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Published: March 21st 2015
Rock fishing
Brooms Head Lagoon.Brooms head is the final destination on our return trip from Brisbane to Perth. As you will have read (?) in our last blog, Tom Tom tried to get us here by a secret entrance via the sugar cane fields, but we were having no part of that.
I have been told that Brooms Head and the beach gained their name after a ship, the Eureka, sunk off the coast here in 1870. Apparently a broom from the ship washed up on the rocks. Do you believe that story? Love to hear your explanation! Locals just refer to the township as 'The Broom'.
The head is not a major promontory, but the rocky reef and shore line make for interesting photography along with the ever changing varieties of birds that visit the shore line.
We arrived here, booked into the Council owned camping ground, and proceeded to our site. I think we have the best site and the worst site in the whole park which caters for probably 100 or more caravans etc.
The best part is the $1.5 million view from our windows or from under the annex when it is safe to put it out.
White Sea Eagle
Judging by colour, this bird would be 2 to 3 years old. The Broom has a long sweeping bay with golden sand stretching for miles, and that is our view. There is a rocky head at each end of the otherwise uninterrupted bay.
The worst part is that we cop the wind which way, every way, and have had plenty of that.
It was dull and cloudy when we arrived, and that continued through to about 3.00pm when that 'Wind' cleared the sky giving us a pleasant vista and interesting photo opportunities as the swell crashed over the reef and coastal rocks.
It was while wandering along the shore that I noticed a sea eagle just hovering in the wind, circling slowly in the breeze close to the heads. That gave the chance for several photo attempts and both Marg and I came back grinners with excellent photos showing the eagles very effective eyes.
Our friends David and Mary joined us here as well, and are camping along side us. So glad Mary brought her Coffee Machine, and we note that David is now a fully fledged graduate of Chai Latte school. Its been good to catch up with them after we have been away so long in
WA.
David also has eyes as sharp as an eagle when it comes to spotting birds and other things at great distance. We were up on the point of the headland and he spotted a couple of pods of dolphins swimming about 1 kilometre from us. Try as I might, I could only occasionally see them, but not through the camera view finder. So, for fun, I aimed the camera in movie mode in the general direction as he called out 'Here they are again etc'. Now it is your turn to spot the dolphins in a couple of frames I have cut from the movie. If you find only a single dolphin, that's a rock. There are multiple dolphins in both photos. Good luck!!
On our first walk along the beach I photographed a sea bird I had not seen before. Marg said it looked not unlike an egret, but all the colours were different. Seems she has sharp eyes too as later the bird book told us that it was an Eastern Reef Egret, also known as a Grey Morph. We have walked the waterfront several times since and not seen this bird again.
We
have seen the sea eagles again circling off the beach. We found a fledgling high in one of the shore line Norfolk Pine Trees. The Jnr was not co-operative at photo time. I had seen other birds (blue cheeked honey eaters) harassing the bird, so knew where to look. Marg tried but just could not see it. So I took her camera for a walk and took a movie on about 120 times zoom. I must say that while I proved my point that the bird was up in the tree, I am not expecting a call from the ilk of David Attenborough to join any cinematography team. Hand held, blustery winds and near max zoom, tree swaying etc, made the photography difficult.
The beach orientation is all wrong for sunsets, but I still went walk about anyway. I was soooo pleased I did because I discovered the largest block of gold ever. I have told no one but you where it was, so I trust you will keep my secret safe as I will need help to get it ashore next week. Anyway, with happy steps I returned to the motorhome for dinner. The day was capped off
with such a clear sky, one felt that we had a veil studded with the brightest diamonds just hung over our head. Now, some of those set in my golden rock would be just magic!
The following morning Marg and I went down to the foreshore before David and Mary got up, just before sunrise, and this time we were rewarded. The wind that had harassed us for a couple of days was gone, sea almost flat, sea haze off the coast, and great colour in the sky and reflected on the wet beach. I took Marg down to the secret golden rock and was totally devastated to discover that it was all an elusion of setting sun on a wet rock face.
The local bird life has given us more interesting birds to identify. We were scratching our heads as we looked at some quite small sea birds scampering across the beach. We figured they were juveniles, but had no idea as to parentage. Marg was looking through her photos and found what looks like the parent bird pecking amongst the sea weed. We are still not exactly sure the specie, but probably one of the dotterel
group. There were also young crested turns on the beach. They are just so smartly dressed that I had to include a photo.
The Broom is also a very popular fishing area. Those with boats head out to a reef about 20ks off shore where there is always a good feed of snapper or perch to be had. I was talking to a seasoned fisherman from here who recounts the story of two mates who set out for a days fishing from here. One had a large boat, the other a tinny and outboard. The guys on the bigger boat were watching their friend pull in fish after fish while they caught nothing. Then they noticed that he lay down on the floor of the tinny. After a while he sat up again. pulled in his line with several fish hooked. and then lay down again. Next thing the tinny is coming flat out towards the bigger boat. Apparently the last two times he pulled up his line with the fish, a great white shark circled his boat and pushed his head up out of the water to see what was available for lunch. The head and tail were
much longer than the tinny, so he decided that discretion is the better part of valour and left the scene without putting his head above the gunnel until all was safe.
Others here fish off the rocks at the headland. Judge for yourself from the photo at the beginning of the blog if this is a great idea!
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Birding
Beautiful