Thursday 3 July 2008

Views from a boardwalk

We've escaped from the cold, wet and windy weather in Geelong. Here in Airlie Beach it's sunny and over 20 degrees. This morning we walked the 5 km boardwalk along the beautiful foreshore, had an icecream (selecting from the 40 varieties available and choosing not to have a Freddo Frog or Smarties or snakes mashed into it), and caught the bus home because we were exhausted from having a good time.

This is a beautiful area, and the developers are having a field day. The mangroves are getting a hammering but I think most of what is left will survive because of the boardwalk. But then we get blokes like this, pictured below, who thinks it's OK to clear an area to pull the boat up into.

Right near the centre of town, between the man-made swimming lagoon and the man-made marina there is a stretch of mangroves and it is there that we saw an Australian Brush-turkey playing with a coconut, and a male Great Bowerbird tending to his bower in amongst the mangrove stems a metre from the path. All of his decorations were green.

And suspended from a branch of a eucalypt was this metre-long construction that I thought was a wasp nest but I'm out of my comfort zone here. I've really got no idea! Any suggestions?

4 comments:

Gouldiae said...

G'day Boobook,
Airlie Beach! You lucky thing. I think it got to 13 here yesterday, but today the cold sou-westerly winds seemed to have abated. Did you get any shots of the Bowerbird?
Regards, Gouldiae.

Denis Wilson said...

Hi Boobook48
Good to see you blogging from warm Queensland. Half you luck. Freezing cold and windy in Southern Highlands NSW.
Enjoy your time in the north.
Denis Wilson

Boobook said...

Hi gouliae and denis
One day I'll have a camera capable of taking photos of birds. In the meantime I'm happy playing with macro. Today we're off to explore Shute Harbour.

Mosura said...

That an impressive wasp nest if that's what it is. Did you try poking it? :-)

I feel a little deprived in that I have never seen a Bowerbird.