A whale of a time

Having had a few excellent days in the Outback and got extremely annoyed with the flies that, while they don't actually bite, just pester you constantly to the point where a mosquito head net is called for to keep them out of your face, we headed east to the coast to Hervey Bay for a few days of Whale watching.

26th July

After a few days travelling east, with short stops at in the Bunya Mountains National Park and then Toowoomba to pick up Toni's granddaughter, Elsie, we arrived at the Sanctuary Lakes Fauna Retreat in Hervey Bay where we were met by an assortment of Australian Swamphens, Dusky Moorhens and Pacific Black Ducks that are obviously regularly fed by guests.

27th July

Up early, we were booked onto a whale watching boat out of Hervey Bay at 8.30am with the Boat Club's Amaroo. With Phil at the helm, we headed out into Platypus Bay where the Humpback Whales come to spend the season and before we had left the harbour, a Brown Booby flew over the boat, hopefully a good sign. With several other whale watching boats out already that morning, all of whom are in communication with one another, we received word from Pete on the Blue Dolphin of a whale breaching. As we approached we could see the whale breaching in the distance and thankfully as we steadily got closer, the whale continued to breach, hurling itself clear of the water on several occasions. Trying to photograph breaching whales is tricky since it's not always obvious where they will appear from next, but with luck you can get the shot, though this particular whale had the slightly annoying habit of always appearing in the sun's glare.

breaching Humpback Whale

The other 3 whales we saw were much less active, just their back and fins visible but a group of Bottle-nosed Dolphins which came in to bow-ride alongside the boat entertained the passengers, both young and old.

Bottlenose Dolphin bow-riding

As we headed back into the harbour, a Brown Booby and an Australasian Gannet were seen sat on the sea, while a group of Australian Pelicans met us in the harbour itself.

 Australasian Gannet

Brown Booby

29th July

Having lost yesterday to returning Elsie to her parents, after recovering from the experience of looking after a 5 year old for a couple of days, we decided the best cure was to head back out for an afternoon whale watch, again on the Amaroo. This time, Daimo was at the helm, but unlike Phil, Daimo liked to motor about the bay in search of whales, with much less stealth. This was most apparent as we headed towards a whale breaching in the distance and rather than slow down and slowly approach to let the whale become accustomed to our presence, we raced to the immediate area, and disappointingly, though not totally surprising, the very actively breaching whale became much less active, engaging more in a spot of tail waving.

Occasionally Humpbacks can be very curious, and the next whales we saw were just that. As soon as we approached them, the whales began to come closer and the engines were cut while the two whales spent the next 20 minutes virtually within touching distance as they swam underneath the boat and spyhopped with just their head out of the water looking at us.

As we raced back to the harbour, another breaching whale appeared on the horizon, and again only breach a couple of times when we were nearby, and again as we left, with Daimo clearly more interested in getting people back to harbour on time rather than staying with active whales. Thankfully I did manage to get a good sequence of a breach before we set off again.

After Saturday's experience with Phil, this trip was much less pleasing despite the amazing sightings, but it just shows how different it can be with different captains.

30th July

After a couple of days watching whales, I was keen to get back to some birding, and as Toni had been offered a day on the Blue Dolphin boat, having been more preoccupied trying to look after Elsie than take photos on Saturday, we went our separate ways.

Having looked on eBird (sorry BTO!!!) for locations of recent Beach Stone Curlews, a bird I wanted to, but failed to see on my previous visit to Australia 6 years ago, I headed to Gataker's Bay at nearby Point Vernon. I had only been walking along the shoreline a few minutes after watching a group of Pacific Golden Plovers roosting with a couple of Australian Terns and a Caspian Tern when I saw the unmistakable silhouette of a Beach Stone Curlew a bit further down the beach. As I approached, trying to work around it to get the light better on it, it was always a bit wary of a direct approach, but by sitting down I found it would actually come to see me and I was able to get the shots I wanted.

Beach Stone Curlew

Along the shoreline was a bit of mangrove and scrub, which held quite a few birds, including a couple of pairs of Red-backed Fairywrens, the 5th species of Fairywren I have sen on this trip, the males absolutely stunning, but quite difficult to photograph from the beach below the scrub meaning I was always looking up at them.

male Red-backed Fairywren

Walking back to the car, a Sacred Kingfisher and several Rainbow Bee-eaters virtually posed for photographs in the lovely morning light.

Sacred Kingfisher 

Rainbow Bee-eater

On my last visit to Australia, we had stayed in Point Vernon while Tropical Hurricane Oswald hit, but thankfully the weather was much better this time, or I'm pretty certain I would never be allowed to set foot in the place ever again! While there for several days, I would visit an active Eastern Osprey nest and as I was in the area, went past to see one bird sat on the nest and then found its mate on a post along the water's edge, that was remarkably approachable.

Eastern Osprey

Thankfully, Toni had a good day out on the Blue Dolphin and got some good photos of Humpbacks, and so I didn't feel quite as guilty about dragging her away and down to Lamington National Park for the next stop and some rainforest birding!