Last day at Dutton

In my main blog I often put up photos of dawn from Mallacoota.  On the 19th there was a more subdued, but still very good looking sunrise over Dutton Bay.

 On the dog walk I finally got some colourful Samphire in focus.

 A Pacific Gull in an archetypal pose.

In yesterdays's post I included a photo of some plastic owls, intended to keep birds off a pontoon.  It is possible that this image of Dutton Bay Jetty illustrates what they are trying to avoid.

 I suspect this boat is getting a similar treatment.

 A local was engaged in squid catching, and appeared to be quite successful.

 A colourful squid!  (I usually see them coated in batter so don't know what is a typical colour.)

 In yesterday's post I omitted the roof of the woolshed.  Its actually pretty good as rooves go!  It was originally built in 1870 and held up to 100,000 fleeces from the run which went from Dutton Bay to North of Elliston (~140 km by road).

 Dew drops (or raindrops, your call) on the Allocasuarina.

I suggested on Facebook this might mark where the Saints aspirations for 2018 were interred.  My expert adviser on matters to do with Moorabbin reckons the aspirations are much lower than high water mark!

Getting back to the house and Tammy displayed her usual level of fear of one of the local mutts who came for a visit.

 Our main expedition for the day was to visit some parts of Port Lincoln.  We began by a side trip to Blue Fin Rd, which looked down on the bays of Port Lincoln

The catalyst for visiting this area was to investigate - for some folk interested in weather - a hill in Kathai Conservation area.  Unfortunately the obvious access route is controlled by SA Water who have posted notices with harsh words and dire threats on the locked gate.  As the rest of the area seems almost impenetrable scrub we had to be content with this image.

We had been intending to be in this part of Port Lincoln anyway to do a walk to Murrays Point where we had seen some orchids previously and had read good comments about the birds.  It was a very pleasant walk with a slew of White-faced Herons and Oystercatchers and then this nice aggregation of waterbirds at the Point.

 Looking closely at the two shags on a rock and the one on the right, with yellow facial skin and a pale bill, is a Pied Cormorant while the leftie with black face and bill is a Black-faced Cormorant.  Very obliging of them to pose in such an easy-to-compare way.

 After a bit more walking along the Bay we cut back inland along this track.

 Frances then spotted a yellow bird.  A Western Yellow Robin!  Note the grey breast (and also reflect on the nearest Eastern Yellow being about 350km away near the Coorong).  My first lifer for 2018.

On the way home home we briefly explored the Coast of Kedillie Bay, opposite the town of Coffin Bay.  Quite pleasant but we were getting weary on it.  The best bird was this (again obliging) Brown Falcon.

 Each tiom we had driven in and out of Dutton Bay we'd noticed signs to the Pig Farm.  By chance we went past it on this outing.  The pigs looked very happy trotting around their limestone coated paddock.

The late afternoon was spent packing as far as we could, followed by watching the harry-Meghan festivities on the TV.  Yes I know, but it was interesting to see a big production number done very well.

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