A rainy day in Sydney...

[khiemtran]

Good thing we didn't capsize. Would be a shame to get wet...




A desert island in Botany Bay. This is actually a very special island because it's a breeding site of the Little Tern. The birds migrate from Japan to breed and, it being February, they're there right now. The island (now called Spit Island) is just offshore from Towra Point Reserve. If a land bridge were to form, a single fox could devastate the Little Tern population overnight.



We were expecting a 15-20 kt southerly to come through, but it didn't turn up until later in the day. Here's one of the sailing school boats, becalmed on the glassy water. They later gave up and got a tow back to base.

Comments

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

Nice to see someone else having the rain for a change!

Wow, that is a glassy calm. Nothing moving there.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

From the sound of it, it's nothing like what you've been having!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

That second photo is so watercolor-like!

Good thing there's no land bridge to aid and abet a fox. Now let's make sure no farmer tries to figure out how to accommodate one along with his bushel of grain and his hen….

[soon_lee]

Maybe it's rats we should be more worried about; they're surprisingly good long distance swimmers.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Good point. It's certainly less than 400 m to the mainland and a motivated rat could make it. The white square on the left side of the island photo is actually a sign forbidden anyone from landing there. Not that there are likely to be any rats in our dinghy...

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Actually, I did think about the danger of rats--they've caused lots of troubles on islands . . .

(and way to go, with that 400 m swim, Rattus norvegicus)

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

It was a watercolour kind of day! Lucky it was also a waterproof camera.

The trick with the land bridge is Botany Bay is notorious for shifting sands, so someone needs to be eternally vigilant in case the island is suddenly not an island.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Truly, what do they do about that? Do they dredge,or…. ?

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

I guess they would dredge. That colony was actually re-located from Sydney airport across the bay, so they could also try to move them again. I'm not sure if there are any other suitable islands though.