A Great Egret walked through the water, paralleling a row of damp, black oyster bags that sat across the water’s surface. The bird was advancing slowly until it jabbed forward with its yellow beak and one of its wings half-opened to balance it. Withdrawing its head from the water a pipefish wiggled hard, trying to escape. The egret climbed onto the oyster bags and carefully readjusted the pipefish in its beak through a couple of rapid openings and closings, before swallowing the fish. Whereupon the egret returned to patrolling along the top of the bags. I was able to witness the whole encounter from just a few metres away where I was sitting in my kayak on a lovely Spring morning on Wagonga Inlet in Narooma. The inlet is coming alive with a lot of birds and other creatures. I spent a fair bit of time paddling around the inlet enjoying some beautiful mornings and wonderful encounters with birds. I hope that you enjoy the photographs below.
Read MoreAdmiring the beauty of a mangrove ecosystem - Currambene Creek NSW, January 2022
Mangrove habitats are such fascinating ecosystems because they straddle the worlds of land and water because of tidal movements. I was fortunate in January 2022 to have time to head down to the ever beautiful Jervis Bay where I ignored the stunning white beaches because I was heading for the wonderful Currambene Creek to explore a mangrove habitat. Although the beaches of Jervis Bat are deservedly famous for their beauty I was captivated by being among the mangrove trees. I was captivated by the life in the habitat, especially the crabs. The Red Fingered Marsh Crab has such striking colours with its lime green carapace contrasting with its red claws. I was fascinated to see these crabs moving on the exposed trunks of the mangrove trees. Even more fascinating, was when I approached the trees, the crabs did not head into the water but they shot up the trees to holes and crevices higher up in the trunks, well above the hide tide mark. While it was not significant behaviour it still brought home to me how this habitat provided for different creatures in a variety of ways and how much I enjoyed drifting between the crooked trunks of those amazing trees. I hope that you enjoy the photographs below.
Read MoreStunned by the natural beauty around Corang Arch, The Budawangs - April 2021
In the end, the sun was setting faster than we realised so we had to walk quickly with our large packs to get to the iconic Corang Arch while we still had enough light for photography. On arrival we could see that the golden rays of the late afternoon sun were already striking the harsh cliff face that was composed of rocks formed when water bathed them in ancient waters. Despite that final rush we were thrilled to get to this intriguing arch, to admire it with the sunset and see the escarpment as the day’s light sunk in the distance. This was why we had been hiking for about four hours and it was worth it. Corang Arch is a natural rock arch in the Budawang National Park, colloquially shortened to just the Budawangs. In April 2021 Bigfigtree and myself decided that we wanted to photograph this beautiful arch. Neither of us had been hiking for a while but this goal made us want to try. We were so glad that we did because the experience left us both feeling enriched, with some great photography to be had and some interesting animals. For me, beyond the impressive landscape, I finally took a photograph of my first snake. I hope that you like the photographs below.
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