An unexpected discovery.

The last couple of mornings I have made the most of Tish not being at work and have headed off to Buffalo Creek at first light to do some birding (my Oz list now stands at 125spp). Luckily the secure car park there is open from about 6am so I can leave the car safely and head off without any second thoughts - the staff are starting to recognise me and have already signed me in by the time I have parked up and gone round to the cabin to pay!
This weekend the tide has been high very early in the morning so I have not been able to walk as far as I would have liked as I have had to wait for the tide to drop enough for me to cross one small creek.
This has given me the opportunity though to sit quietly with the scope and enjoy some fantastic birding - if only the new battery packs for my digiscoping camera had arrived I would have had some frame filling shots of pelicans and egrets.
It has been great to sit and enjoy species that are very rare in UK / Europe such as Caspian, Lesser Crested and Crested Terns, Great Knot, Grey-Tailed Tattle and Greater Sandplover to name just a few
The mangrove forest comes alive for the first couple of hours and I have been lucky to find a couple of the mangrove specialities such as Green-backed Gerygone (restricted to coastal Northern Territories and the very north west corner of Western Australia), Mangrove Robin (found in any Mangrove forest in the northern half of Australia) and my new two favourite birds Rainbow Bee-eater (widely distributed and common across Australia but they are gorgeous and great little characters) and Beach Thick-knee (widely distributed around the northern and eastern coast of Australia but not common anywhere), these large waders are related to the Stone-Curlew that breeds in the Brecks in East Anglia but are on steroids in comparison, with huge bills. They are very stately and as I found out are quite approachable if you sit quietly - one walked to within 50m but guess what no camera!
This mornings expedition was cut short as the heavens opened - had forgotten just how hard it can rain in such a short space of time, to say I got soaked would be like saying it is warm over here!
Anyway the point was that I took shelter beside the remains of a WWII bunker and waited for the worst to pass, it was whilst I was there that I was watching what I assumed was just a stick getting washed closer and closer, I raised my bins to discover it was no ordinary "stick" and quickly waded out to get it...

It was a faded but still very beautiful didgeridoo (have googled and that is the correct spelling).
The details on it are superb..

It will now live outside our front door.
What a great addition to the house!