Saturday 28 July 2018 Cuttagee

Received and email from S late yesterday afternoon - on the water by 7.00am unless too smokey (due to a fuel reduction burn up Cuttagee Creek near Siltstone Track). Our trailer having been purloined, along with the woodsplitter, by Toby we borrowed S&V's and loaded our boats in anticipation.

This was the view from the verandah at 6.35 this morning

With the smoke haze not looking too bad we decided the paddle was on . After collecting S&V we headed down to the lake. Refections at our launch site

 Taking to the water our first sight was the commercial fisherman looking rather sinister in the hazy light

Pelicans and Royal Spoonbills roosting at the end of Little Cuttagee

S's close up

Paddling up the lake was a little eerie

The fisherman slowly moving along his net line, pulling in dead and dying fish after discarding two drowned coots :(  We the passed over a 2nd line of net stretching from the Umbigumbi shoreline to the Far End shoreline - what chance do the fish have! And this must be the fourth time he has fished Little Cuttagee in the past 6 weeks

Members of the CKC's revolutionary arm. We had thought Thursday morning was chilly - well today was ffing freezing.

As we paddled round into Cuttagee the haze became more dense.
Swans on Cuttagee

We mooched around and I paddled over a spoke to a young kayak fisherman who had been out since dawn without a bite, so I told him about the commercial fisherman taking everything he could. After which we stopped for a leg stretch at the point we had stopped on Thursday  and then proceeded to paddle back through the haze

Pelicans on Little Cuttagee

The end of our paddle

Spotted today - a large pinkish jellyfish in Little Cuttagee and a huge dead mud crab which must have been 8-9" across the shell. Tho' Sam has since told me that it may not have been dead, but just a discarded shell the crab had grown out of. If that is true I'm not guddling with bare toes in Cuttage - its nippers were extremely large!

No breaky on offer today :( however we did manage to scrounge a good coffee and yummy biscuits :)

Thursday 26 July 2018 Cuttagee

An even earlier morning paddle. We got down to the lake at 7.45am and it was finger crippling frosty. Once again it turned primarily into a bird watching paddle. Seen were Pelicans aplenty, Great Egrets,
Little Pied Cormorants, Shags, White Faced Herons, a pair of Chestnut Teal, Swans, Sacred Ibis, Royal Spoonbills, Eurasian Coots,  a pair of Sea Eagles, a Wedgetail Eagle and a Whistling Kite, a large flock of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos and the odd Azure Kingfisher. All bird closeups are courtesy of S and her new camera.

When we arrived the last of the mist was rising from the lake

And the pelicans we disturbed were reluctant to depart

The sun finally found us as the last of us launched

Great Egrets taking to the air as we woke them up

The Royal Spoonbills however, were reluctant to get moving

Pelicans flying over and around us as we headed for Wooly Butts Bay

Heading into Wooly Butts Bay

Azure Kingfisher spotted below Wooly Butts house

Western side of Wooly Butts Bay

The clear water was entrancing to paddle

The little black spots are a flock of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos - 50+

A pair of Sea Eagles inspecting our progress

After a quick stop for a leg stretch and a muesli bar we slowly made our way back up the southern shoreline on glassy water

Whistling Kite spotted toward the Eastern boundary of the Far End

More pelicans soaking up the sun and preening at the island near the bridge

Inspecting the sculpture at the head of the island

About to turn into Little Cuttagee, our progress was halted by feeding pelicans

That little school of fish, demolished or dispersed, the pelicans slowly drifted off

so we could continue our journey back down the lake.

Great Egret

 Our paddle ended about 11.15am and after packing up the boats we enjoyed a lovely brunch back at S&V's.

Monday 23 July 2018 Cuttagee

We woke up this morning to the highest frost we seen here. With no breeze and a light mist caressing the water the lake was too seductive to ignore. Leaping out of bed we donned our paddling gear, made a coffee, loaded the boats and headed down to the water.

By the time we took to the water the mist had lifted and most of the frost had disappeared, only lingering in the shaded gullies.

The water level has dropped by 30cm or more since we last paddled Cuttagee. However the bigger difference was that the water was crystal clear.

Lots of bird life encountered in Little Cuttagee

Young Sea Eagle?  No - it's a Whistling Kite

Pelicans and swans in the straight.  The die back of the melaleuca more apparent.

Rounding cormorant corner

Heaps of swans, pelicans and cormorants in Woolly Butts Bay

Dramatic dieback on the island at the start of the river

Heading up the Clearwater backwater

Retracing our tracks

More bird life on the main lake

A lovely little paddle
2 1/4 hours.