Sunshine Coast Daily Photo

Thursday 30 September 2010

More Pelican Art

At the risk of posting too much of a good thing, here he is again going the other way!

For the curious, the white stripes are a pool fence, the green is a shade structure, and the blue the roof of a public toilet. (Doesn't that just take away the magic!)

Pelican Art

With exactly the right background reflecting on the water, the old pelican seems to be floating on a painting.

Pelicans

Noosa Pelicans seem to be all sun bleached and faded. The colour seems to be drained from their beaks. I wonder if it's their family trait or if there's something in the water?

The Bar

The mouth of the Noosa River has it all. Fishermen, grassy banks, clear waters, palm trees, clear blue sky.

Not a bad spot to while away a few hours really.

To the chagrin of many who would rather look at the river than allow others to use it, there are places where the banks are lined with moored houseboats. They are certainly not the most aesthetically pleasing watercraft, but they are a wonderful way of spending time on the river system.

Tewantin Houseboat Moorings

There's quite a fleet of houseboats for hire and otherwise at Tewantin, which once served as a paddle steamer port and is the gateway to the Noosa Lakes System and the Cooloola National Park.

Moorings

They may look like fenders, but they are actually mooring buoys for the jetski fleet.

The stain in the water is tannin from the ti trees in the Noosa Lakes.

Noosaville

Learning the ropes

Actually Jetskis don't have any ropes, so this bunch are learning all sort of other things about using them responsibly.

Jetski lessons, Noosa River.

Glitter

I can't make up my mind whether I like this photo enough to post it. I was trying to capture the sparkle of the river, and I think I did that, but whether that makes it worth the bandwidth is another thing.

That's a jetski ripping past by the way, en route to a jetski area.

Jet Skiing is not a crime

Unless of course one strays too close to the shore, makes too much noise, doesn't stick to the marked areas.... There are of course two sides to the argument, and both have their points to make!

Seating for all

The outdoor seating at the gallery is... like gallery outdoor seating really, and it's ready for a typical modern family.

Three parents and two children...

Gallery Within

The Gallery is quite small, perhaps "intimate" would be a more galleryesque description, and the coffee corner is rather pleasant.

Regional Gallery

Below the Council Offices, one finds the Regional Art Gallery. Although this view technically is of the Council Offices, it looks arty enough to be a gallery I think.

Regional Landscape

The gardens round the Regional Offices are quite pleasant, densely vegetated, allowing only glimpses of the building through the forest.

Tewantin

Council Offices

Noosa's Regional Council Office at Tewantin is the most pleasant of all the town centres, but is still suffers from that age old disease that inflicts all public buildings: The sticky taped notice in the window syndrome.

Why this happens I'm not sure, but I wish it wouldn't.

Paddles

Should we hire a kayak, or stay for coffee?

Hire a kayak, or stay for a cool drink?

Noosaville

A Sea of Kayaks

Why isn't that the collective noun for Kayaks? A Sea?

Part of the hire fleet at Noosaville.

Like Shooting Fish in a Barrel

Coloured canoes and hire boats take no skill to photograph. Just line them up and click and you'd have a pretty postcard if it wasn't for that bit of cable breaking through the sky!

One more fishing fellow

Winter fishing off the old swimming enclosure at Tewantin.

Another Bloke Fishing

Gently retrieving the net, hopefully with a few little bait fish within, watching all the time for signs of prey out there.

Bloke Fishing

Sometimes I think people go fishing just to give themselves an excuse to wear their favourite hat.

Of course the best side of the river to fish from is the southern one, so that the sun is basking the front of one's body, but it's the most awful perspective from a photographer's point of view, looking into the light, body in shadow.... sigh, life is just hard! (OK it's not, it's a lot of fun wandering around in the sunshine!)

Yep, Corellas

After "terrorising" the town, the birds all seemed to be heading to the park on the riverbank at Tewantin so I thought I'd stake them out. They were all taking refuge in the dense foliage of the fig trees, so I couldn't get a shot in clear light, but they're corellas alright.

I watched this pair preening themselves for several minutes, but they refused to move into clear light for me.

Corellas

From this distance they look and sound like white cockatoos, but technically they are corellas. A particularly noisy bunch, they arrive by the dozen I have to say, and quite destructive if they feel like it, tearing apart seed pods and vegetation to get to their favourite foody bits. They seem to like chewing on bits of timber trim and arriving en masse to harass shop customers with their squawking.

This pair is having a spell on the roof tower at Woolies, Tewantin.