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Light is the essence of all outstanding photography. Without good lighting your photos will look drab even though you have followed all the 'rules' for composition, exposure and aperture. You will learn how and when to look for the best lighting conditions.

I am running 4 courses:
Landscape and Nature Photography Course - 4 3hour sessions, $140 or a one day course, $120.
Close-Up Digital Photography Course 5 hours, $80
Underwater Compact Camera Course 3 hours $60 (includes a snorkel field trip.



NEXT COURSES
Landscape and nature course is in March. Please call to register your interest.
Close-up Digital Photography Course - 28th January,2012
Call 0428 111 927 or email:sam@samnerrie.com for a brochure


Great gift idea!

I have just received news that I gained 2 Bronze Awards and a silver in the Epson International Photographic Pano Awards. This is a world-wide competition for panoramic photographs and attracts 5000 plus entries. The awards were for photos taken at on the Sapphire Coast, NSW.

Merimbula Lake is a treasure chest of enchanting creatures. A continual pandemonium of feeding, fighting and flirting is going on all around Merimbula Lake and you may be fortunate enough to catch occasional fleeting glimpses of their antics when walking along the boardwalk.
The animals that inhabit the lake are numerous - stingrays, soldier crabs, birds, fish, worms, eels, seahorses, shrimps, prawns, marine slaters and so on. The lake is such a diverse tidal ecosystem that the list of species of animals found there, and which can be seen with the naked eye, would be in the hundreds.
This blog is about the lives of the animals that live feed around and in the lake as well as about the plants that provide a rich and unique habitat for them. Every week I discover a new facet of the lake that intrigues me and through this blog I am seeking to document it for others. My experiences have already been thrilling such as when I witnessed the birth of a stingaree in a pool of water or watching the emergence of the glamorous bubble shells from the sand at dusk.

RAINWATER KILLS! March 2012
The recent deluge of rain has knocked a few marine animals for six. It may be the inundation of freshwater that affects them or the amount of sediment in the lake. So far, a stingray has been reported to be washed up along the boardwalk as well as various fish and an octopus.

MORE SIGHTINGS OF THE MYSTERIOUS ESTUARY STINGRAY Feb 2012

The Estuary Stingray (Dasyatis fluviorum) is living in the lake, we believe. We have now twice sighted 2 male Estuary Stingrays in top lake, very close to the end of the runway. It seems they like life in the Blind Channel- it is probably relatively quiet and away from most boat traffic. There is more information about this stingray which isn't listed as being found on the south coast, in the last entry in this blog (... scroll down to the end.)

SEVEN SEAHORSES Jan 2012

Last December while snorkelling our intrepid group of snorkellers espied seven seahorses near Bar Beach. They seemed to have been either courting or already pregnant(the males had huge distended bellies).

GOBSMACKINGLY GORGEOUS! Jan 2012

Wish I could look this gorgeous!
I had seen the eggs for 2 summers now near Bar Beach and were wondering if the owners would ever appear. After a conversation with Michael at the Aquarium about nudibranchs it came to light that he had recently seen the Hypselodoris obscura near Bar Beach. When the cloud cover came back and the weather was particularly gloomy I plunged into the water, fully kitted up with camera and weight belt on a mission to seek out these nudibranchs. As with many marine creatures they only appear when it is night time or when the sun isn't beaming down on them. One of the group (Barb) announced the first sighting and we eventually found 5 with little effort.
WHERE IS MRS WILLY WAGTAIL THIS YEAR? Nov 2011
For the past two years in spring,there has been a nest remarkably close to the boardwalk, built on the branch of a mangrove tree. In fact it was so close you could reach out and touch it from the boardwalk. Mrs Willy Wagtail was not (seemingly) phased by the kerfuffle of nearby people chatting, scootering,running and bicycling within a metre of her 'home sweet home'. The nest was intricately created out of grass and spider web, the construction of which was an admirable engineering feat. The photo is of the two juveniles that were raised last year; the third one didn't make it. Two days after this photo was taken, these two had left the nest.

Fish having a Granny Nap? Oct 2011
It is not often you see a fish sleeping. Today as I wandered across the bridge I noticed a large school of Luderick having a granny nap amongst the seaweed under the bridge. They were not moving and would have numbered about 200.
The fishermen know that the Luderick travel in and out of Merimbula Lake at dusk for a feed. More on this later.
The water has been incredibly clear which means it is an opportune time to peer into the water and discover a new creature. I also rescued 2 bubble shells and one sea hare.

Bubbles Galore
The title is not the name of a Hollywood movie star but a phenomenon that is occurring in Merimbula Lake at present.
There has been a population explosion of the Rose Petal Bubble Shell(Hydatina Physis); it is hard to walk along the boardwalk at present and not see one emerging from the mud during the day. I counted 13 on Tuesday 18th Oct 2011. This is an extraordinary increase in population size and may well be due to the water being warmer at the right time for them to mature into young adults.
If you want to read loads more on the Rose Petal Bubble Shells,
I wrote an article for the ABC's Open website(http://open.abc.net.au/posts/the-sleeping-beauty-of-the-lake-75zr0eo) and I was interviewed whilst searching for the bubbles in the lake. This will be aired on the local radio station soon.


MYSTERIOUS EGGS BELONG TO...
Finally we have an owner for the mysterious orange egg spirals found in the lake over summer (see 5th blog entry below). They belong to the Dendrodoris nigra which is a dark, almost black sea slug or nudibranch. I will have to work on getting a photo of the little slug as they are far prettier than their name indicates.

SOLDIER CRABS BRAVE THE ICY WEATHER

It was a fresh 7 degrees on the morning of the 7th June, 2011 and a few soldier crabs were out. They are recorded as being temperate weather lovers, and generally come out at around 15 to 30 dgrees. Hunger may well have brought them out. The tides have been high and there have been few opportunities for them to feed.


FLUTEMOUTHS DON'T FROLIC

The flutemouth is a long-snouted fish that is frequently seen in the lake but not in great numbers. This season they have however been more prevalent probably due to the warmer waters (22 degrees at end of April). These fish are best recognised by their habit of remaining still and looking much like a flute! They are olive-green in colour with the younger ones being more cream, and blend atrociously well with all kinds of habitat. They grow to about 45cm in this environment.

UMBRELLA SHELLS

Liz has made an exciting discovery and a first for Merimbula Lake...she found an umbrella shell at Bar Beach. These little creatures are listed as 'common' in some books however they are a challenge to find as they are sometimes covered in algae and look like algae! For the budding scientists - these animals are a side-gilled sea slug with a shell.


STRIATED HERON HUNTING
The Striated Heron or Mangrove Heron is still hunting in the same location as it was 3 years ago. Whether or not it is the same bird can never be proved however the bird has been spotted in the area several times around the oyster leases, halfway along the boardwalk. The most recent sighting (by Liz) was 2 weeks ago.

ANY GUESSES?
These mysterious eggs, 5 cm across, have been found at Bar Beach over summer. Anyone like to guess what they are?

A FAN UNDER THE BELLY
Many people beleive leatherjackets aren't great lookers. Brown, blotchy and bland would be an accurate description of many in this fish family and yet there are some dazzlers amongst the leatherjackets (or 'butterfish' as the fish shopS name them). One stunner that divers would be familiar with is the Horseshoe Leatherjacket. The Six-spined and Mosaic also rate a mention on the glamour list. Another quirky and attractive leatherjacket is the Fan-bellied Leatherjacket which can expand its fins to massive proportions relative to its size in order to appear larger than life and to scare predators away. Three were seen on a snorkel in Merimbula Lake last Saturday, 5th March, 2011 as well as one Mosaic Leatherjacket.
DASYATIS STILL HERE
The Estuary Stingray (see last post in blog) is still around and out shopping for food. She was seen next to the boardwalk last Sat (19/2/2011) foraging for crabs. This is fab news as it confirms their presence here in thr locality between the end of the runway and the boardwalk near Bimbimbie as this is the third recorded sighting in t his area.
IS THERE ANYTHING CUTER THAN THIS? Feb 2011
No... in one word!
The Big-bellied seahorse is an animal so wierd and wonderful you begin to wonder if it is real. It has a vacuum cleaner for a mouth, enabling it to suck up thousands of tiny shrimp every day for dinner. It sways from side to side as though it was a balloon anchored in the breeze, goggly-eyed and as cuddly as a fish can get! These fish or sygnathids have made their home in the lake. They 'hang' around the sea grasses and algae sucking up the shrimps that pass them by. They are rarely seen these days in the lake; their numbers have dwindled remarkably and the few that remain are difficult to spot; they are masters at the art of camouflage. The orange sea horse in the photo is a juvenile. The adults can be a colour from orange to brown to cream.


BOUNTIFUL BUBBLES Feb 2011
Exquisite, surreal, angelic, elegant and Rubenesque are all words that come to mind when I see the bubble shells in the lake and recently they have been prolific. The most common species seen in the lake is the Rose Petal Bubble Shell (or Hydatina physis). It has a brown-coloured frilled mantle which is softly edged with an aqua luminescent border. It looks like a rose flower and hence the name. Their habitat has dramatically increased this summer, reaching as far as Bar Beach and back into Top Lake. The weather may account for this as the majority of days have been cloudy this summer and the bubble shells like gloom and darkness. They generally appear at dusk out of the mud and sand substrate, a glorious and astonishing apparition which leaves the observer to wonder how they appear so delicate and yet dig their way in and out of the coarse sand and mud effortlessly without a scratch or tear on their bodies.

A SHOCKER AT BAR BEACH
After a wild and woolly winter and spring with foul weather dominating the coast incessantly, the waters calmed enough for me to venture in for a snorkel. The temperature was 19/20 degrees and visibility was 8+ metres. Not 5 metres from the shores of Bar Beach was a Electric Ray (see photo above) buried in the sand.
These astonishing animals are different in that they have an offensive weapon instead of the defensive barb that other stingrays have. The Electric Ray stuns its prey such as crabs and fish by electrocuting them. They can also gives humans an electric shock, (stronger than that of an electric fence). Many dive instructors have had the pleasure of being zapped by this incredibly well disguised beastie as they often kneel on the bottom to instruct their students.
This is a first recorded sighting for Merimbula Lake! (I have seen one outside the lake 5 years ago but not inside the lake.) The arrow on the photo shows the breathing holes of the Numb Ray.

STINGRAYS APLENTY
Eagle Rays, Banjo Rays, Stingarees and Stingrays abound in the lake at present. Look for them at high tide when they are seeking crunchy crabs along the boardwalk. All the dimples in the sand are evidence of their foraging. Dusk, dawn and at night are the most opportune times to watch them.

THE MANGROVES ARE AT IT AGAIN, Dec 2010
December is not only a hectic time for us, it is also a hectic time for the innocuous green seed pod of one of our two local mangrove species, Avicennia marina or the Grey Mangrove. It drops from the mangrove packaged to go; the root system has already developed whilst on the tree and it is launched into one of the most inhospitable environments you could imagine for a land plant. The seed must endure waves, very saline waters, tides and of course the odd predator or two and then it must land somewhere after floating at the whim of the tides. How does it land and stay there? Why isn't it floated off with the next tide? The answer is that after a few days it has grown a more obvious root system and this helps weigh it down and give it traction on the foreshore. By February, there will be a multitude of seedlings along the boardwalk and elsewhere in Merimbula Lake.

SEA COWS ABOUND, Oct 2010
These critters graze on seaweed/algae mostly, hence the name Sea Cows. Sea Cows are also known as Sea Hares or sea slugs. Their claim to fame is that they look like a blob of brown mottled jelly but they do have a few unique tricks up their mantles...
If annoyed they eject a royal purple coloured fluid. Lacking any other sharp weapons in their arsenal and only able to move at crawling pace, this is their only defence mechanism.
In ancient times they were thought to have 'satanic powers', probably due to this surprising squirt of purple ink.
They are hermaphroditic and often mate in long chains as they have the reproductive organs of the female and male. The male part is at the front and the female part at the rear.
There is an abundance of them in the lake at present, especially near the beginning of the boardwalk. The species name is Aplysia sydneyensis, common name - Sydney Sea Cow/Hare. (Sea Hares are notoriuosly difficult to identify, especially this species so identification can never be confirmed unless they are dissected.)



ARTISTIC PLOPS August, Week 1, 2010
The whitish plops along the first section of the boardwalk are numerous this winter. It is not too difficult to work out the Pro Hart-styled artist responsible for these ephemeral paint splotches; they are the fishy excrement of the White-faced Heron which roosts (sleeps) on the branches above. Walk quietly along the boardwalk at night and look up (a hat and goggles might help here). A heron or two may be roosting on the branch of a eucalypt and if you happen to be there in spring you may even be fortunate enough to espy a heron sitting in its chaotic-looking nest made of precariously perched twigs. Generally, the nest disintegrates in strong winds before they have the opportunity to breed.




CORKSCREWS AND BALLS OF SAND July, Week 2,2010
The Soldier Crabs have been out at low tide, marching across the sand flats of the lake in large hordes. They are a tad fussy for a crab and will not appear if it is too hot or too cold or if the tide is not out a certain distance. They still fossick underground for their food however and their tailings are obvious. They leave small balls of sand in piles on the surface and if you dig under these piles you will see long horizontal tunnels. If you want to actually find the crab it is usually deeper down in the sand. They are incredibly fast at disappearing and with a corkscrew motion they bury themselves in a sand igloo within seconds. Their claim to fame is that they are the only type of crab that walks forward unlike the traditional crab method of walking sideways.

HAMBURGER WITH THE LOT June, Week 2, 2010
The birds along the boardwalk are flat out gulping down marine animals of all sorts. I photographed this Pied Oyster-Catcher with what looked like a hamburger with the lot! On zooming in I realised it was a Sydney Cockle, and it wasn't about to give it away to anyone let alone a scavenging seagull. Their incredibly powerful beaks can prise open bivalves which we would need a hammer and chisel to open.

THE ONCHS ARE OUT AND ABOUT June, week 1.
Those innocuous but world famous slugs called Onchidellas are a regular grazer on Merimbula Lake’s rock platforms during our dull winter months. Unlike us sun lovers these magnificently camouflaged creatures love the dull days and rush out of their cavities for a feed on algae between tides. They don’t need moisture on their skin to breathe like most other marine creatures such as crabs and molluscs but they do need moisture to keep their bodies soft. Their claim to fame is that they can breathe underwater and can extract oxygen from air out of the water.They also have a primitive lung with blood vessels in it allowing for gas exchange. They are in the mollusc group of animals, most of which have gills for breathing. Whilst grazing on the rock platforms they have their breathing hole open but when the tides is in, they shut it and breath through their mantle covering. This method isn’t as efficient so they are mostly inactive when underwater. Good luck spotting one!


TEMPESTUOUS WATERS May Week 4, 2010
A tempest has just hit town and we are now surveying the damage. On Saturday night the full force of an east coast low brought winds of up to 130 km/h and sheeting rain along the Far South Coast of NSW. This low was of a force equal to a cyclone grade two and consequently numerous trees came down, rivers flooded, roads were closed and houses damaged. Merimbula Lake has suffered and benefited with the advent of the storm. There are a few trees down along the boardwalk and the water has clouded up with mud and silt. With the last similar storm we had in February, more rain fell and this ended up in the lake in an enormous deluge. With the inundation of freshwater, some marine animals such as octopuses, sea hares, eels and stingarees didn’t survive. We found many of these animals washed up along the boardwalk. This time it doesn’t seem to have affected the animals as harshly, but I will keep you posted. Some animals will be jumping for joy at having the storm hit as they get more food washed past their door. There are many crabs who are omnivores, so they will be picking up all the tasty treats that have landed in their muddy restaurants and then there are the birds and swamp rats who will be rushing about picking up the seeds that have dropped to the ground. Last spring I photographed a family of Red-browed Finches gobbling down these seeds that had blown down onto the path after some wild winds had passed through the area.
AUTUMN May, Week 3, 2010
The cool southerlies have come to town and with them comes the more transclucent waters in the lake. There have also been some high tides due to the full moon which is now on the wane. When the water is clear and serene it is a great time for spotting fish,stingrays, crabs and octopus especially in the evenings. And now is a fabulous time to stroll along the boardwalk at high tides to look for these marine animals hunting for their dinner.

ALASKAN HONEYMOON May Week 1,2010

Our Bar-tailed Godwits have left for their honeymoon overseas. Every year at this time the south-eastern Australian and New Zealand population heads off to northern parts of Alaska to nest and have babies. It is thought that there are 2 main populations in Australia, the other one usually spends summer in northern Australia including Broome and they head to Siberia for our winter (see www.abc.net.au/wing/community/learningbirdinfo.htm). It is an incredible distance they fly, around 10,000+ km northwards, stopping in China or other Asian countries. On the return flight they don’t stop however and the trip some of them make to NZ from Alaska is the longest non-stop flight of any bird. They’re very skinny when they get here and famished in a way many if us would never have experienced. These birds are a regular feature of Merimbula Lake and they have been feeding around its shores all summer. Some won’t actually fly north at all, preferring to stay over our winter so keep an eye out for them fossicking for crustaceans, molluscs and marine worms.

MYSTERIOUS STINGRAY March, Week 2, 2010


My latest foray was a snorkel along the channel which runs parallel to the Merimbula Airport. We saw three Estuary Catfishes and two Fiddler Rays, a Blue Swimmer Crab as well as a few other crabs and stingarees. The most exciting discovery was an Estuary Stingray or Dasyatis fluviorum. This was the stingray that was spotted not so long ago by the camera in Wagonga Inlet and it was the first official sighting in this region. It is a tropical stingray and it’s locality is listed as being from Forster, NSW to Darwin, NT by the Sharks and Rays of Australia book written by P.R. Last and J.D.Stevens of the CSIRO Dision of Fisheries, 1994. This stingray was last spotted in the Sydney region in the 1880’s but hasn’t been seen since in Sydney. I have had my sighting confirmed by a scientist working at the CSIRO. I knew immediately on sighting this stingray that it was an Estuary Stingray as I had seen it previously (in 2008) from the boardwalk. The earlier photo wasn't clear enough to verify the identification officially so I was quite happy to come across another one resting amongst the seagrasses a few years later.
The lake is home to many stingrays, stingarees and eagle rays. They love this environment as they can hide in the sandy/muddy substrate and they adore eating the soldier crabs and molluscs which are their main food sources.