at Durras, I had my first sighting
of a Grey Currawong in that area.
Cheers
Rod
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