Back to the coast!

I have had a rather large gap between posts, this was due to the fact I was relocating from Bundanoon to reunite with my husband and trusty dog companion. We are living in what is affectionately known as 'Barkingham Palace' (badoom tish!). Which is located in Toukley, on the Central Coast of NSW. Oddly, our back garden looks almost identical to the one we had while living in Cairns, which pleases me because it makes it feel more like home.

Sadly the bird life visiting our garden has consisted mostly of Noisy miners Manorina melanocephala. These are a medium sized, grey, honeyeater, and while they are native can be a real pest due to their aggressive habit of attacking and driving off any other birds in 'their' territory. Having said that I have seen plenty of Rainbow Lorikeets, Magpies and Galahs. The best way to minimise Noisy miners in your area is to have a garden that contains a good understory, they hate understory and love lawns. If we owned the property I would certainly be addressing this, but for now we will just have to make do!

Having lived on the Central Coast previously this area is fairly familiar, although we didn't live very near the ocean last time. We now live quite close to Wyrrabalong National Park, as well as several beautiful beaches and lakes. The lakes are excellent for bird watching and are home to many Australian Pelicans, Black Swans, Cormorants (black and pied), various Ducks and Silver Gulls. I am sure there are more that I am yet to spot!
There are also fossils here... so far the ones I have found are in rock that is not in-situ, it has been brought in from somewhere near, for landscaping purposes. This will make dating a bit complicated, but hopefully after some further research all will become clear. To make up for the fact I have not posted much recently I will compose a post with images of some of the better fossils I have found. Most I have not removed, unless the matrix containing the fossils had already broken away from the original chunks of rock, as they are in a public space.