Bush and Beach

The road from Cooloola Cove to Rainbow Beach cuts through the northern portion of the Great Sandy National Park. The road is a about 20kms, well-made and sealed but narrow. There are only a couple of good places to pass and most of the time the road verges are narrow or non-existent. There are lots of interesting places for birds but mostly they are along 4 wheel drive tracks. The Searys Creek Picnic Place is part way along this road and the one place it is easy to get into the bush and see some birds. A board walk leads from the parking area down to the creek and then follows along beside  the creek a little further.

The creek crosses under the road in a culvert and there is a series of small rapids.

The water is stained with the tannin from the vegetation around and in the creek. The light shining on the water turns the brown color into shades of red.

There are always birds calling in the thick vegetation but it takes patience to find them among the leaves and even greater patience to get good photos of them.

I photographed a lot of pelicans roosting on the sand island at Inskip Point a few days ago.These are the only kind of pelicans found in Australia - Pelecanus conspicillatus. There are a couple of Pied Oystercatchers standing on the right of the Pelicans. They look small by comparison.

With numbers like this at the major roost sites there are also small groups of Pelicans in most places around the bay. I photographed these ones at Carlo boat launch.

Three was definitely a crowd and two birds swam off together leaving one by itself.

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and for more bird photos visit Wild Bird Wednesday.