Beach Kangaroos, Manta Rays, and Seawater-Drinking Birds

So we went down to Batemans Bay and region, south of Sydney on the NSW coast, a few weeks ago, and saw beach kangaroos. The first one was in Pebbly Beach, just lounging on a sandy dune.

It's an Eastern Grey Kangaroo. They're not generally associated with beaches, but it appears that some have adapted. And we actually saw tracks on the beach that clearly showed that kangaroos had gone into the surf! I would have loved to see that.

Shark Release

We went down to Collaroy Beach two weeks ago and witnessed the release of four young Wobeggong Sharks. It's all part of Project Wobbegong:

With shark populations collapsing worldwide and local wobbegong numbers in decline, the juveniles are part of a research program investigating whether sharks bred in captivity can thrive in the wild.

The joint venture between Sydney Aquarium and Macquarie University, called Project Wobbegong, is already a success, with 12 out of 17 individuals released setting up home in the area or returning on a regular basis.

A crowd gathered on the beach, waiting for the sharks, including camera crews.

And divers:

Eels, Leeches, And a Giant Spider on My Face [updtd]

So you're in Australia. In the southeastern state of New South Wales, the North Carolina of Australia. In Sydney. (Let's call it Wilmington). Go straight north from the city center about 20 miles, er, about 32 kilometers, and you run into Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park.

Now you all know where to search for my body.

Right. To the latest excursion.

I entered the park at the Ku-ring-gai Wildflower Garden, and soon heard a "knocking on a hollow wood box" bird-call I am completely unfamiliar with. Five-second video:

The Venomous Saltwater Catfish

UPDATES: Tips on how to treat stings.

March 26, 2020: Comments still coming in. Latest one cracks me up.

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January, 2019: Six Eight years later, people are still coming here to tell their saltwater catfish horror stories. (See comments.)

April 3, 2019: See this comment from a mom who regrets not taking her boy straight to hospital after a sting in Western Australia.

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Came across this fella dead at the tide pools yesterday:

It was about 26 inches long. It looked like a catfish: you can clearly see the barbels around the mouth. I never knew there were saltwater catfish, but hey, what do I know?

My First Aussie Fish Catch

I went fishing last night, at dusk, and then into the dark, in a light rain. You just don't know how good it is to stand in the surf up to your ankles or nipples for a few hours, especially while doing something like fishing, which has its own kinds of goodness.

Anyway, I caught my first fish. Even in the dark I could tell it was a flathead, which is supposedly a great eating fish. Mine was unfortunately a small one, about 8 inches (they need to be 26 centimeters, which is like 8 feet I think). Unfortunately again the combination of it being dark and the fact that the little bugger nearly swallowed the hook made it impossible to get the hook free without messing the fish up pretty bad. I was trying and trying and the spines on the fish's gills kept stabbing me in the hands and I'm cussing up a storm in the rain trying to get the goddamn hook out. Blech. Made me feel like shit. I finally got it and put the guy back in the ocean. He swam off.

I hope the little fella lived and grows to a really good size and gets caught on my hook one day so I can eat him.

A Fossil, A Fish, and a Sign

Christine and I were strolling around the rock pools at Collaroy yesterday, beside stunning, water- and wind-carved cliffs:

Christine walked straight up to a tiny fossil:

Shark Egg

From my old collection here:

Took this photo at Hans and Kellie's house in Dee Why. It's a shark egg. They lay them near kelp beds and the eggs get lost and tangled up therein and so are protected from the eight gazillion things in the ocean that would love to eat them.

You can find the dried up and hard shells, if you're lucky, washed up on certain beaches. (Hans found it at a nearby beach.)

At the top you see the beginning of the long curly stringer that comes off the top of the egg - about seven inches long. It allows the egg to attach to the kelp. (Sorry or the lack of focus here.)

We didn't know what kind of shark it came from, but a little googling tells me it may be from a Crested Horn Shark. (Fact at bottom.) And this is cool.

Bonus: This one never hatched. You can feel the weight of the little shark embryo inside.

"...and it can kill ya"

Christine really wanted me to know that touching this fish was a bad idea:



Why?

Puffer fish are generally believed to be the second–most poisonous vertebrate in the world, after the Golden Poison Frog.

Along with all the blue bottles we saw Sunday, we saw at least ten of those puffers washed up dead on the beach. I didn't touch a single one. (And though we say so in the video, it is not a stone fish.)

Oh look, here's a story about an angry puffer fish that attacked a young man's testicles.