South West Rocks and General wildlife musings

We returned from an extended trip overseas two weeks ago. I spent the first week at home catching up on jobs around the house and returning my body clock to normality.  I didn't really suffer from jetlag, but I did find myself exhausted by 8 pm, and wide awake at 3:30 am.  I recovered within a few days, and returned to work last week.  The reality of day-to-day life has hit us both hard, and we are already planning our next trip overseas.  But to stave off the feelings of melancholy, we headed out of town for the weekend.

We chose to visit South West Rocks & Trial Bay Gaol.  It's only a quick three & a half hours drive up the coast, or roughly the same time it takes to drive to the Blue Mountains from Lake Macquarie.  I had never visited the Trial Bay/South West Rocks area before, and I'm wondering what took me so long.

It was a wildlife wonderland.  I saw probably 50 or 60 dolphins, 8 x south-bound whales, two sea turtles, several hundred Eastern grey kangaroos, rosellas, lorikeets, Eastern koels, White-breasted sea eagles, Wedge-tailed eagles, Whistling kites, and three splendid Brahminy kites.  I've never seen so many Brahminy kites in the one place before.  I was in love !  Best of all - there were no traffic lights ANYWHERE in the area.  Not a single traffic light.  Doesn't that say it all.

The whales will need a bit of care to identify.  I noticed quite a bit of white on one particular pair of them, and their behaviour and blows seemed different to the typical humpbacks we see in the Lake Macquarie area.  I must admit, they looked an awful lot like killer whales.  But they were several kilometres out to sea, and I suspect they were most likely Southern right whales.  There is an extremely unlikely possibility they were something unusual like Brydes, but seriously, I am not holding my breath.  I'll have a chat with some of my old friends from ORRCA and get an expert opinion.

We headed east to the Lighthouse at Smoky Cape, and were inundated with Eastern grey kangaroos.  Sadly, they seemed to be suffering from some sort of pathogen, as 90 % of the animals feeding near the lighthouse had inflamed, swollen and mucky eyes. Hmmm.

Sick Eastern grey kangaroo, Smoky Cape Lighthouse 24th October 2015. 

This morning I was up well before dawn and watched the sun rise over the ocean once more. Amanda chose to sleep in, so I found myself alone, perched high on a sea cliff watching the new day begin while waves smashed into the golden-pink granite far below.  I couldn't help but reflect on my time in Italy.  It was truly a dream given form.  I walked among temples built to the Golden Mean 3500 years BC, built with hand tools to incredible standards of perfection.  The wonderful people, the food, the incredible history - it was so much more than I could have ever imagined.  As much as I enjoyed Italy and the contrasts from Venice, the Dolomiti, Cinque terra, Carrara, Pisa, Milan, the cave houses, Amalfi, Roma, watching the sun set over the sea at the glorious "Turkish Steps", Corleone, Agrigento in Sicily and the wonderfully fertile giardino at 'Tonio & Marissa's casa di montagna in Calabria.

Yes, this morning gave me time to reflect and think.  With all my wool-gathering, it was a bit of a challenge, but I got a few nice shots.  And then I felt the urge to climb a particular sea-stack.  It was steep and fun to solo a little cliff, and I felt totally alive, right here, right now in the moment like I had not felt for years.  The pleasure of moving over vertical rock is something that never leaves you.  I topped-out and found flannel flowers in full bloom all over the top of the little stack.  It was beautiful.  Simple, pure and beautiful . . . .

Flannel flowers covered in dew, South West Rocks NSW, 25th October 2015 

During our exploration of the greater South West Rocks area this morning I noticed Channel-billed cuckoos and several Dollarbirds perched on the powerlines.  As I have mentioned before, both of these birds are migratory, and it's a real sign of spring when both species arrive.  I heard Channel-billed cuckoos in Maitland last week, but these were the first Dollarbirds for the Spring, so they'll almost certainly be in the Hunter Valley right now.  

As we returned to Newcastle this evening, I could hardly believe me eyes as we passed Blackbutt Reserve.  We found a very large adult diamond python trying to cross one of the busiest roads in Newcastle.  We stopped the car and I raced back as fast as I could, just managing to prevent a car from running straight over this amazing animal.  I grabbed him, and I suspect that he was probably just over 8 feet long (I am 6' tall and he had at least two feet on the ground when I grabbed him by the head and lifted him up.  I also have over 40 years experience as a herpetologist).  Actually, I suspect that this may have been a captive animal at some stage, because he had a very small head in comparison to the length and diameter of his body.  I was surprised to see he had a divided anal scale as most diamond pythons and carpet pythons have a single anal scale.  My wife and I grabbed the beautiful beast and took him down to the deepest rainforest area of Blackbutt reserve and released him there.  I just hope that he realises his mistake and does not attempt to cross Croudace Road ever again.     

The Channel-billed cuckoos have arrived.

Just a simple observation - I heard the raucous shrieks of several Channel-billed cuckoos during my lunch-break in Maitland today, Friday 23rd October 2015.  These birds are common, but migratory.  This was my first observation of the species in the Hunter valley for Spring 2015.

Welcome swallow update

I checked the car port late last night - there was an adult Welcome swallow roosting alongside the nest.  Better still, there were two fledglings roosting together inside the nest.  Thank goodness - the swallows have successfully nested again this year.  Hopefully the other adult was roosting somewhere nearby with more young.

  

An Empty Nest . . .

We returned home from extended leave yesterday to find our Welcome swallows nest is empty.

We are still a bit tired from the flight, so we haven't been out and about in the back yard much yet, but there seems to be little activity around the carport.  I'll have to check when it's dark tonight.  Hopefully they have successfully nested and the offspring fledged just before we got home . . .

Brief Observation - First Eastern koel for Spring 2015

I was just paused to refuel the lawn mower a few moments ago (17:30 Eastern Daylight Savings Time) when the distinctive call of an Eastern koel began to echo around the neighbourhood.

We returned to Casa da Ayre only late yesterday afternoon from 6 weeks holiday - so the Koels may have very well have arrived in the Lake Macquarie area before now.  But nonetheless it is worth publishing a brief note regarding the casual observation of a migratory species.  Spring is definitely here now ! 

Out of curiosity I looked back through my sightings of this species last year - See HERE .  It turns out that last year they arrived on Friday 3rd October - so it's very close to the same time.