Sunday 24th February
Feeding soggy bread to the rainbow lorikeets on the balcony.
Every morning we have visitors - heaps (to use an Aussie term) of rainbow lorikeets that come to feed on the bread. We also have pigeons that try to muscle in, but hey they're just butt ugly so we have another treat for them - a squirt from a big old water pistol (read 'big gun') or a quick blast of potato from a spud gun. Prejudice at work. The other day we had 10 lorikeets perched on the balcony or eating off a plate, standing on Daisy's head etc. I've come up with a cunning plan to get them to visit - I recorded them squawking and chattering the other day on my PDA and if I see one or two, it goes into playback mode. Seems to work.
It's not just the birds that love a bit of bread. Today we spent 6 hours down Clovelly Bay, half of which I spent underwater feeding the fish soggy bread to the fish. In the clearer waters, the effect is amazing. Just a morsel of bread, mushed up in the hand and then scattered gets the attention of all the fish. I was surrounded by a wall of rainbow fish, little humbug fish and a few wrasses. At one point I was swimming face up trailing little pieces of bread as I swam - I was watching all these fish follow the trail. I felt like the pied piper of Clovelly! I also managed to catch what should be a cracking photo of one of the big old blue groupers as he swam under a ledge.