Trail Camera 21 to 27 June 2020

Thank goodness, a bandicoot free download - he's been digging up our lawn instead.
There is a new little bird at the end which needs identification.

Swamp Wallaby at the pond, another appears in the background and starts, what looks like, licking a tree trunk!

The usual suspects, though no longer in such great numbers

Silver Eyes

Grey Shrike Thrush

Juvenile White Naped Honeyeater? (it looks so like a bird found only in Tasmania!) with a Yellow Faced Honeyeater and Silver Eye bathing.

Red Wattlebird and Bowerbird share a bath - interesting because they are both dominant birds.

A Wallaby finds the camera

Two Wonga's a wandering

Old Mum kanga, she looks as though she is starting to lose weight again.

Redneck Wallaby near the pond

A bevy of Bowerbirds

Why the Satin Bowerbird is thus named

And lastly can anyone identify this tiny little bird?  Its on top of the red rock in the centre of the pic. It has white brows like a scrub wren, but is more the size of a thornbill and its body colouring is a similar to a silver eye. Any ideas????

Thursday 25 June 2020 Pambula River

High Tide at Pambula River entrance was 11.40am (1.4m) so the aim was to be on the water by no later than 10.00am. Unfortunately without our time keeper in attendance I have no idea how close to this we were.

It was another day with conditions perfect for paddling, the water was gorgeous and once again the forecast breeze failed to make an appearance
.

The more astute of you may notice that the bow of my boat is not pointed upstream but out into the bay!  This was because L suggested, when we took to the water, that as the water looked so benign we should cross the river and paddle out into the bay and traitorous S&V agreed!

Even with paddling against the tide it wasn't long before the swells, coming in well defined sets, started to make themselves felt. The further we went the sharper and higher and swells became and I was the first to call it quits. While waiting for a calm patch between the swells in which to make the turn, I told the group of my decision and we all turned back.

Riding the swells back in was lots of fun. Once back in calmer water I was gently chided for my decision, however I could not help notice that no-one had tried to talk me out of it at the time and someone beat me back through the mouth!

Letting the now gentle swells and incoming tide do the work for us

Going past the little beach opposite from where we put in, with a couple of Pied Oyster Catchers sunning themselves on the sand above the stern of L's boat

We stuck close to the southern shore

as S had heard about Severs beach

(no, this wasn't it)

and the vast Aboriginal shell midden hidden behind it. S found Severs Beach and we wove our way carefully through the sneaky little oyster bommes to make landfall.  V located the boardwalk

and we took a stroll over the now grass and shrub covered area, the only clue to the past being provided at regular intervals by obliging wombats digging under the boardwalk.

Above extract from: Meeting of the Waters: a Journey on the Marine Side of Australia's Coastal Wilderness. Part 5 Indigenous Coast Heritage - Sapphire Coast

We spent nearly about 40 minutes in this very special, beautiful and historically significant spot.
Looking down toward the mouth of the river from Severs Beach.

L wants me to include this photo for Tim. It reminds L of Bolt Head.

For a really good drone flight over Severs Beach and this part of the river, check out this you tube. It shows why this is one our favourite paddles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPKokP4yrdg

Taking to the water again at 11.20am

Midden remains in the shallows off the beach.

Making our way over the shallows, we continued our journey upstream,

still wondering how this trimaran got here.

Drifting on the beautiful water,

we let the tide take us

at a gentle pace

as we soaked up our surrounds, interspersed, it must be said, with quite a bit of chat.

With barely a paddle stroke required

we reached the lake and actually paddled through the oyster beds, following L - not me, I geographically embarrassed myself AGAIN - to reach the upper part of the river. Deciding we could paddle a bit further before needing a stretch we continued up the river to the Yowaka junction where we stopped for lunch.

We returned to the water about 1.20pm and paddled and picked our way up the Yowaka River.
A not very good pic of the shallow underwater gardens over which we paddled for the first 100 metres or so up the Yowaka.

Once we reached the first bend we had deeper water beneath our hulls and we progressed more quickly up to the rockface.

We continuted upstream

along the rocklined northern edge of the river

until about 50 metres or so short of the highway bridge where we turned around and

retraced our steps back down the river

We returned to junction where I needed to get out and dekink whilst the others floated in the shallows and issued advice and instructions - from a safe distance - for a variety of ways to dekink.

Back on the water we poddled (such was our effort we were overtaken by a fisherman on a heavily laden slapper) back to the boat ramp where we concluded our paddle about 2.50pm, temporarily at peace with the world.

After loading the boats onto the trailer we returned to the river mouth to collect S&V's car, thus ending a perfect day.

Trip Notes:
High tide at Pambula River mouth: 11.40am 1.4ms
Put in: Pambula River Mouth
Take Out: Boat Ramp near Oyster Shed
10.4kms

Trail Camera 15 to 20 June 2020 More of the Bandicoot

Observation for this week:  watched a bird of Lewin's size land on old Mum Kanga's back and pluck away until it had a beak full of fur and then flew off into the forest. The old Kanga didn't twitch, so am guessing she is moulting and why does the bird want a beak full of fur at this time of year? Weird.

Speaking of Old Mum, she and her adolescent are still hanging out

Sometime later young kanga reappears and has a lie down while a variety of birds continue to use the pond

The kangaroo rests for about 40 minutes while the birds come and go. Eventually Old Mum reappears and off they go together

Here is the bandicoot again.

Appearing just before 9.00pm it is busy undermining the rock work for approx 1 hour, spending 11 of those minutes digging in the one spot at the start of this next clip - it must be finding some tasty morsels.

Having a nose around,

it looks for a new spot at which to dig

Trail Camera 11 to 14 June 2020

The bandicoot is back and features heavily in this down load, rooting around the pond.

A wallaby at the pond with the bandicoot rooting around in the background

Wallaby and Bowerbird (f) share the pond

Now its the turn of the male Bowerbird

Wonga Pigeon and Brown Pigeon

Three Brown Pigeons. During our first 4 or 5 years here we never saw a Brown Pigeon then White Wing (so named because of a distinctive white rectangle on his nearside wing) and his mate arrived. They duly produced 3 offspring and the numbers grew from there.  Sadly White Wing disappeared about 4 years ago, but his descendants are among our favourite visitors.

Bowerbird goes the full dunk

The Bandicoot is back

and returns again just after 2.00am

A final pic of this industrious little digger

Where's Wally - spot the third one

All the following, and preceeding Wallaby activity took place over an hour. I think there might be an in season female in the vicinity - besides the 'twitchy' behaviour, tree marking & sniffing a bit of dick waving went on.

A very nervous Wallaby - is this the female?

Tuesday 16 June 2020 Dignam's Creek / Wallaga Lake

Another perfect paddling day forecast.

A little, let's be truthful, a rather large cock up on my part this morning. I told R we would collect her an hour later than we needed too. Much consternation all round when we arrived to pick her up. But so organised is R and such are her powers of expedition we managed to get to the Beauty Point Boat Ramp before the scheduled meet time and ahead of S&V!

The aim today was to paddle across Wallaga Lake and up Dignam's Creek.  We took to the water at 8.25am

and headed across the lake toward Mt Gulaga.

The mountain slowly grew closer. We're heading for the shady bay on the left.

 The Delta girls, catching up on each others news

As we near the bay leading to Dignam's Creek, a gulp of cormorants take wing from within the bay,

closely followed by a squadron of Pelicans, an entrancing sight.

 Heading up the bay, the entrance to Dignam's Creek in the distance.

Not long after we turned up the Creek, we heard two Sea Eagles singing to each other, paddling on we found them.

S had her camera today :)

Leaving the Sea Eagles behind we continued up the Creek on the left hand side of Snake Island.

L pulled in for morning tea, the rest of us having no choice but to follow, at 9.45am, having paddled approx 4.20kms in 1 hour 20mins. The last time we did this section, the girls in their slappers, D'd & I in Big Reg (an Hobie Odyssey) and L in Bluey (Wilderness Tarpon 120) it took just over 2 hours.

While the spot had good views, in every other respect the site left much to be desired. Scrambling back into our boats, however we could, we took to the water at 10.35am (each of us relieved that we had not gone A over T),

to continue our journey upstream.

The water was glassy,

and the reflections were mesmerising

The hills in the background, burnt in the January/February bushfires.

It was surprising to find jellyfish, especially large ones this far up the Creek.

You can see smaller/young jellyfish in the water around the large one.

 Paddling on,

taking in the scenery.

And then there was this whopper!

 With our boats gliding easily over the silky surface,

we were soon passing the limit of our last Dignam's Creek paddle, the bush on the left hand side of the Creek having suffered in the fires.

We paddled on for about another km. Waiting for the laggards to reach our turnaround point.

At 11.40 we pulled in for lunch on a sunny grassy patch with easy egress from the boats, chosen by R.

Getting ready to chow down

Toward the end of our lunch break the sky clouded over and a light breeze sprang up. At 12.30 we returned to the water, thinking we might get rained upon and paddled back down past the section where the fire had come right down to the creek.

Sacred Ibis

Pelicans

Well before we exited the Creek the breeze had died away. We paddled round the other side of Snake Island

at the end of which S called for a leg stretch. S chose a perfect site - easy egress from the boats and flat clear area on which to stand.  While we compared our break spots today and who chose them, we remembered the Betka River where the rest of the CKC vowed we would  never let L choose our break spots again! After 15 minutes we took up our paddles once more.

Passing the shell midden which marks

the return to the main part of Wallaga Lake

At the mouth of the bay we set out for the slog across the Lake

Upon our return to the boat ramp at 2.35pm we were greeted by a Great Egret - a lovely end to a lovely day out on the water.

Trip notes:

Put In /Take Out: Beauty Point Boat Ramp
Wallaga Lake: Closed
15.5kms
6 hours 10 mins (includes 1hr.55mins of breaks)