{"id":318,"date":"2022-12-30T10:26:20","date_gmt":"2022-12-30T10:26:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/caloundrahouseboats.au\/?p=318"},"modified":"2022-12-30T11:04:51","modified_gmt":"2022-12-30T11:04:51","slug":"the-view-from-the-top-deck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/caloundrahouseboats.au\/index.php\/2022\/12\/30\/the-view-from-the-top-deck\/","title":{"rendered":"The view from the top deck"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you hire the Caloundra Houseboat, there\u2019s a fair chance you\u2019ll find yourself drawn to the boat\u2019s expansive Top Deck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s furnished with a comfortable outdoor lounge suite and table, but what makes it special is the view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Wallamba is a big houseboat \u2013 it\u2019s 13m long and it\u2019s a little under 5m high \u2013 and with those dimensions, there\u2019s plenty of room for everyone to stretch their legs on the Top Deck which runs almost the full length of the boat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It needs to be big \u2013 because it\u2019s very popular. Caloundra is known for its sunsets \u2013 and there\u2019s no better way to watch the sun go down than sitting on the Top Deck, with a glass of bubbles. It\u2019s magical and you\u2019ll be sharing with an extraordinary array of birds, settling into their nests for th night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it\u2019s just as magical to wake next morning and hear the passage come to life. The sunrise might be as spectacular, but the calm and tranquillity of the passage in the early morning is something else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pumicestone Passage is not only a marine park, it is also Ramsar listed \u2013 meaning that it\u2019s recognised by the international community as a wetland of worldwide significance. It has that honour because it is home to tens of thousands of migratory and wading birds during summer, not to mention the others which stay in the passage all year round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what will you see from the Top Deck \u2013 let\u2019s start with the Birds of Prey \u2013 at the top of the chain is the White Bellied Sea Eagle:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

 \u2013 they are the biggest on the passage and in fact Australia\u2019s second biggest eagle behind the iconic Wedge Tail. Close up, their big white chest makes identification easy \u2013 further away, wait until they start to glide and you will see their wings form a perfect V with the body below the wings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Osprey is smart \u2013 they can dive under the water to catch fish and always carry the fish facing forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Whistling Kite is not as big, and not nearly as pretty either. However, we call him the Pavarotti of the Sky \u2013 what he lacks in good looks, he makes up for with a beautiful voice. Their whistle will probably wake you in the morning, and keep you entertained during the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The prettiest by far is the Brahminy Kite\u2026 bronze-coloured wings and so beautiful, they inspired the Indonesian Coat of Arms.  You\u2019ll fall in love with these guys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The heroes though, are the migratory birds. These characters spend summer here in the passage and the winter in the northern hemisphere. These birds travel up to 25,000km a year, in fact the Godwit holds the distance record flying 11,000km in eight days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a quick description of some of those migratory birds\u2026. But you are probably better off equipping yourself with a decent pair of binoculars and using Google to identify them for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whimbrel <\/strong>\u2013 look out for a long downward curved bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Eastern Curlew \u2013<\/strong> they\u2019re noisy with that loud \u201ccurlee\u201d call. They\u2019re the biggest migratory wader \u2013 up to 65cm tall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Herons<\/strong> – lots of different varieties but check out the White faced heron, which as the name suggests has as you guessed a white face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Egrets \u2013<\/strong> they\u2019re one of my favourites . There\u2019s a Little egret, an intermediate egret and a Great Egret \u2013 keep your eye out for white birds and then try to work out which is which. One tip.. the little one can\u2019t keep still. Their claim to fame is they along with the emu was Australia\u2019s first protected bird species. In the early 1920\u2019s, they were highly sought after by Milliners for their breeding plumage and needed the protection to survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pelicans<\/strong> – Don\u2019t be surprised if you only see a handful \u2013 they\u2019ve been out on flooded inland rivers such as the Darling busy breeding, but they are slowly making their way back to the coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Black Swans<\/strong> \u2013 you will see a heap of these\u2026 they inspired the name Maroochydore after the Gubbi Gubbi word meaning \u201cred billed\u201d swan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The best time to go bird watching is at low tide, when the migratory birds are feeding on the exposed sandbanks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you hire the Caloundra Houseboat, there\u2019s a fair chance you\u2019ll find yourself drawn to the boat\u2019s expansive Top Deck. It\u2019s furnished with a comfortable outdoor lounge suite and table, but what makes it special is the view. The Wallamba is a big houseboat \u2013 it\u2019s 13m long and it\u2019s a little under 5m high […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-page"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/caloundrahouseboats.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/caloundrahouseboats.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/caloundrahouseboats.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caloundrahouseboats.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caloundrahouseboats.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/caloundrahouseboats.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":359,"href":"https:\/\/caloundrahouseboats.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318\/revisions\/359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/caloundrahouseboats.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caloundrahouseboats.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caloundrahouseboats.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}