Monday, November 6, 2017

Around Mackay

By Jen.

The southward journey continued, this time towards Mackay. That is, after we did a short loop back into Townsville to pick up a package that I had had shipped to me and had forgotten to pick up when we were in town. We stopped by a bird hide for lunch.

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This colorful guy kept flitting around trying to get his own lunch.

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This little bird might be my favorite in all of Australia. While not as colorful as other birds, it has a very fancy walk/dance that it does. One of these days I hope to record it for you. I find it very entertaining.

I wanted another chance to see a platypus, so we headed towards Eungella NP. There is a Platypus Walk there with several viewing platforms. Our timing was poor, though, so all we saw were a snake and some turtles.

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I believe this is a saw-shelled turtle.

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I think this is a harmless common tree snake. Was a bit of a concern, though, when it started moving towards on the path. Apparently, it just wanted to take shelter under the boardwalk.

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Native bees! See how tiny they are?! Our first encounter with them was on our windshield. They would land on our windshield while we were driving and hold on for a while before flying off. I was super confused by them. Eventually I learned they were native bees. I have wanted to show them to you for a while now, but was never able to get a picture.

Next was the coast again. Andrew’s point.

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Wedge Island, which is connected by a land bridge at low tide.

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My favorite part of the walk was Turtle Lookout.

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We must have seen 20 turtles pop up for breath just offshore while we were watching.

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