Heading North

In brisbane at the moment on a 2 day stopover on the way up to bundaberg to another spell of fruit picking, what fun. o nthe way here from sydney i stopped at byron bay for a week. didnt get round to doing that much birding but still saw a few new birds including scaly breasted lorikeet, far eastern curlew and the somewhat bizzare sight of an australian brush turkey that thought it was a feral pigeon eating cigarette butts in the car park! it was also good to see birds that i hadnt seen since darwin like figbirds and rainbow bee eaters. the main highlights however came from the sea, with great views of humpbacck whale, and green turtles from the clifftop at byron lighthouse. also a superb experience that came pretty close to snorkelling with the manta rays in fiji: while i was swimming and having fun in the surf on the main beach at byron i felt something brush my leg, looking down i was slightly surprised to see a shoal of small fish swimming around my legs, then seconds later a common dolphin streaked past no less than a metre away and then circles me several times as the fish it was hunting took refuge around me, awsome stuff!