Mundane life post - including rare bird
I deliberately didn't make any resolutions, but since the new year I've been upping my exercise routine. Ideally every day I've been doing at least half an hour of WiiFit (usually boxing and free step while I watch an episode of Batman The Brave And The Bold. :), 20 minutes on the exercise bike (averaging 15kph) so far, and going for a 2km walk with Matt. Heat, other plans or headaches have sometimes interfered, but I've done at least one of the 3 activities every single day. Despite this, my weight keeps going up - go figure, when I wasn't doing anything it stayed pretty steady.
We are also doing a catering job. A friend of Matt's apparently required someone to make dinners (and snacks for one day) for about 20 students making a movie. We are getting $100 a day for it - we pay for the food out of that and keep the profit. Hoorah for mince recipes that are easy to make in bulk and cheap. We should make $200-$300 profit over all. But bloody hell, if it's a total disaster it's his fault. He just told me that 'dinner' apparently occurs around 11pm. Would have been handy to know THAT beforehand as it stuffs up lots of previous plans. But I think he's willing to do the serving/delivery, and I can do the majority of the cooking I guess. If it does go off okay, would be interesting to offer services again for budget, small scale, homestyle catering. I would definitely need more prior notice and a lot more details before I'd do it again.
And today. This morning I was going to go on the Lake Gwelup bird walk, seeing as it's just down the road, but after another sticky, warm night I woke up with a splitting headache (thank God it's cooler tonight) and decided not to go. We did end up going to the new markets down the road and having crepes for breakfast - sitting in the breeze and shade there was very pleasant and did wonders for the headache.
A bit later - after Matt had headed off to deliver snacks and then go to gaming I got a call from mum. She had checked her e-mail but I hadn't checked mine recently - lucky she is also a member of the Birds WA e-mail list. There was an e-mail from Frank O'Connor saying that a White Wagtail (a rare vagrant bird that has only been reported in Australia a few times) had been seen that morning at Lake Gwelup. My initial response was "bull", but this was Frank O'Connor - birding guru of W.A. So I figured I'd head down some time today and see if I could get a glimpse. Apparently it was hanging about near the boardwalk - how useful.
I arrived at the lake just as Frank was leaving, but there were plenty of other birdos on the boardwalk as well. He told me that yes, the bird was easily viewable from the shaded platform on the boardwalk, so I wandered out and it was immediately pointed out to me. What an incredibly obliging little birdy. I think I need to go to Gwelup more often - unlike Lake Monger and Herdsman, which still have way too much water in them (and thus no mud), Lake Gwelup has plenty of mud and water at the moment, so there is an abundance of ducks and the like, plenty of stilts (but no migratory waders - at least today) and rails and crakes! I saw multiple Buff-banded Rails, Spotted Crakes and Baillon's Crakes, all from the boardwalk/viewing platform. Couldn't ask for better birding.
We are also doing a catering job. A friend of Matt's apparently required someone to make dinners (and snacks for one day) for about 20 students making a movie. We are getting $100 a day for it - we pay for the food out of that and keep the profit. Hoorah for mince recipes that are easy to make in bulk and cheap. We should make $200-$300 profit over all. But bloody hell, if it's a total disaster it's his fault. He just told me that 'dinner' apparently occurs around 11pm. Would have been handy to know THAT beforehand as it stuffs up lots of previous plans. But I think he's willing to do the serving/delivery, and I can do the majority of the cooking I guess. If it does go off okay, would be interesting to offer services again for budget, small scale, homestyle catering. I would definitely need more prior notice and a lot more details before I'd do it again.
And today. This morning I was going to go on the Lake Gwelup bird walk, seeing as it's just down the road, but after another sticky, warm night I woke up with a splitting headache (thank God it's cooler tonight) and decided not to go. We did end up going to the new markets down the road and having crepes for breakfast - sitting in the breeze and shade there was very pleasant and did wonders for the headache.
A bit later - after Matt had headed off to deliver snacks and then go to gaming I got a call from mum. She had checked her e-mail but I hadn't checked mine recently - lucky she is also a member of the Birds WA e-mail list. There was an e-mail from Frank O'Connor saying that a White Wagtail (a rare vagrant bird that has only been reported in Australia a few times) had been seen that morning at Lake Gwelup. My initial response was "bull", but this was Frank O'Connor - birding guru of W.A. So I figured I'd head down some time today and see if I could get a glimpse. Apparently it was hanging about near the boardwalk - how useful.
I arrived at the lake just as Frank was leaving, but there were plenty of other birdos on the boardwalk as well. He told me that yes, the bird was easily viewable from the shaded platform on the boardwalk, so I wandered out and it was immediately pointed out to me. What an incredibly obliging little birdy. I think I need to go to Gwelup more often - unlike Lake Monger and Herdsman, which still have way too much water in them (and thus no mud), Lake Gwelup has plenty of mud and water at the moment, so there is an abundance of ducks and the like, plenty of stilts (but no migratory waders - at least today) and rails and crakes! I saw multiple Buff-banded Rails, Spotted Crakes and Baillon's Crakes, all from the boardwalk/viewing platform. Couldn't ask for better birding.