Land Ahoy!

FEBRUARY  18^th

On the back of the Osprey with large fish sighting Sean and I took to the water so that he could deploy a gill net and I could investigate the E end of the lagoon. This end of the lagoon is more secluded without the human disturbance factor. The Osprey had moved on along with the Egret’s. The gill net was deployed approximately ¾ of the way to the E bank. The net was marked with two empty drink bottles. This made me chuckle as I had previously been walking the lagoon and become slightly agitated at how careless people could be by discarding their empty cola bottles on the water. Good job I didn’t fish them out!!

Once we had reached the E bank Southern Lapwing seemed to appear from everywhere relocating to a nearby sandy area. The count reached the mid forties which was a vast improvement on the half dozen or so which frequent the W end of the lake. Time was moving on and a return to base was calling or a search party would be out looking for us! On the way back a group of Neotropical Cormorants were seen. These birds were new to the lagoon which is proving my theory that the lagoon needs checking every day.

After lunch it was time for my first Spanish lesson with Fatima who lives on the site. Karina had kindly arranged what will be a regular slot during the week. Fatima is learning English and it proved to be a very useful session for all involved.

The evening turned out to be a stormy one with torrential rain into the night!