Shipwrecked birds.
Bringing out the kayaks.
I’ve been back from Australia for a few weeks now and caught up in the busy-ness of working, seeing friends, exercising, cooking, shopping and all the other everyday life things. It’s all been good. But I’ve missed writing here. So I thought I would start with the Barrier Reef and share some of my favorite photos of the seabirds, butterflies, the beach and the reef itself. For such a small island, Heron is packed with wildlife of all sorts.
As for the tiny turtle hatchling, I was reading on the beach when he came by. (Heron is a nesting site for loggerhead and green turtles.) As I took his photo, I started seeing dozens of others, all scrambling to leave the nest, cross the beach and the rocks to get to the water and swim. This was no small feat given their size (roughly 7 cm) and the distance they had to cover and then finally the beach rocks themselves. They would climb up a “rock wall” and fall over onto their backs, scramble upright and go over another wall only to fall again. All the while, seagulls were swooping and squawking, trying to have lunch. (As it’s an eco island, you can’t help the turtles.) The whole process was thrilling. And since there were so many turtles, only two were scooped up by seagulls. Somehow, it felt like a victory that so many could survive.
Starfish at low tide.
Coral at low tide.
A brown booby. Yes, that’s really the name of this bird.
Blue tiger butterflies.
A turtle hatchling makes his way across the beach rock.
Pisonia tree.
Just another day in paradise.
Arriving by seaplane.
A seagull sunset.
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Nice pics, Sandy! Glad you enjoyed some R&R and got to return to Heron Island. And, isn’t nature magical? I felt the similarly @ GBReef and Galapagos. Love the boobies! They have blue- and red-footed ones in Ecuador and here in Panama they have the brown-footed ones. Appreciated your turtle story. It made me recall watching baby turtles make their way to the ocean in the Outer Banks with my niece and nephews. All of them made it in, but how many survived beyond that, we’ll never know.
Thanks Kezia! Hanging out in nature (and warm weather) was just what I needed. Now I need to see the nature in your part of the world!
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