A Murray River Gang.

Danger lurks every where in the bush and one must keep an eye out at all times.  It always makes one feel uneasy, at least if it is known a gang, such as the Hells Angels are in close proximity.  I have a gang of creatures, sharing the water way with me at the moment.  Just upstream of Barmah and below the Barmah Lake.  They are black clad, from head to foot.  I managed to count ten of them this morning but because of the way they operate it's very likely there's more of them.

Sometimes their approach is by land but this is a rare phenomenon.  Land is perhaps where one could outwit them.  Only perhaps though, because if one decided to confront them on land they would prefer to retreat, which is of cause what all gangs tend to do if confronted directly.  Most times they approach under water.  It is impossible to tell how many of them, are making this manoeuvre at one time because the water is always brown and silty.  One or two will surface like a submarine, cast their beady black eyes in the direction of the house boat and then disappear beneath the water again.  As one or two dive, one or two more will come up.  Every few resurfaces, a fish will be held in one of these creatures mouths, and with a threatening gesture the fish will be tossed in the air and swallowed head first, whole.  The dastly black creature seems to intimate, that if I were in the water the same thing would happen to me.

The house boat is fairly large but if enough of these things congregate who knows!!  Once or twice a day, when these creatures have been practicing their manoeuvres for several hours, they will all come out of the water and adorn a dead branch by sitting on it.  After they have dried out sufficiently they take to the air like a squadron of jet fighters and fly a reconnaissance circuit before returning to the water again and starting these mysterious tactics again.

Funny creatures, little black cormorants.