Sunrise New Years Day 2023
1st January 2023
Just before sunrise New Years Day 2023 at Palm Cove.
Every year my wife and I wake up early to watch the first sunrise of the year. As we drove into Palm Cove this year it looked very promising.
Just after sunrise New Years Day 2023 at Palm Cove.
However the clouds were not kind to us this year and despite getting some lovely morning orange colour it was far from the best sunrise.
A Crested Tern silhouetted in the sky.
What was different this year was the amount of bird activity in the sky, there was a lot of it. Crested Terns that I had been searching for with no success just days before at Ellis Beach were busily looking for a morning meal.
The birds enjoying the early morning sun.
The were joined by seagulls, swallows and other birds I could not make out from their silhouettes.
The paddlers that show up every year.
Like my wife and myself it appears that paddlers also have a New Years day tradition. As this man made his way out to sea the sunset was starting to fade.
The silhouettes start to fade.
As the sun rose the details of the birds became more visible and the colour in the sky began to dissipate.
Our blue capped paddler now further out to sea.
Just two minutes after that first photo of the paddler and the sky had lost almost all of that morning sunrise colour.
The paddlers on the horizon well into the first daylight of 2023.
By the time the paddlers had reached out near Double Island they were specks on the horizon and we were well into the first daylight of 2023. Happy New Year!