March 9 Day Trip (continued)

March 9 Day Trip (Continued)

 Next we drove down the mountain to a place called Beach Park, which was on a gravel beach, where we took a short walk on a trail that afforded us a nice view, then we had lunch.  We were visited there by a couple of pesky magpies, as well as a kookaburra and a little mynah bird.

 The final stop was at the harbour where Muttonbird Island Nature Preserve lies.  On a small island there's a steep hill/mountain where a type of gull called the short-tailed shearwater (a relative of whom is common on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and for whom Walter and Peter Anderson's art studio in Ocean Springs, MS is named), which in Australia is called the muttonbird.  It burrows into the hillside, where its babies hide during the day while the parents are out finding fish and krill for them to eat.  The climb up the steep hill is demanding, but the view is well worth the effort  required.
Then it was back home for grilled salmon, nice Aussie wine, and an evening of watching the opening weekend of NRL football with the North Queensland Cowboys defeat of 
the Cronulla Sharks.


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