Coolabah Wetland

Theres a Coolabah billabong down the road a bit that forms a welcome patch of water for local animals and humans alike. It's nestled into the side of a dune and is stunning not for its beauty, but for its wildlife. Great flocks of flock pigeons swirled in great figure eights, swooping into the water for a brief mouthful before swooping up again, tantalisingly out of reach to the black kites, brown falcons, whistling kites and black shouldered kites that all followed the birds around their dance. Many more species of water bird swam happily on the water, while the sandy edges abounded in emu, camel and roo tracks. The kids had a ball having a treasure hunt to find their morning tea in the gidgee trees, and Al and I fossicked around under the coolibahs for the numerous owl roosts. It was a graveyard under there, with rat carsasses aplenty, lorikeet wings and pellets abounding. I got leave to walk back, and blissed out at all the flowers along the way. Dreaming, I heard a tsss next to me. Being cool calm and collected, I jumped a metre in the air and spun around, expecting to see a taipan. Instead, it was an awesome Bearded Dragon, hissing with mouth wide and body flattened and raised toward me to ensure I knew how scary it was!