Backyard Zoology · 20 June 2019
2019-06-20T18:52:29+10:00
https://www.facebook.com/backyardzoology/posts/pfbid02uGLWoTnRdq5mXVdXDCHcCJMkkPNNGNx7gMyLu9b8pt9wiAXWaSXKBmurJnMgiBzql

I spent the morning adulting. Our tiny cottage is showing it's age so we're in the market for a new roof which  meant a steady stream of tradies coming and going and telling me things I didn't quite understand and asking me questions like if I wanted the roof and the gutters to be the same colour and if I wanted the fascia wrapped. Um...what's a fascia again? 😂 I also need to, apparently, decide on the colour we'll be painting/cladding the house so that the roof will match in future. We'll be painting? Yikes. And yay. I tell you, heading out and taking photos and telling stories is much easier than this house business, that's for sure! 

It meant that I didn't have a lot of hours in the day to do much exploring although I did head to a local headland, 'just in case'. As soon as I stepped to the edge, I saw a couple of HUGE splashes further up the coast!!! Whales! A mum and a calf, the calf smashing its tail down repeatedly while mum lolled around on her back with her flippers in the air. It ended pretty much as soon as it began though, with a couple of blows and a couple of sightings of the curve of their backs before I jumped in the car, drove up the coast a little and tried to spot them again but unfortunately nothing at all. Still. I'm a happy camper tonight. 

And tonight, the rain is drawing in again and it is absolutely freezing here so very glad I got a couple of days out in the sun, even if just for short spurts of time. These Sooty Oystercatchers were very happy to have their photo taken yesterday. I mean, they are normally flighty AF for me so I've never really gotten anything of much use of them before. But I watched from a distance as a beach walker walked VERY close to these two as they were having a snooze and they didn't budge at all, so I thought I'd head down and try my luck. Now, I have to admit, I think these birds are absolutely stunning... from the body up, but the fact that the bill and eyes match but the legs are a different shade, does my head in. There I said it! 😂 

Once one of the birds woke up I decided to head slowly back towards the car pouring over the flotsam on my way. I turned around just to see what the birds were up to and was very bloody surprised to see both birds following me up the beach, stopping every now and again to poke their bills into the washed up clumps of cunjevoi. These birds, who always very noisily announce their arrival and departure but are fairly quiet when they are wandering along the coast, are actually classified as vulnerable in NSW. This means that they face a high risk of extinction in the medium term in our state. High risk. So that's a bit shit. I guess there's adulting and then there's adulting.

Sooty Oystercatcher
Towradgi Beach