walking – A Home by the Sea

I walk daily to the beautiful lake near our home by the sea.

There are many new homes being constructed in this area at present, thus there is always something new to see along the way. But the real attraction is the birdlife in this area, such as this Heron.

As a Chinese symbol, the Heron represents strength, purity, patience and long life.”

I hope this might mean that both the Heron and I have a long life!!

Sometimes we even see the local kangaroos and their joeys in this area. Meanwhile, the Heron continues stamping the slightly soggy ground on the street’s verges looking for some food.

Today, however, we took a long walk in the opposite direction to the roos and away from the foraging Heron.

A new sports facility has opened up. In the current environment, this means that the ground is open, but as the football competition has been closed for the season, I am not sure if you could call it open, but officially it is.

We continue walking from the main road towards the “basin,” or pond. This is a mini wetland area that has attracted a variety of birdlife.

With a larger wetland environmental area opposite, the birds have plenty of food sources.

On closer inspection we could see cormorants, drying their wings in their familiar crucifix-like gesture, welcoming the morning rays of sunlight as well as a Black swan and the odd Ibis. A Willy Wagtail pair tweeting their way along the path in front of us, danced lightly on the ground. They were gone before I could photograph them.

We saw Moorhens chicks stepping their way through the waterlily pads, a perfect adaptation to the watery environment.

This Mother was calling her wayward adventurous chick, and had to chase after her to give her some food.

The cutest of all were these little ducklings. Covered with down, they dipped their heads under the water, but never really that far from Mother Duck.

New Sports Facility for Australian Rules Football

This football field will be a training ground for the local Australian Rules Football club. If you are not Australian, you might not know of this game. Developed as a way for the cricket players to maintain their fitness in the off-season, ‘Aussie Rules,’ is played on a large oval with four posts at either end. It is basically a kick and catch type of game, with elements of basketball thrown in for good measure and a few penalties along the way to add excitement. The players are tall and lean, and very muscular, and I might add, very highly paid.

The Football Clubhouse looks forlorn and vacant and I think of the term ‘white elephant’ when I look at it. It awaits the demise of Corona as we all do.

A storm was heard in the distance, towards the Northern coast. Highly unusual for this time of year, it did not threaten us, but we did get to see some gorgeous coloured sky and cloud formations.

The simple pleasures of life.

Some days I feel that the lockdown won’t ever be over. I push that thought aside and continue my walk from the ground back towards the estate.

Just before we hit suburbia again, there is an Eco-corridor. The Magpies are up early hunting for their breakfast and I am getting pretty peckish too.

The early bird gets the worm, I hope. Can you see four birds in these pictures? Three were magpies and the fourth, an Indian Myna bird.