A Beaut Day!

It's always nice when plans work out just as you want them to!  Christmas day went just as we had planned.  First we had an early morning kayak - then a delicious dinner with family and friends.
The tide was early with enough water over the flats to make it easy to kayak quite close to the shore.  Even with all the tourists in the area there was no-one at all on the bay - a stretch of miles with only ourselves there!  We decided to kayak to an area where we don't usually go.  There are lots of creeks and inlets which make interesting kayaking - but the only ones I usually visit are the ones where there are shorebirds roosting. 
After kayaking along the bay for just about 1.7 kms (nearly 1 mile) we reached the creek we wanted to kayak into.  It is surrounded by mangrove trees but the banks rise quite steeply in places and the forest comes down quite close.  Even out on the bay there was almost no wind and in on the creek the reflections were great.

There were some tall eucalyptus trees and some of these were dead with lots of interesting holes - perfect places for nests for birds and some of the climbing forest creatures.  In some places the trees had fallen and almost blocked the creek channel.

The only birds I managed to get photos of were these Sulphur-crested Cockatoos as they flew overhead.  These birds are so noisy that you hear them coming!

When I first came up here 9 years ago there were flocks of several hundred that flew over my house every morning.  However, the big pine trees where they used to feed and roost have now been cut down and there are not so many seen right around town.  Some of them still come into the pine trees in the empty block next to my house and sit up there and tear open the cones to get into the seeds.

For more photos from around the world visit Our World Tuesday
and for more bird photos visit Wild Bird Wednesday.