Two Days in the Riverland-South Australia

This last weekend we spent a couple of days in the Riverland.
We had a great day having a barbecue lunch to celebrate Australia day on 26th January.
The next day we had fun with our 2 nieces as they learnt to catch yabbies.
I took some digital pics but also used 2 of my Pentax 35mm film cameras.
Those shots are still awaiting processing of course.
Below are a few pics.
The tawny frogmouths were positioned on a limb above our picnic spot.
They were wary of us to start with but after a while they spent time preening themselves etc. but still kept a watchful eye on us.

Tawny Frogmouths. Parents and a young one.

We were in Margaret Dowling Park

Yabby. These are called "blueys"

Meat on a string and then when you draw the string slowly up you put the dab net under them.

Hot in Adelaide! 41c

Today's forecast for Adelaide is 41c (celsius).

One of our sons is in Prague where it was -9c.

The birds in our backyard really appreciate  the bird baths in our garden on days like this.

As for me I will stay inside and watch the cricket on telly.

As a matter of interest the Yabbies are "running" in the Riverland.  Hot weather and high river brings then out of the mud where they "hibernate".

Red Wattle Bird

Noisy Miners and Red wattlebird

White Backed Australian Magpie

Catching Yabbies.

Yabbies!  Yabbies are a small freshwater crayfish that are found in the creeks and rivers of Australia.There are other freshwater lobsters that are a lot larger but harder to find now.There is also a mid way freshwater crayfish called Marron.Yabbies are what we love to get usually in the warm weather in Australia around Christmas time. When there has been some flooding is when the  yabbies "run" Yabbies can lie dormant in mud below the surface for several years in times of drought.We  cook them by boiling in a "billy" or saucepan and they are delicious with shredded lettuce, mayonaise and fresh bread and butter.They can be caught in nets from a boat or the riverbank. The nets are baited with meat or fish heads or you can even use a cake of soap.. A popular method for kids in days gone by has been to dangle a piece of meat on a string on a stick in the water and then when the you see the yabbies in the water( if it is clear enough) approaching the meat you yo have a dab net at ready to scoop them out. Usually you only catch one  at a time in that method. In  a net you may get up to 10 if you are lucky.

The piece of string method