Iluka : Clarence Valley : Sunset on the Bay

Sep5

After a day of activity in Iluka, whether it be walking on the beaches or in the bush, playing golf or bowls, swimming, reading or just lazing about, a great way to end the day is to stroll along the path beside the bay to watch the sunset. I did just that one day after a late afternoon visit to the mouth of the river and a walk on the ocean beach.

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Where the Clarence River is channeled out to sea by two long breakwaters,

dolphins can often be seen.

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By the time the sun had begun to sink low in the sky,

the main beach at Iluka was almost deserted.

Summer visitors had not yet arrived.

It had been a warm winter’s day but now the breeze was a little chilly.

It was time to go back to my room at Iluka Motel.

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I made one last stop for the day at Iluka Bay.

There, I found birds also ‘coming home’ from their day out.

A small flock of corollas flew in to hunt for a last minute feed of seeds.

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A couple of Ibis also flew in. This one showed off its lacy tail.

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It soon began to search the waters for a late afternoon feed.

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A small boat caused rippling waves behind this grey heron.

The waters had begun to take on a tinge of the colours of the setting sun.

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A couple of ducks shovelled for food in the mud.

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The pelicans swooped in for a final feed along with a small group of seagulls.

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As the sun sank even lower, this pelican seemed to pose for his portrait.

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The late afternoon light also added extra charm to a common seagull.

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Even the boardwalk took on a golden glow.

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On a quiet part of the bay, the water had retreated leaving puddles in the mud,

providing the opportunity for this heron portrait.

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More pelicans arrived as

a ribbon of golden sunlight made its way across the bay.

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By this time, the other evening walkers had left the path.

I was left alone to enjoy this quiet evening scene.

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The sky burnt a firey red as the sun slipped away

giving a final kiss of light to wispy clouds.

This is indeed a special place.

I’ve promised myself to return one day.

Jennie

Photography © copyright JT of jtdytravels

(Accommodation was at Iluka Motel… I can recommend it)

Stories and photos of our overseas travels can be found on

www.jtdytravels.com

Iluka : Clarence Valley : NSW : Bundjalung National Park

Sep3

For the keen walker, there are walks in abundance from the village of Iluka. The walk beside Iluka Bay is the gentlest. But there are walks along the beaches facing the Pacific Ocean and even more through a rainforest and through Bundjalong National Park.

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The main road from the Pacific Highway into Iluka goes through the Bundjalung National Park. Side roads lead off into the forest and to the bluffs and beaches of the Pacific Ocean. The roads are unsealed but in good condition and the drive through tunnels of trees is a peaceful start to a day out in the bush.

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The best known, and very well set up bush parking area is at Iluka Bluff. Leaving the car here, you can choose to enjoy a walk or a rest on the beach, pick your way across the rocks at the headland, climb up to the bluff or walk in the forest; or do all of the above.

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My first choice was the beach – not to swim or laze in the sun but to walk.

When I was there, this beach was not patrolled, so care is needed if swimming.

One part of this beach is called Shark Bay – enough said!

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I shared this long beautiful stretch of coast with just two other people.

With a gentle sea on one side

and a forest alive with native birds on the other

it was a most pleasant walk.

There would no doubt be many more people enjoying this beach in summer.

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However, this is not a bare foot beach. It’s made up of small shells so …

a good pair of walking shoes was essential.

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Coming back from my beach walk, I began to explore the rocky headland.

It was the resting place that morning for hundreds of birds, most of them small terns.

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Amongst them were Cormorants and, of course, sea gulls.

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My favourite bird of the morning was this Brahminy Kite (Haliastur Indus). I had taken a short bush walk to get further out on the rocks below the bluff. I found this magnificent bird sitting on a rock shelf quietly finishing off a feed of fish. T’was a magic moment.

Brahminy Kites feed exclusively on fish and other marine animals. I have read that they often scavenge for dead fish floating on the surface rather than catching live fish. Once this bird had finished its meal, I enjoyed watching it soar high over the rock platform.

Iluka is almost to the southern edge of the Brahminy Kite’s range. They occur only in warmer coastal areas and on offshore islands; in the eastern states they may occur from Port Macquarie north and, in Western Australia, they can be seen north of Carnarvon. We saw them in the tidal rivers of the Kimberleys when we were there a few years ago.

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There are good paths through the seaside scrub which seems to be alive with birds.

Most are impossible to photograph as they flit through the trees.

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Some are much more used to human company. This magpie joined me on my walk.

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A Masked Lapwing was a little more wary as he trotted across a more open area of park.

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The common Australian native tree, the Paper Bark, Melaleuca sp., abounds in this park.

Birds love them and some artists like to use the papery bark in their creations.

However, collecting this bark in a National Park is not permitted.

Take only photos, leave only footprints – that’s the rule.

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Day visitors are well catered for with plenty of tables in shady places for picnics.

There are also eco friendly long drop, composting toilets near the car park.

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A shaded, raised information area also has a picnic table and tank water.

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From the information platform, a steep set of steps leads up towards the top of the bluff.

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From the top of the steps, a steepish gravelled path with steps leads further upwards.

A more gentle board walk path then leads on through the bush.

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There are some interesting trees to look at along the way.

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A volunteer landcare group has been busy cleaning out weeds in this area.

They’ve also planted several more native trees and bushes.

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Finally, the look out comes into view.

And the view from the top is well worth the climb.

This is a great place to watch for whales on their migration route.

Looking south is the breakwater lined mouth of the Clarence River.

Yamba can be seen on the hill beyond.

Iluka is further back to the right behind another long, sandy beach.

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The sound and sight of waves folding over rocks below is something I always enjoy.

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There were many more walks I could have taken in this National Park,

but I was happy to take a rest here

and enjoy the solitude and the beauty of the sea scape.

The other walks will have to wait until I return some other time!

Jennie

Photography © Copyright JT of jtdytravels

More travel stories and photos of our overseas adventures can be found on

http://www.jtdytravels.com

Iluka : Clarence Valley : NSW : A Walk by the Bay

Aug29

The small seaside village of Iluka is a very quiet, relaxing place on the north side of the mouth of the Clarence River in Northern NSW. It’s a place far away from the hurly burly of the daily life of cities and towns. As a holiday destination, Iluka’s neighbour across the river, Yamba, is a much bigger and livelier place. But I wanted a quiet place to recharge my batteries, to slow down and enjoy the gentle things in life. I found that place in Iluka. So why not come with me for a quiet stroll along the riverside.

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This walk will take us along the edge of Iluka Bay, a man made safe harbour and refuge on the edge of the river. This was the first view from the path I followed down to the river.

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There to greet me were two of those well known and much loved birds of the waterways, the Australian Pelican, Pelecanus conspicuillatus, a very conspicuous bird. We are so used to seeing pelicans in Australia that we often pass them by without stopping for a good look. Common though this bird may be, there are some things we might not all know about this bird. Here are some points of interest that you can use in a Trivia quiz!

1. There are seven species of pelicans in the world, all of them black and white except for the brown Pelecanus occidentals. That’s a pelican we have seen in the Galapagos Islands.

2. Pelicans have a wingspan of 2.3 m – 2.5 m. They need those big wings to help lift themselves off the water.

3. And even when they do get airborne, Pelicans can’t sustain flapping flight. But they are excellent soarers, using the thermals to remain in the air for 24 hours at a time, covering hundreds of kilometres in search of food and water in dry seasons.

4. A Pelican’s skeleton weighs only 10% of its total body weight.

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That famous bill is about half a metre long. Perhaps some of you will be familiar with Edward Lear’s rhyme about the Pelican’s long bill and massive throat pouch:

“A wonderful bird is the pelican; His beak can hold more than his belly can; He can hold in his beak enough food for a week; But I’ll be darned if know how the hellican! “

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Of course pelicans are much heavier with a belly full of fish and, after eating, they just cruise around or rest on a safe rocky ledge like a break water. I expect this pair are ‘locals’ and don’t go far from ‘home’ at Iluka Bay where there’s plenty for them to eat.

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They no doubt wait for the next fisherman to come back through the breakwater with hopefully a load of fish – and fish heads that are not wanted! And at the end of this bay is the harbour for the professional fishermen. It’s a very good place for a pelican to live.

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Further along the beach, an Australian White Ibis was searching for food. This bird comes with a real tongue twister of a name; Threskiornis moluccus. Using their long curved bills, they dig up food from the mud. They eat invertebrates. Best of all they seem to really enjoy mussels which they open by whacking the hard shells on a rock.

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I had hoped there was a path along the breakwater but it’s just a jumble of very large rocks protecting the bay from the river currents and strong tides. This breakwater is essential to Iluka because the Clarence River is also known for very large floods.

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In a park beside the bay, is a rather smart looking shed for the rowing club and other aquatic sports. The mural is very much in keeping with the scenery.

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A Masked Lapwing, Vanellus miles novaehollandiae, kept an eye on me as it searched for insects. Since it lives, nests and feeds on the ground, it is always wary.

This fairly common Australian bird is also known as a Masked Plover, a Spur-winged Plover or just Plover. The distinctive black neck stripe on this bird distinguishes it as an eastern state variety. The northern variety has an all white neck and larger wattles.

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A new addition to the foreshore here is a very good and solidly built workout station. I tried it out with a lady who had ridden her bike down to do her morning exercises. It was a very pleasant way to do exercise while looking out at the bay, the boats and the birds.

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Walking back towards the other end of the bay and the professional fishing harbour, I enjoyed some shade in the heat of the day. The path is in excellent condition and used by walkers and bike riders. There’s one thing that is very certain about this village; people are encouraged to get out and about and enjoy the delightful environment. And they do.

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Even this pretty pigeon was out for a walk and followed along with me for quite a while.

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Among the usual seaside flowers was this unusual one that I had never seen before.

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But this magnificent flower of the coral tree, one of the Erythrina family of plants, is well known to me. It reminds me of our wonderful, kind neighbour, “Gran”, who lived next door to us when I was a child. Between our house and hers was a row of coral trees and seeing these splendid red flowers always brings me a special sense of joy as I remember her with love. Our own Grans lived far away. She was our special Gran.

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A white heron flew down to try its luck in the waters beside me.

I love to watch them stalking their prey.

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As usual in most Australian water ways, a couple of ducks came by to see if I had some food for them. No such luck. There’s plenty of natural food for the birds here. These ducks are Pacific Black Ducks, Anas superciliosa, a very common duck. It frequents all types of waterways and feeds mostly on seeds, especially of aquatic plants. However, they also like to eat small crustaceans, molluscs and aquatic insects.

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On just about every coastal walk in Northern NSW you will come across the glowing pink flower of the Mesembryanthemum, a native of South Africa. And since this flower’s name means ‘midday flowering’, you’ll see them at their very best in the heat of the day.

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There are several paths back up from the river to the village. This one was a little steep. A tree on the side of the path seemed to grow out rather than up, its trunk an art gallery of lichen.

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Grevillea is one of my favourite native Australian flowers and this one was a real winner. These were growing in someone’s front yard.

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Beside it, this beautiful creamy Grevillea was just beginning to uncurl.

A standard garden plant in any northern NSW coastal garden is the bougainvillaea.

They provide wonderful splashes of colour – mainly reds and pinks.

After a delightful morning walking by the water, I returned ‘home’ to the Iluka Motel for lunch, a rest and a quiet read on my private back patio. This is a great country motel and I can’t thank Margaret and Les enough for the warmth of their hospitality. I’ll be back!

Jennie

PS. A good place to look for information on the water birds I had seen on this walk is

http://www.birdsinbackyards.net

Petite Plovers on Racecourse Beach, Ulladulla, NSW

May27

If you take a walk along Racecourse Beach at Ulladulla at any time of the year, chances are that you will meet only a handful of other people. And the odds are even better that those people will walk right on by and not even notice a tiny bird that makes its home on the beach and in these sand dunes. It’s hard to see – it’s tiny and it’s so well camouflaged.

It’s not until this petite bird moves with its scurrying ways that you realise that it’s there at all. It runs quickly along the sand before pausing suddenly. As you approach, it flies off for a just short distance and then begins to hunt for food again.

Three species of little plovers live in this area – but which of the three is this one?

A closer look shows the reddish cap, clean white brow and breast and the sandy coloured back of the Australian native Red-capped Plover (Charadrius ruficapillus). This bird was on the beach on its own but they are often seen in pairs or small groups. Red-capped Plovers frequent dunes, beaches, river banks and the margins of inland lakes.

We watched in fascination as this tiny bird, only 15cm high, ran towards the incoming wavelets to catch the tiny insects off the surface or crustaceans turned over by the waves.

At the northern end of Racecourse Beach is a large rock shelf where we found the other two species of small plover – again both well camouflaged and very hard to see at first.

This small native Australian plover (20cm), sometimes called a dotterel, is fairly rare on the NSW south coast. It is more commonly found in Tasmania, along the coastal areas of Southern Australia and the south west of WA. It frequents ocean beaches, sand dunes, estuarine mud flats, exposed reefs as well as inland salt lakes in Western Australia.

It’s a shy bird and easily disturbed so we had to move very slowly towards it.

But patience was well rewarded with a good look at this well marked small bird. It’s entirely black-hooded, including the throat and shoulders, broken only by a very smart looking white nape band. The back is light-grey brown with a touch of black on the tail. The red bill is tipped with black. The red eye ring is rather lost in the black face.

While watching the Hooded Plover, another bird flew in , so tiny it was almost invisible.

It was not at all shy, came close and posed very nicely to have its portrait taken. This was the Double-banded Plover, a trans-Tasman migrant. It breeds in New Zealand in summer and visits Australia during the winter months. It was probably a fairly new arrival.

In New Zealand during the breeding period in summer, this bird sports a clearly defined black collar and deep reddish buff breast band. But when it’s in Australia during winter, these markings are muted, appearing as the softer buff coloured breast bands seen here.

This is definitely not a shy bird. It seemed to be just as interested in us as we were in it! While in Australia, it frequents seashores and mudflats of eastern and southern coasts.

Sharing the rock shelf with the plovers was a Sooty Oystercatcher. Not as common as the Pied Oystercatcher, this shy bird inhabits undisturbed ocean shores, preferring rocky ledges and reefs. It feeds on crustaceans, sea worms and molluscs using its strong, stout bill to break open shells and to prise limpets from rocks. There was plenty of food here!

Not even a rising tide with its crashing incoming waves deterred this bird from its search for food. It’s a very solidly built bird with entirely black plumage and that makes it very difficult to photograph unless it can be shown against the white of the waves.

But again patience was rewarded, and as the bird approached us, I was able to get that conspicuous red bill… and the red eye that is usually somewhat lost in the black face.

The only other bird on the rock ledge that morning was the smartly dressed but very common sea-side bird, the seagull.

And close by was yet another of those much rarer birds, a petite Hooded Plover.

Once again the tide was on the turn – it was time to go and leave the birds in peace.

More of our travel, gardens and nature photos are on:

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Dolphin Point, Burrill Lake, NSW

May20

Just south of Ulladulla on the south coast of NSW is Burrill Lake, a small shallow lake where flocks of Australian black swans often stop by to feed on sea grasses and to rest.

An inlet joins the lake to the sea. Storms and high seas have scoured out a rock platform and it was this rock platform that was to be my challenge – camera in hand of course.

After months of slow and painful rehabilitation from having my knee changed over from my ageing, crumbling, arthritic original to a new state of the art piece of technology, I finally felt that I could tackle such a walk. It was a glorious autumn day but nothing was sunnier or warmer than my feeling of joy and freedom as I carefully made my way across the rocks, checking out life in the pools and enjoying the smell and sound of the sea.

Very soon I was joined by one of my favourite birds, the Australian Pelican. Not exactly a winner in the beauty class but this is a bird with character – and an extraordinary bill.

And rock hopping with me was a very cheeky seagull.

In dry rock pools, a seaweed commonly called ‘Neptune’s Necklace’, ‘sea grapes’ or ‘bubble weed’, ( Hormosira banksii), added a 3D dimension to nature’s abstract art.

The habitat of this Australian and New Zealand seaweed is between tide-marks, so that for one part of the day the plants are submerged, for another they are floating, and for the third, and generally longest portion, they are stranded high and dry, as they are here.

In rock pools where they were still afloat, it was easy to see that these strings of almost hollow ‘beads’ are coated with a slimy layer that conserves moisture during low tide. The beads also contain a gas that helps them to float higher as the tide rises allowing them to flow with any current and still receive sunlight at high tide. Sea urchins, crustaceans and some fish eat this seaweed. And because it stays moist, the plant also provides protection for small rock pool creatures during hot, low tide periods.

In the shallow pools, tiny sea snails rested, each in its own uniquely decorated shell.

These shores had recently been pounded by huge storm waves but now a gentle sea left glistening rocks in its wake.

At the end of the rock shelf, the sea made more of a splash on barnacle encrusted rocks.

Many thousands of barnacles are stuck onto the rocks in densely packed ‘communities’.

These tiny creatures are related to prawns, lobsters and yabbies. They are protected by calcareous plates which form a dome like a volcano. The top entrance is covered by another two plates. When the tide turns and the barnacles are once more covered by water, the two top plates open and feather like limbs, called cirri, beat through the water filtering the plankton on which they feed and directing the food into their mouths.

While the sea was relatively calm, a fisherman tried his luck from the rocks…

… and my sister and I worked out how to use our new cameras. (photo DY)

From the rock ledge, I noticed a path leading around the headland to the next bay… maybe another time… the tide was on the turn and it was time to go home.

But even in the car park there were plants to photograph like this Mesembryanthemum, (Carpobrotus acinaciforme), a native plant of South Africa widely seen in coastal areas of Australia. The long name means “midday flowering” and that refers to the fact that the flower head closes at night when there are no helpful pollinators around. By closing, the flower can protect its ‘gametes’, or reproductive cells, from night-time dews, frost, wind and predators. They are a drought tolerant ground cover with a tendency to form thick mats and thus stabilise soil or sand. They are invasive and can choke out native plants.

Sometimes it’s the leaves of a plant that are the most photogenic, like this Melianthus, another native of South Africa. This evergreen perennial shrub of about 3m (10′) has the common name of “touch-me-not”because it has an unpleasant smell when touched. In spring and summer it produces reddish-brown tubular flowers above the leaves which are followed by pale green pods containing black seeds. It’s a good bird attracting plant.

Behind the dunes there were several Australian native Coastal Banksia trees, (Banksia integrifolia), with their yellow flower spikes, or inflorescence. Each spike is made up of several hundred flowers densely packed in a spiral around a cylindrical woody axis. One common name for this tree is Honeysuckle and birds certainly find the banksia’s nectar very tasty. After flowering, old flower parts wither and fall away over a period of several months, revealing the seed “cone”. The seeds are black with a feathery black ‘wing’ that helps them to ‘fly’ to the ground. The tree has a twisted gnarled trunk with rough grey bark and whirls of dark green leaves that are paler underneath.

The young banksia flower spikes are also very attractive.

And when the sun is lower in the sky, and if you are prepared to lie in the grass to get the very best shot, then even the humble dandelion makes a very photogenic subject!

(NB: to enlarge a photo, click on it – then click the back arrow to return to the blog.)

More of our travel photos on flickr.com/photos/jtdytravels

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Category Archives: Australian Native Birds

Iluka : Clarence Valley : Sunset on the Bay

Iluka : Clarence Valley : NSW : Bundjalung National Park

Iluka : Clarence Valley : NSW : A Walk by the Bay

Petite Plovers on Racecourse Beach, Ulladulla, NSW

Dolphin Point, Burrill Lake, NSW