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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Exploring Dutton

I really wish this lovely area had a different name: you'll think I have taken up amateur proctology and been practicing on the next Leader of the Opposition.

Instead I spent the day looking at various parts of the area around Mount Dutton Bay West.  This began with a walk a little further into the coastal reserve.  Frances stayed at the house and I'd said I'd be back within an hour so I had to retreat at the point shown.  The more Southern houses in the settlement appear on the track print, with the actual track starting in the Reserve about 800m down the road.

 Today I noticed more blossom on the vegetation than a couple of days ago.  First up, some eucalypt ...

 ... then a better photo of a Correa than I achieved on Whalers Way.

I was walking quite close to the water and noticed what happens when limestone is undercut.  Rather focuses one's mind.

 This is looking across the bay towards (I think) part of Coffin Bay NP.

 The dark lines close to the far shore are an oyster farm.

 Another undercut, with some well eroded exposure to the rock.

 A couple of starfish were lurking at the bottom, indicating that this was pretty close to low tide.

I moved swiftly back to the house pausing to look at a couple of noisy small birds.  I had trouble identifying them, but the way they cocked their tail made me think Heathwren and sure enough on checking references they came out as Shy Heathwrens: I think my second ever sighting.  The other interesting birds were 2 Cape Barren Geese honking as the flew overhead.  They are really quite common in this area.

I then went to explore the Salt Creek swamp near Farm Beach.  It was almost devoid of birds, so I carried on to photograph what I referred to in an earlier post as a graveyard of tractors.

While they are pretty rusty many of them look to have inflated tyres so I wonder if this is where people store their launch equipment over Winter and these things lurch forth each summer?

My final expedition was to the Big Lagoon towards Port Lincoln.   This is one of the few spots where others have ebirded in the area and we had noted numbers of fowl in the little remaining water.

In fact it appeared that the brown stuff is not mud but scum on the water, as ducks seemed to be swimming around in much of it.  In some places a few Red-capped Plovers and Red-necked Stints were trotting around on it.  We had noticed some Red-necked Avocets as we drove past  ...

 .. and there quite a few Pied Stilts also in attendance.

There were many species of ducks including over 100 Pink-eared Ducks: some are shown here with (front row left end) 2 Freckled Ducks.  Not a great image but ..

 This has a good mixture of the fowl.

For those interested my full list for this site is on eBird.

On my way back to the house I looked down into Lake Wangary and could see a lot of ducks and swans but at 500m distance from the closest public access (and it being 1.8km across) there was no hope of getting a decent count.

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The Whalers Way

Our first foray this morning was to the Reserve at the end of Dolphin Way.  Probably not the most successful walk ever, mainly because the small dog took the lead and the track isn't that obvious (understatement).  Our routes out and back diverged quite a bit as shown by this eBird track.

Very few birds were around in the bush here for reasons not known to me.  As we got back to the house (about 800m North of the Reserve) a pair of parrots flew into a small tree.  On checking, they were Mulga Parrots. I returned with my good camera and got some pix.  By that stage they have into a Pomegranate tree.

Our main plan for the day was to go to the Whalers Way South of Port Lincoln.  It is the red line in this snip from Google Earth.

We called in to the Port Lincoln Visitors Centre and picked up the key to the Reserve, paying our $30 entrance fee.  All excellent, unlike the street signs in Port Lincoln, which were non existent for the major roads I was looking for.  However, we didn't get lost and soon passed Lincoln National Park: I'm sure Its a lovely place, but canophobic as are most places in which a State Conservation mob are involved.

We stopped by a historic marker to where Flinders found water.

This sign is at the entrance to the Whalers Way Reserve.

Dogs are allowed on leads!!  I suspect their public liability insurance premiums (or their lawyers fees) are quite high: the gate is about 30 km from Port Lincoln and the Reserve is full of cliffs accessed by a reasonably rough road.  This is not to grizzle but to suggest the Parks Services could learn a lot from this.  Our route is very visible as the dirt road in this image.

Here is the first Inlet, Whalechasers Chasm.  It should be noted that the wind was extremely strong, adding to the range of things that could go wrong (but didn't).

I think I have mentioned cliffs.

There were also flowers available.  This Melaleuca sp. was flowering in profusion throughout the Reserve.  It was attracting a lot of New Holland Honeyeaters and in one area a flock of Dusky Woodswallows. (presumably feeding on the insects that were feeding on the flowers).

I have no idea what this is, other than a white flower.

A Correa sp.

All vegetation here is quite low which on thinking about it is to be expected on a limestone area exposed to the Southern Ocean (next land going South is Antarctica) and prevailing winds that have possibly not been interrupted since:

• Port Elizabeth (South Africa) if coming straight West - Google Earth suggests 10,000km; or
• Southern Argentina with a small amount of South in the breeze - add another 7,000km.

A flowering eucalypt ...

.. with interesting seed capsules.

Another eucalypt ...

.. which has dropped the flower caps on the ground.

A colony of fur seals (really sea lions) were stacking some zeds at the mouth of a cave.  Even knowing they were likely to be there the distance was quite a lot - both vertically and horizontally.

The cave is at the centre bottom of the island in this image.  Presumably there was some sort of fault which has allowed the sea to cut that channel.

Emus were available.  This image also gives an idea of the height of the vegetation.

More cliffs!

It was suggested that the pool at the bottom of this slope was a possibility for swimming (presumably in Summer).

I think this swimming is contraindicated by this sign.  There were quite  few signs about beware of freak waves in this area.  In WA they are a little more direct: King Waves Kill!

As we drove out a good flock (at least 27 birds) of Cape Barren Geese were seen grazing.

As we got close to our house (having dropped the key off at the Visitors Centre) we found 4 more geese sharing grazing with part of a huge flock of Galahs.

After getting back to the house I was going to take photographs of the Cormorants on the island in front of the house but the wind was so strong the telescope would have shaken continually (especially with my phone acting as an aerofoil).  So I had a glass of wine instead.

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