Little Egret – Birds as Poetry —— Just because I WANDER doesn't mean I'm LOST

Mr An Onymous dropped me an email, saying he had booked for a Wetlands Birds and Port Phillip bay Seminar complete with field trips. The event was for 10 Satuday mornings and trips to local areas to look for birds and the features of the seminar topic for that day.

So I booked. Thought I’d take the train down to the location as the talkfest was at a library quite near the station, and Mr An had offered to provide Uber support to get to the trip locations.

Fascinating few sessions that covered the history and development of the geology, geography, water systems and the like. Helped get a good picture of why some waders and migrants visit some spots and not otherr.
The area around the top end of the Bay has undergone signifcant housing and manufacturing development, and has to put it just blunty, been not very kind to the vast network of wetlands, swamps and backwaters in the area. Also fascinating has been some of the attempts to overdevelop the beach areas.
Credit also has to be given to the council and community groups and the research projects that have been conducted. Even if at times it seems that each group has both a different goal and plan to achieve their outcomes.

So with lots of numbers and ideas along with data about the areas flying around in my brain, we set off to visit the trip areas. Of course, not before, the necessary cuppa and bikkie to sustain us for the “Expotition” (Winnie the Pooh)

In all we visited 10 locations—didn’t find the North Pole
.One was opposite Mr An’s house and the last one was at Point Cook Coastal Park which is beginning to become our new ‘office’.

Here’s a sampling of the days outings.
Oh, and I did enjoy the clickyclack on the railway track as I’ve not been train bound for a number of years.

Enjoy

Who doesn’t love ABBA? Rhetorical question. But for those who do, Crank Up the Music.

We have been watching a Little Egret working the low tide shallows for the past few weeks.
Little Egrets like large areas of shallow water and will chase prey about in a series of long steps and short wingflaps. They do look like they are dancing in their elegant pursuit of highly mobile prey.
Sadly this one is out of breeding plumage and the long veils of plumes are absent.

The huges storms of about 6 months back redesigned the sand of the beach, the tidal pools, and mudflats. Swept them clean like a high pressure hose.
So much so that much of the normal feeding grounds amongst the mud and sand have been stripped away. The usual beach dwellers, ducks and waders have had to move to new feeding grounds.

The open waters seem to have been suitable for the fish to come in on the tide, and much to the delight of the Dancing Queen easy to spot in the shallows against the mudflat backdrop.

So Crank up the Music.