🌊🧜‍♀️🩵🧜‍♂️✨ #EarlyMorningSwim #ColdWaterSwimming #SometimesDreadedNeverRegreded 😉

Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos have been visiting our garden to feed on the seeds of native shrubs & trees, especially banksias, hakeas and casuarinas. Some insects are also eaten. #birds #birdwatching #birdphotography #birdlover #BirdsOfAustralia #ProtectBirdHabitat

🌊🧜‍♀️🩵🧜‍♂️✨ #EarlyMorningSwim #ColdWaterSwimming #SometimesDreadedNeverRegreded 😉

The Lobelia 💙 is creating a vibrant splash of colour in the garden right now 🌱

🌊🧜‍♀️🩵🧜‍♂️✨ #EarlyMorningSwim #ColdWaterSwimming #SometimesDreadedNeverRegreded 😉

The Banksia speciosa is starting to put on a show! #Australia #AustralianNativePlants 🌱

6:54am 🌊🧜‍♀️🩵🧜‍♂️✨ #EarlyMorningSwim #ColdWaterSwimming #SometimesDreadedNeverRegreded 😉

The Jacobean Lily is gorgeous right now 😍❤️

6:50am 🌊🧜‍♀️🩵🧜‍♂️✨ #EarlyMorningSwim #ColdWaterSwimming #SometimesDreadedNeverRegreded 😉

🌊🧜‍♀️🩵🧜‍♂️✨ #EarlyMorningSwim #ColdWaterSwimming #SometimesDreadedNeverRegreded 😉

🌊🧜‍♀️🩵🧜‍♂️✨ #EarlyMorningSwim #ColdWaterSwimming #SometimesDreadedNeverRegreded 😉

Southern Emu-wren: One of Australia’s smallest birds. Fully-grown can be 19 cm long, but its gorgeous elongated tail feathers are 2/3rds of this so its body is only approx 6 cm long. #birds #birdwatching #birdphotography #birdlover #BirdsOfAustralia #ProtectBirdHabitat

This majestic White-bellied Sea-eagle was soaring above us as we did a bird count at the jetty recently. I wonder if it’s the same one of a pair that often fly over when we swim each morning at the beach 🧜‍♀️ #birds #birdwatching #birdphotography #birdlover #BirdsOfAustralia #ProtectBirdHabitat

Another Whistling Kite post 😊 but these photos close to home & a family group in last photo. A medium-sized raptor with a shaggy appearance. 🧵1/3 #birds #birdwatching #birdphotography #birdlover #BirdsOfAustralia #ProtectBirdHabitat

Masked Lapwing chicks have a full covering of down & can leave the nest & feed themselves a few hours after hatching. They reach full growth after 4 or 5 months & will often stay with the parents for 1 or 2 years #birds #birdwatching #birdphotography #birdlover #BirdsOfAustralia #ProtectBirdHabitat

🌊🧜‍♀️🩵🧜‍♂️✨ #EarlyMorningSwim #ColdWaterSwimming #SometimesDreadedNeverRegreded 😉

Welcome, Megachile (Hackeriapis) lucifer! theconversation.com/i-discovered... By Dr Kit Prendergast

Last lot of Mallacoota photos before I get back to the birdies

Around and About Mallacoota

🌊🧜‍♀️🩵🧜‍♂️✨ #EarlyMorningSwim #ColdWaterSwimming #SometimesDreadedNeverRegreded 😉

🌊🧜‍♀️🩵🧜‍♂️✨ #EarlyMorningSwim #ColdWaterSwimming #SometimesDreadedNeverRegreded 😉 Saturday Swim

Jacky Dragon. A lizard native to south-eastern Australia. Aka Blood-sucker, Stonewalker & Tree Dragon. Well-known for its bright yellow mouth, well-developed vertebral crest & temperature-dependent sex determination of its offspring #Nature #Wildlife #Reptile #Lizard #Australia

🌊🧜‍♀️🩵🧜‍♂️✨ #EarlyMorningSwim #ColdWaterSwimming #SometimesDreadedNeverRegreded 😉 (today)

An ‘explosion’ of birds take off from Captain Stevenson’s Point, Mallacoota, September. We observed 1000 or more Greater Crested Terns. Also Bar-tailed Godwits, Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, Red-capped Plovers… 🧵1/2 #birds #birdwatching #birdphotography #birdlover #BirdsOfAustralia #ProtectBirdHabitat

🌊🧜‍♀️🩵🧜‍♂️✨ #EarlyMorningSwim #ColdWaterSwimming #SometimesDreadedNeverRegreded 😉 (yesterday)

Masked Lapwing aka Masked Plover or Spur-winged Plover. Closely related to the waders. Spend most of their time on the ground searching for food such as insects and worms Have several loud distinctive calls 🧵1/4 #birds #birdwatching #birdphotography #birdlover #BirdsOfAustralia #ProtectBirdHabitat

Shining Bronze Cuckoo: Hiding deep in the foliage this small cuckoo has irridescent green upper parts & white underparts with bold, dark, mostly unbroken  barring. Found throughout south & eastern Australia 🧵1/3 #birds #birdwatching #birdphotography #birdlover #BirdsOfAustralia #ProtectBirdHabitat

Satin Bowerbird. Young males have the same plumage & colouring as the females: olive green with dark scalloping, violet-blue iris, brown wings & tails. Collectively known as ‘green birds’. 🧵1/4 #birds #birdwatching #birdphotography #birdlover #BirdsOfAustralia #ProtectBirdHabitat

🌊🧜‍♀️🩵🧜‍♂️✨ #EarlyMorningSwim #ColdWaterSwimming #SometimesDreadedNeverRegreded 😉

Australian Pelican. Characterized by a long beak (the longest of any living bird) & a large throat pouch used for catching prey & draining water from the scooped-up contents before swallowing. 🧵1/5 #birds #birdwatching #birdphotography #birdlover #BirdsOfAustralia #ProtectBirdHabitat

🌊🧜‍♀️🩵🧜‍♂️✨ #EarlyMorningSwim #ColdWaterSwimming #SometimesDreadedNeverRegreded 😉

Eastern Whipbird, Mallacoota, Victoria: The characteristic whip-crack call is made by 2 birds, the male makes the drawn-out whip crack & the female usually follows quickly with a sharp “choo-choo” 🧵 1/4 #birds #birdwatching #birdphotography #birdlover #BirdsOfAustralia #ProtectBirdHabitat

🌊🧜‍♀️🩵🧜‍♂️✨ #EarlyMorningSwim #ColdWaterSwimming #SometimesDreadedNeverRegreded 😉

Scarlet Myzomela aka Scarlet Honeyeater, Mallacoota Victoria Found along the east coast of Australia from Cooktown QLD to Gippsland Vic.Also Sulawesi, the Moluccas & Lesser Sundas, Indonesia & New Caledonia 🧵1/3 #birds #birdwatching #birdphotography #birdlover #BirdsOfAustralia #ProtectBirdHabitat

🌊🧜‍♀️🩵🧜‍♂️✨ #EarlyMorningSwim #ColdWaterSwimming #SometimesDreadedNeverRegredded 😉

Noisy Friarbird, Bermagui, NSW. A large member of the honeyeater family with a distinctive naked black head, strong bill with a prominent casque (bump) at the base. 🧵 1/3 #birds #birdwatching #birdphotography #birdlover #BirdsOfAustralia #ProtectBirdHabitat

Brown Thornbill, Bermagui, NSW. Found only in E & SE Australia, including Tasmania, in dense shrubby habitats including wet & dry forests, woodlands, shrublands, heathlands, rainforests & along watercourses. 1/3 #birds #birdwatching #birdphotography #birdlover #BirdsOfAustralia #ProtectBirdHabitat

Metallic Jewel Bug - Scutiphora pedicellata, aka Metallic Shield Bug, seen on the window inside our cabin at Bermagui Distinguished from beetles by having sucking mouthparts & the shield on its back is continuous not a divided wing cover #Bugs #Insects #Nature #Wildlife #MacroPhotography #Australia

New Holland Honeyeater, Bermagui Found throughout southern Australia. Among the first birds to be scientifically described in Australia, initially named Certhia novaehollandiae. #birds #birdwatching #birdphotography #birdlover #BirdsOfAustralia #ProtectBirdHabitat

Emperor Dragonfly, Bermagui, NSW - a strong flyer and a predatory hunter, feeding on other flying insects. Often found patrolling water sources #dragonfly #insects #nature #photography #MacroPhotography #outdoors #Australia

Australian policy settings lack imagination. They are rooted to colonial times of making individuals pay & be “accounted for” rather than collective decisions that help people & the nation thrive. 1/

A local cafe has its outdoor area feature an installation of fire damaged road signs from The 2020 Black Summer Bushfires described by various experts & commentators as 'the worst bushfires in our history, exceptional in size & impact, unprecedented & by far Australia's costliest natural disaster’

Humpback Whale: generally inhabits the open ocean, except during the annual migration between cold water feeding areas & the warmer calving grounds. During this time they often appear close to the coast #HumpbackWhale #Bermagui #SapphireCoastalAdventures #SaveTheWhales

Landscape formed by human bodies by Carl Warner

White-bellied Sea-Eagle: I photographed this beauty last time we were in Bermagui. The second largest raptor found in Australia & as in other raptors, males are slightly smaller than females. #birds #birdwatching #birdphotography #birdlover #MyBirdADay #BirdsOfAustralia #ProtectBirdHabitat

As we prepare for a birthday/birding trip to Bermagui & Mallacoota thought I’d post some more of my bird collages & other random things. This one a Black-fronted Dotterel, 2023 #Art #Collage #Recycling #Bird

As we prepare for a birthday/birding trip to Bermagui & Mallacoota thought I’d post some more bird collages & other random things. This one a Sacred Kingfisher #Art #Collage #Recycling #Bird

Yellow-faced Honeyeater: an active small-medium honeyeater, spending much time probing flowers or gleaning insects from the foliage of trees. Rarely seen on the ground. #birds #birdwatching #birdphotography #birdlover #MyBirdADay #BirdsOfAustralia #ProtectBirdHabitat

Pied Butcherbird: Only saw this one way off in the distance (2nd photo shows how far!) but recognisable by its distinctive black ‘hood’ & long, hooked bill. #birds #birdwatching #birdphotography #birdlover #MyBirdADay #BirdsOfAustralia #ProtectBirdHabitat

Blood moon: aka total lunar eclipse, occurring when the moon is full & the Earth passes between the sun & the moon. As a result of sunlight passing through Earth’s atmosphere before reflecting off of the lunar surface, the moon appears deep red, rusty or burnt orange #BloodMoon #TotalLunarEclipse