Skywatch Friday

While waiting for the queen Mary 2 to arrive, the moon popped out from behind the clouds.

HMB Endeavour

Today, the replica of Captain James Cook's ship the Endeavour arrived in Port Adelaide as part of it's tour around Australia. The replica is a true copy of the original (except for its modern engine and radio)

She arrived from Port Lincoln on the Eyre Peninsular, accompanied by the sail training ship the One and All.

To get into Port Adelaide they have to swing the new Tom "Diver" Derrick Bridge. This bridge has two spans, one for road traffic and one for rail. The road span opened OK, but the rail span failed to open.

So we all waited for an engineer to come and free up the rail side, which finally opened and hour or so later to let the ships in.

The local maritime museum provided a welcome in the shape of a small canon, and the whole thing was recorded by channel 7 news from their chopper. The Endeavour was proudly flying the Australian Red Ensign.

In the river there were lots of jellyfish.

Queen Mary 2

We got up early this morning and headed to Outer Harbour to see the Queen Mary 2 arrive as part of her around Australia cruise. She was due to arrive at 8:00, so we got there around 7:00. As we arrived, the bulk carrier Banastar was just leaving en route to China. Flocks of Silver Gulls were flying up and down the beach. It was very murky, but eventually we saw the ship emerging from the gloom, and slowly drawing closer. The tug left as she approached the entry. Then the sun came out and we could see her in all her glory!! Next to go out to her was the Pilot. Once the tug had a line connected, she slowly approached the dock, and swept past us with a long blast of her fog horn. There is more information about the Queen Mary 2 on Cunard's web site here.

Skywatch Friday

An amazing sunset, from my backyard, Burton, South Australia

"Qantas 081, cleared to land"

Birding around Adelaide

Some good friends of mine have been staying for a few days, so I've been showing them some of the birding spots around Adelaide. We took another trip down to Goolwa, where we birded along the barrage road, on the beach and from the bird hide. Most of the birds were the same as on my last visit, but we did see Red-Avocet and Pink-eared Duck which were both new birds for my friends. Lunch, as usual in Goolwa, was fish and chips by the river. This time we watched the Milang to Goolwa boat race, and were kept company by a flock of Little Corellas. There were Plenty of birds on the river, and I snapped a Whiskered Tern, a Great Cormorant (with a fishing weight tangled on it, and the ever present Australian Pelican. Next day we went up through the Adelaide Hills to Laratinga Wetlands at Mount Barker. We had lunch on the way at a small park in Nairne. There were lots of pale blue dragonflies here, and an interesting rock with a snake carved onto it. There was also a Coot family with some very late chicks. When we got to Laratinga, it was in great shape with lots of mud for waders and crakes. We saw Black-fronted Plovers, Yellow-billed Spoonbills, Australian White Ibis and this very inquisitive young Superb Fairywren. In a couple of hours here we counted over twenty Spotted Crakes and a single Baillons Crake.

Skywatch Friday

A fine crescent, just a couple og days before the new moon.

St Kilda Saltfields

This morning I had a couple of hours in the Saltfields. There were thousands of stilts there, both White-headed and Banded.

Other waders (shorebirds) included Red-necked Stint and Sharp-tailed Sandpiper.

There were also good numbers of fairywrens there, but this female White-winged was the only one I photographed. Fours species of Cormorant were seen, and only Little Pied was snapped.

I caught this Whiskered Tern plucking insects from the bushes, and also got long range shots of Red-kneed Dotterel and Sacred Kingfisher.