The Decoy

It was low tide as I left the Seat of Knowledge this morning, so I pedalled along the river to the beach.

There waiting for me, and preening themselves for the camera, were three delightful pelicans.

Further out in the water, on a sandbank, was another group of pelicans.  Just as I was about to take their photo, they all took off and began flying further up the beach.

I looked in the direction that they were flying to see yet another large group of pelicans about a kilometre along the beach.  I could barely see them with the naked eye, but they were more visible through my 400mm lens.

So I decided to go for a walk along the beach to see if I could catch up to them and get close enough for a good shot.

By now the tide had turned and was beginning to run in.

When I got well past the halfway mark, every couple of hundred metres, I took a photo, just in case they decided to fly away and I couldn't get close.

The closer I got, the little streams from the ocean were beginning to flow deeper across the sand as the tide came in and my shoes got wet as I tried to tippy toe delicately through them (I hear you laughing at the vision of me trying to be delicate!).

They were beginning to look in my direction and I kept my eye on them because I didn't want to miss a good shot if they all took off together.

It seemed like I would never reach them! It took forever to get there! They all started to waddle towards the water.

Then one of them took off and flew towards me, flying almost directly over my head! I raised the camera and fired off a few shots to get this.

While I was getting this shot, much to my dismay, the other pelicans took off and flew behind me ... BACK towards the spot that I had just walked from!

So back I walked, through ankle deep water in some parts to get to the soft sand beach, so that I wouldn't have to walk through so much water.

It was good exercise and it was a glorious day, so my only complaint is that I couldn't get any worthy shots of such a lovely large group of pelicans.

Thank goodness I live in such an honest town, because my trike and all the junk in the basket, was all still waiting for me where I'd left it almost an hour earlier.

I had a sneaky little hide behind Kaz and Lucy's Man's house on my way home, to see what birdlife might be lurking in the bushes, now that Spring is creeping up.

I found a new bird that I've never seen in real life before. A Spangled Drongo.

My mother used to call me a drongo sometimes  - obviously not after the bird!

There was a cheeky little Grey Fantail and a couple of Brahminy Kites sitting high in the trees and some Noisy Friars washing themselves in the puddles, but nothing much else.


I'll try again in a couple of weeks.

Boo Radley phoned and asked if I'd photograph his beloved Port bottle collection for him, so I did that this afternoon too.

I've told him that I am far too busy and important to be at his beck and call over the next five weeks (okay, maybe I didn't use those words exactly), so he knows not to call me for photography duty until after September.

I spent the afternoon getting a couple more shots for the exhibit. I'm happy with two of the four different sets I created.

I'm feeling 80% happy with my progress at this stage ... which is a whole lot better than I was feeling last week!

So, except for the decoy pelican that foiled my group pelican plan, it's been a productive day!

Nite all.