Townsville - Bushland Beach

Bushland Beach is the closest to town of the five northern beaches near Townsville. It’s very flat and, if you go near low tide as we did, seems to extend forever. The retreating tide leaves behind glossy sands and vast thin sheets of water that reflect the cloud-speckled sky. Compared with Saunders Beach, which I wrote about earlier, this beach is less purely sand and more sandy/muddy with mangrove areas scattered here and there. The water was pleasantly warm on our feet but the further out we went the more we had to watch for soft spots that threatened to suck down our sandals. Small critters in shallow pools kept us entertained all morning, and there were lots of cockatoos and other birds in the trees near shore. Another fine day in North Queensland.

Bushland Beach






Deborah video records invertebrates


Lugworm castings - worm poop, essentially; sand goes in one end, nutrients are filtered out, and the rest is excreted from the opposite end into a coiled pile such as this. Lovely.






Sulfur Crested Cockatoo in a tree by the shoreline.



Beginnings of a mangrove.








Video of crabs in a shoving match. I didn't notice at first but one appears to have only one arm (21 sec).



Deborah's video of a snail chasing a snail chasing a crab (35 sec).



Deborah's video of her being attacked by a very small crab (7 sec).



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