The Birds at Ballina

The trip to Ballina was unforgettable for many reasons.(early May 2007)
Primary among them being a close look at Pelicans and Cormorants.
I have never seen so many of them in one place.

BALLINA is in northern New South Wales...its a tiny place, with a river that meanders through town and reaches the Pacific Ocean...we walked along the river and feasted our eyes on hundreds of cormorants, pelicans and the ubiquitous sea gulls.

Osprey is a bird that built nests on telephone poles and electricity poles - only to find that the chicks were getting electrocuted. The town council and local community and the electricity company designed and built baskets which have then been mounted on top of the poles....now there are many happy families of Osprey in those parts.

The Richmond river flows through the place and it was lovely to walk along the river and go with it till it meets the ocean.

We were also treated with a lovely sight of a pod of dolphins frolicking in the pacific Ocean. And to top it all - the weather was beautiful

I could get some time to do some water color paintings again...its been many years and my techniques are rusty...but its a start and I hope to do better and practise more...

The river cruise was good too. The Osprey nests were something the cruise operator showed us. We also wanted to do trip on a sea plane in these parts - but the tour operator had shifted base to some other place for that week.

We did not feel like visiting Byron Bay which was close by..perhaps that will be another separate visit later on.

When we told some people we are off to Ballina - they asked Why Ballina, there is nothing there...and our response was - precisely the point - thats exactly why we are going there...!!!

Anyway, its a lovely place, we intend going there again and perhaps this time in our own car - and that gives us more flexibility to go around and see a few other wetlands where birds congregate.