Wildlife Wednesday - the river, stingray and fish

Fish - maybe mullet

When my sister and her kids were visiting, the river was teh other haunt. We had such fun the two days there. Boats went past creating waves to jump, and they had people in them who waved! Kids love people waving at them :)

Almost 2 years ago, our river broke open to the sea for the first time in 25 years and cleaned out. Before then it was stagnant and filthy (not so much with rubbish, just with staleness). So there's been a marked increase in the biodiversity in the river.

Stingray - can you see him?

We saw some large fish, like flathead, scoot from their resting place, basking in the shallows. We saw some young bream or mullet or such fish, swimming around. We saw, and caught, some tiny baby fish like the one in the shallow green bucket.

To my amazement we saw a large stingray. He was maybe 1.2m across or so. Just cruising around the shallows. Not sure if you can see him in the picture but hopefully you can see the lifted flap as he swam off (about mid photo) with his eye carefully looking at me.

Tiniest fish caught (<1cm br="" long="">

A couple of women on their horses came by and the kids got to pat the horses. A heap of people walk dogs along the river and some were kid friendly and came to have a pat and a scratch.

There were pelicans soaring, ducks swimming, shags airing their wings. Black swans in the distance. Seagulls checking out if we had food.

The river is now a place teaming with life. I hope it doesn't take another 25 years before it flushes clean again.