Our great southern migration

    We seem to do better with purples than with pink. We were just headed back to the car in one park when this colorful tweet flew by. It flew off again just as quick and it took some fiddling with lighting to see the pink. Rather than rose robin, this seems to be a pink robin! Always good to have a challenge, right?  This one is a purple swamp hen. These flamboyant birds are often found in the parks and nature preserves. Love the attitude in this one. The pacific koel is a new one for us. It was on the list for one of our sites (south of Sydney) and we hunted and hunted. We heard it right at the beginning and then not again. So of course, we find it in the tree opposite the Potato Point house. This picture was when it was up on the point but same bird. It is named for its call, so you can definitely know when it is around. Most of my pictures of the bird in this bush were just of its head peeking up, typically with a berry in its mouth.  Scott is headed for swim le...

  We put earnest money down on this property at 184 Barbaroo Rd in Cobargo, New South Wales .  This was after having driven up and down the south coast of New South Wales most of Tuesday. This drive  included a bit of moving in and out of the rolling hills near Brown Mountain. We looked at three properties with a realtor (Hayden did a lovely job) and liked all three and were ready to research the pros/cons of riverfront that is owned by the crown. [Crown lease is a new term for me; property held by the government but you can have full or partial rights to use it, depending.] The property we looked at with the crown lease was gorgeous and had riverfront that was used in the past for a kayaking company. The owners had also invested in "hip camping" sites. We were not in love with that bit. It was also above our comfort level in price and more than we needed. But absolutely gorgeous. We fell in love with the one we saw this morning though. This one is close to Scott's folks ...