Tuesday 4 June 2013

A right ol' mixed bag for you

The Safari has been up to all sorts this week as busy as a busy thing from Busyville Arizona! There hasn't been much at Patch 2. A Swift (P2 #65) was creaming overhead last night as we waited for the Beaver group, earlier there were four Grey Seals offshore. The Beaver troop arrived to the heady scent of Coconut emanating from the Gorse bushes. What a great scent it was almost intoxicating!

The Beavers got to work with their nets and pots in our pond. Within minutes  had Jaws in their net!!! How'd they manage that when the Young Uns so patently failed???
 One of the Beavers took hiom home to join the other fish in his garden pond - lucky Jaws; he was destined for the lake in the big park where he'd have to have run the gauntlet of Great Created Grebes, Herons, Pike and fishermen.
Now smaller creatures like this Water Hog Louse might have a reasonable chance of survival, although a few tiny fry 3-spined Sticklebacks prove there is a mummy and daddy in there somewhere - we didn't see them this time.
Today we had a school group on the beach this arvo and before they arrived we were watching a Harbour Porpoise away down the beach charging around more in the fashion of a Bottle Nosed Dolphin almopst fully breaching at times in very shallow water! It wasn't far offshore and despite the commotion and splashes it was making we didn't notice anyone else down on the beach notice it, with the warm weather there were a fair few folk down on the sands. One thing we did notice that was very very scary was a strange man in a vivid lime green Mankini - shouldn't be allowed!!!!!!! To draw our attention away from the sights on show a couple of Grey Seals were offshore, maybe they couldn't believe their eyes and were having a right good giggle too!
The gang arrived and got to work filling their buckets and trays with seaweeds and shells. Sea Gooseberries were a great hit with them. Good to know they knew that Starfish can regrow damaged arms - good job too for this battered individual!
Lots of Green Shore Crabs, both alive, peelers and cast skins were found but star find was this jaw from a Dogfish or Smooth-hound. Well we think that's what it is.
Hopefully our friendly marine biologist DB will be able to shed some light on it tomorrow. Not every day you find a bit of shark lying around. Suppose it could be a ray.
Where to next? Back on the beach with another group tomoroow....all good fun!
In the meantime let us know what's lying around waiting to be picked up in your outback

3 comments:

cliff said...

Mentioning Mankinis & Gooseberries in the same post has conjured up a mental image I didn't really need this morning Dave.

Aussie Glen said...

Looks like a Rayban sunglass frame.

Warren Baker said...

Must be good being near the beach davyman, never quite know what will turn up :-)