Nine Mile Beach – Byfield National Park

Tag Archives: animals

“Trespassers Prosecuted” sign at Rydges Resort!

Here is a short post about our trip to Rydges and the surprise we found there.

Well a few days ago on Saturday we went to the Rydges Homestead to have a picnic. We were quite lucky because a huge flock of magpie geese were staying there at the time.

Rydges Capricorn Resort #1
A few Magpie Geese enjoying the wetlands at the Rydges Homestead.

After lunch we went for the walk to Rydges, then walked along the beach. It was a really nice day for walking, not to hot but not too cold either.

Rydges Capricorn Resort #2
The beach at Rydges. I love the cloud formations, they look like they’re about to unleash a heavy rain storm.

Coming up from the beach, guess what we noticed? Yes you’re right, it was a sign saying that Rydges is closed to outside guests, and that trespassers would be prosecuted! How they hope to enforce this I don’t know, because there is always a multitude of people wandering around the place and it would be very hard to find any outsiders among them.

Rydges Capricorn Resort #3
The sign that is being so unwelcome to visitors.

So if anyone knows any more details about this I would be interested in hearing them. You know who you are ;-) .

May 19, 2008 – 6:59 pm | Posted in Daily Life, Information for Locals | Also tagged , , , | Comments (10)

School Tests and Patting an Owl

A few days ago we had to drive up to the Byfield State School so my sisters could do the nation-wide student testing. While they were doing tests, dad and I read the overview of the Federal Budget in the gardens just opposite, which are part of the Byfield general store. I also took some photos.

Flower at Byfield general store
A really pretty flower in the gardens. I think I’ve finally cracked taking photos of flowers. I’d say the basic rules would be: Put the foreground in focus and make the background blurry, get real close in on the flower and try to shoot in sunlight!

On the way back from Byfield we also dropped in at Red Rock State Forest, which we’ve camped at before. It is known for being infested with mozzies, but because of the cool weather there weren’t too many around. The creek there is really pretty, although the rangers have fenced it all off because of crocodile sightings.

The next stop before home was Cooberrie Park, which is a wildlife sanctuary (a bit like Australia Zoo on the Sunshine Coast – Bindy and Terri have actually visited Cooberrie Park BTW) so that my sisters could get some rats from the owners. They will breed them and then give Cooberrie Park some of the babies. Anyway on the way out we nearly walked past a Tawny Frog-Mouth Owl, which was just sitting on the railing.

It didn’t fly away when we approached, and a staff member said that we could pat it! I think it had been hand-reared since baby-hood. Patting the owl was like patting any bird, except if you touched the Owl’s beak it would open up it’s mouth (which is really wide and yellow inside) and gives you a very gentle bite.

Tawny Frog-Mouth Owl at Cooberrie Park #1
Patting the Tawny Frog-Mouth owl. It has really cute little feathers sticking up from it’s head as you can see.

Tawny Frog-Mouth Owl at Cooberrie Park #2
This time looking very alert. Maybe it had just seen the rats :-) .

May 18, 2008 – 11:02 am | Posted in Byfield, Daily Life, Information for Locals, Information for Tourists, Photography, Woodbury, Bungundarra & Adelaide Park | Also tagged , , , | Comments (1)

Alpaca Photos

Alert AlpacaThis Sunday I went with some friends to the Rockhampton Heritage markets to help them with their macadamia stall. On the way back home we stopped in at the Alpaca farm on 444 Cobraball road, because they were having an open day (which we’d read about in the paper). We had known the people from previously, because the man runs a tiling business and tiled some of our house. They lived nearer to us until recently, when they moved into the new place on Cobraball road.

Anyway, the Alpacas were really cute, and I had a great time taking photos of them. They were also giving out food to feed the Alpacas, because otherwise they tended to shy away if you came near. Alpacas can spit, but fortunately for us they didn’t! See below for the photos, and if you want to buy an Alpaca, just give the farm a ring as they sell and breed them.

Alpaca Mother and Baby
A mother alpaca with her 1 day old baby. You might notice that the mothers eyes have a strange blue colour to them. Alpacas with those type of eyes are almost always deaf, which I thought was very interesting.

Handfeeding an Alpaca
Another alpaca, also featured at the top of the page, feeding out of someone’s hand.

A baby Alpaca drinking milk
Sorry for the bad quality, but this picture shows the baby alpaca in the second photo drinking a bit of milk.

Alpaca at an interesting angle
An alpaca with character at an unusual angle :)

[tags]farm, alpacas, pets, animals, yeppoon[/tags]

January 27, 2008 – 6:04 pm | Posted in Daily Life, Information for Locals, Information for Tourists, Yeppoon | Also tagged , , , | Comments (4)