In the guise of tsuken

This morning I headed out on my morning run a little after the sunrise, and as I left I heard tsuken preparing for a walk with Master 4. The sky was still showing the effects of low sun through the atmosphere and clouds, and the run along the beachfront was lovely. The tide was well out; so far that one intrepid boatie was still 200 m from shore on his way back from launching his boat, a further 200 m or so out. He would have a long walk after leaving the tractor in the park.

I got some interesting pictures of the sky, with reflections in the strips of water over the mudflats.

Later I took my niece for a walk around the points and along "our beach" where there was a small shag, and two pied shags. None moved away when we passed, and I was able to take a lot of photos. This was the best, as advised by S.

ADDITIONAL. The above commentary is a shortened version of what I had intended, as I needed to stop and head out to the local Indian restaurant for the takeaway meal we had ordered. We thought that the day had been one of those where in our different ways we had all been busy, were all tired, and we'd take an easy option.

The walk with my niece took us down the steps to the southern end of Snells Beach, and we then walked around the end of the point to reach the beach below the cliff where our place is. At the southern end of that is another point below the Highfield Garden Reserve, around which one comes to Algies Bay. On the way to Algies Bay we saw a swimmer (his pile of clothes on the rocks barely above the water), gulls, a lone angler on the rocks, terns, yachts, a small shag drying its wings (perhaps the same one that tsuken had blipped from the same place some hours before), two pied shags on adjacent rocks, a paddle boarder, motor boats towing water skiers, kayakers with fishing rods, and not another walker. Had we been only a few minutes later, the tide would have isolated our beach from both Snells to the north and Algies to the south. Its one of the reasons why it is so quiet there.

On the way back we climbed the many steps up to Highfield Garden Reserve, pausing on the way for niece to feed chopped apple to the donkeys.