A Spot of Birdwatching Anyone?

There is nothing like a field trip that relates perfectly to a subject you have been working on. Team it with a lovely autumn day and a "sort of" picnic like lunch and you have for two very happy children.

So we took off to visit the Miranda shoreline which is not too far away from us. First stop was the Miranda Shorebird Centre where they have "stuffed" varieties of local birds (erk but helpful to see the types of birds in real ... not sure if life is the right word), souveneirs and lots of books and leaflets along with friendly voulnteers. Then we head off up the road to view some birdies armed with binoculars, camera and our bird books.

Because we had planned to end up along the beach somewhere and I knew where two little shell gathering girls would end up, I proposed the wearing of jandals (flip flops, thongs) so excuse the footwear.

Whilst the Papa and the girls went off to the purpose built bird watching room I stayed back by the car because we had thought it might be nice to take the Scruffster along for a drive. We had not even thought as far as "oh yeah a barking dog and birds may not go hand in hand" ... der.  Yes people it was a spur of the moment outing. This old bird simply had one of those moments when she needed to get out and stretch her wings. 

 

This is the view from the bird watching area.

 

 

 

This is a "pied stilt".

 

This is a "heron" of sorts ... I think. I can't quite make it out and the Fashionista can't remember. She got excited so we have lots of unidentifiable bird photos' ... lol


They didn't take too long to watch the birds as they had hungry tummies and we had told them that we would come back for a proper look (without the Papa who declared to me on the quiet that whilst he loved the walk and being out and about in nature with us that he unfortunately found sitting and watching birds slighlty boring ... poor guy ... insert maniacal laugh). Now that we know where to go and when the best time for viewing is, which  happens to be 2 hours either side of high tide (we were right at the end) we'll be sure to pop over again. Although Jan - March is the best time for viewing with the highest numbers, you can see shorebirds all year long.


We then popped off to the beach, grabbed some fish and chips (fish freshly caught from neabry) and had a small picnic with our thermos and bickies that we had brought along, whilst the girls gathered some shells and rocks and other things they found of interest. They then played on a nearby park and lastly we headed off up the road further to a secluded bay where Agent Smelly found a mans wallet in the water near where the boats would enter the water. We managed to find his business cards inside but due to him being out on a boat our phones wouldn't connect properly but I managed to leave and also text through some messages to let him know and waited a while but in the end headed back home.

Later that evening he phoned me to say thanks, that he had received my message and asked if it would be OK to come along to grab his (very wet) wallet and cards. Thankfully about 25 minutes away. He said that he would bring us some fish that he'd caught which I excitedly told Agent Smelly about when I got off the phone. Her comment "Oh great just what every 8 year old wants ... dead fish".

A most grateful gentleman arrived at our door half an hour later with some freshly prepared snapper (yum!) and this chocolate bar for his little life saver. She was over the moon!!!