School’s Out

Having mentioned just a week or two back that the water conditions have been pretty awful, I really hoped that would soon change.  Being in need of another activity to fill my outdoor time.  To both provide the opportunity to see, and share the wonders of nature.  It’s finally hotting up, to the point that a wander in the bush is getting uncomfortable.  I do have a limit on how dedicated I am with orchid hunting.  It is getting to the point for me that it is not worth getting hot and bothered for what little chance of reward there may be:

In addition I omitted to mention that when Josh, Howsie, and I headed to Moses Rocks last weekend I unintentionally shock loaded my right forearm.  This sent me a bit of warning that something wasn’t right.  Truth be told, I have been in denial for several months now.  That’s changed having had two trips to the physio last week, with quite a few more to come.  It seems the injuries from back in May were never properly tended.  They will be properly dealt with this time, which I’ve been told is likely going to be a six month process:

That doesn’t mean I have to stop climbing, but I do need to ease off and even passed up a chance to head out on Friday morning.  Yesterday evening Lisa and I wandered down to the beach to give the poodle’s legs a stretch, and watch the sun go down.  The haze of the smoke from controlled burn-offs hung low on the horizon, making for a specky sunset.  The water still looked a little murky but with the swell dropping overnight I decided I would give it a go.  My first dip in the ocean this year, which I think is the latest start of all my snorkel seasons:

This morning Lisa went to the beach ahead of me.  The Saturday bob starts at 7am, which is a bit early to get in the water.  Mostly because the sun isn’t quite high enough in the sky to assist with the visibility once under the surface.  Even more so when the water looks a little cloudy.  It was not the image of the coast she sent me, to provide an indication of the conditions, but the mention of dolphins being about that urged me to head down not long afterwards.  Once down and standing at the water’s edge, I felt that I could be in luck:

Scanning the water’s surface, there was not a dolphin in sight.  No matter.  For the first dip, whatever I got to see would be a bonus.  It felt lush being back in the water, even though it wasn’t super clear.  The usual solitary suspects were about, watching me with caution.  Not long after a school of Western Striped Grunters (Helotes octolineatus) began to circle me.  These fish live in nearshore or estuarine seagrass meadows for the first year, and then migrate to deeper coastal waters.  It was not till I got home I noticed they had a friend:

If you check the third image you may spot a single Yelloweye Mullet (Aldrichetta forsteri), hidden amongst the Western Striped Grunters.  The big googly eye, along with the body shape and patterning makes me think I have the right identification.  A popular angling fish, they are the most common mullet in southern Australia and like similar environments to the Western Striped Grunters.  Shortly after I came across a massive ball of baitfish.  The low sun and fine particles in the water column meant the image does not give the sight justice:

As drifted further out a third schooling species appeared and followed me for a bit.  I think they are Silver Trevally (Pseudocaranx georgianus), another species that moves to deeper waters as they mature.  If I am right with the identification these are likely to be sub-adults because for the first 3 to 4 years, of their 20 plus year lifespan, they have a yellow mid-lateral stripe.  And this was absent from the ones I saw.  While the bright orange of the above Vermillion Seastar (Pentagonaster duebeni) was however impossible to miss:

On occasion I heard the distant sound of dolphins.  Popping my head up to look about there were no signs of them, but I did spot a Pied Cormorant (Phalacrocorax varius).  Trying to evade me, it’s feather had taken on too much water after diving for food to allow it to fly away.  As it paddled furiously I let it be, making my way back to shore.  The murky shallows meant that even with images it hard to tell if this was a Masked Stingaree (Trygonoptera personata) or Striped Stingaree (Trygonoptera ovalis).  Then I head the dolphins, they were close:

Looking up and scanning the water I saw a fin.  Then two, three, four, and more.  Being some hundred meters away I felt if I swam towards them they would be gone when I arrived.  Risking it anyway I found myself surrounded by a pod of twelve or more, young and old.  It was absolute bliss, watching Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) gracefully move about while absorbing their whistles and clicks.  Next week school’s out, which means the shutdown at work is soon after.  Here’s hoping the conditions continue to improve: