Dull day at the beach

One look at the weather map was enough, didn’t need no icon waving, weather talkin, danger predicting tv dude to tell me. It was going to be cold, miserable, overcast and photographically crippling.

But.

We went anyway.

Mostly to see if the Flame Robins were at Point Cook, -yes. Was the Pink Robin(s) there. No. (well not that we could find) Were the pair of Black Kites any further advanced with the reproduction activity. Jury out on that.

After being blown down toward the beach, the tide was well out. Half blown out, I’d suggest. And there were a pair of Pacific Gulls resting in the lee of the rocks. And the shutter speed was on the never-never plan.

After awhile one of the gulls got up, flew to a rocky edge of the water and retrieved what I take to be a Sea Urchin. This hard shell creature is more than it can break open by hitting on a rock. But, the species has developed over the years a working technique. Take the prize up about 20m and drop it on the rocks. Smash. Or at least on the second attempt.
Waft down and enjoy the feast.

After performing this feat several times in front of us, it also attracted the usual scavengers and free loaders. So on the incredibly strong wind several Whistling Kites came to pay a visit to their new ‘best’ mate. However Pacific was having none of that and inspite of some clever wing work on the part of several attacking at once, the gull simply stood its ground. In the end, they moved on to look elsewhere and gull went back to its snack. And then moved down the beach with the next catch.