A visit to Eden

 Today (30 March) the Footmobiles visited Eden for a few walks. The first was the start of the Bundian Way, a track used by indigenous people to get from Twofold Bay to Kosciuszko.  

Here is the route we followed:

The odd little flick NW near Cocora was due to a sign leading Frances and I that way, and us trudging along - both thinking I don't remember this grass on the way out!

At Quarantine Bay the Darters were full of interest.  The first 3 images are of a mature female.

A male Darter was perched near the Pelicans, seeming oblivious to the guano.  This will be a good site for a phosphate mine in a few millenia.

A few of the Pelicans.

The view across Twofold Bay from a lookout just before Quarantine Bay.

Apart from confirming that the steps on the way back were a pain in the everything, there were
a couple of interesting sightings.  The first of these was seeing an Azure Kingfisher in a small creek we crossed on a very flashy bridge.  The second was seeing these fruit of Pittosporum revolutum.  Thanks to folk from iNaturalist.com for identifying this.

This is a wider shot to show the leaves more clearly,

The track has a few boards telling the story of the walk.

A modest (~300) colony of fruit bats were close to the water.  They were quite a useful landmark in suggesting that we had misguidely followed a sign, leading to the spike shown in the map above.

After a lunch pause we went to the look out at the far end of the town.  Despite having been to Eden many times I don't think we had ever been here.  The main lookout is very good, but going a little left leads to the Maritime memorial (see below) and then to a Reserve by the Marine Rescue station.  We had an interesting chat with one of the staff who was just going on duty.  Apparently they deal with problems every couple of days (mainly boats going out with issues such as flat batteries, breaking down etc).  Here is the view North ... 

.... and South East.  This  should be an excellent whale watching site in season.

On the tip of the peninsula opposite is Boyd's Tower a relic of one of the more 'colourful' characters of Eden's past!  The boat was the second trawler we saw returning to port: as one of the group said, it looked fine in a flat sea but the idea of being on a boat like that miles out to sea on a rough day was appalling.

The chip mill across the bay was chipping!

This is the Maritime Memorial, honouring all the folk from Eden lost at sea,  Very well done with little plaques for the unfortunates sailors and fishermen. 

Weather station data on the event of 23 March

 Following on from yesterdays post about the BoM data here are some snippets from my Weather Station (WS).  

The first chart compares the rainfall recorded each hour at the WS with that recorded by BoM.

Clearly the two stations recorded very similar amounts (107.4mm BoM and 109.0mm WS) and the pattern is also very similar.  I was intrigued that BoM was higher until 1800hrs on the 23rd and then WS took the lead.  I wondered if this was changes in the wind, but can see nothing in the wind direction data to support that.

The next chart shows the intensity of the rain.  The maximum rate was 75.2 mm per hr.  Of the 899 previous rainfall records only 18 are higher than this.

The next chart could be titled "An Indicator of Nastiness" showing rain rate and wind gust (both as measured by my WS).

I think the power lines gave up the struggle around 8PM, coincident with the strongest gusts.

Event of 23 March 2021

We are still in Canberra but I have managed to extract a couple of interesting graphs of the event from BoM data for the Mallacoota (Airfield) BoM location.  Not much needs to be said.

Firstly the rain, showing the accumulated fall (line) and fall per 30 minutes.

The second chart shows the maximum gust in each 30 minute period.  The peak, at 2330 was 85kph.  

For comparison Gabo's maximum gust was 107kph, also at 2330.  The usual (mainland) suspect for strongest gust is Wilson's Promontory only managed 93kph at 2037.

More beach(ish) sightings

 On visiting Quarry Beach on 14 March Frances was taken by the bravery of this Pelagonium growing on a rock on the beach.  The seaweed in the wider shot shows how rough seas (of which there have been some major examples recently) get right up to it.  (The plant is up a bit to the left!)

On the morning walk on 15 March walk we discussed the whereabouts of the Cattle Egrets which have been MIA for a few days.  Then I spotted 3 Egret-shapes from Captain Stevenson's Point.  On going to investigate I found they were 3 of the Cattle Egrets.  In the first image a White-faced Heron (one of 9 in the vicinity) shows the size of the  Egrets.

The light wasn't good for a detailed shot, and they seemed surprisingly twitchy for this species, which in my experience is well habituated to hupersonity and its doings.

[A bit further from the beach on getting back home 1 Cattle Egret and a Great Egret - which have been scarce recently around here - turned up to check the paddock behind our house.  So the Heron family today has been represented by Great Egret, Cattle Egret, Royal Spoonbill and Australian White Ibis.  I'm sure if I'd gone to the right spots I'd have added Eastern Reef Egret and Nankeen Night Heron to that list.]

Coming back along Bastion Beach I couldn't work out from a distance was this was.

A mass of Southern Goose Barnacles (Lepas australis) washed up on a lump of seaweed.  Gulls were gathering for a feed.

Asides from the Big Weekend

 We have just concluded a very successful Big Birding Weekend at Mallacoota.  I'll be doing a more formal report on the event later but thought some commentary on associated 'stuff' might be useful (or at least give some context to the event.

Somehow or another Janine found the Nankeen Night Heron which used to roost beside the Bakery.  It is now across the road in a Pittosporum.  Apart from being difficult to spot, I am intrigued that it clambered in there.

A conga line of birders in Shady Gully.

Peering in forest at the entrance to Mullet Creek we found a mini-colony of about 20 Grey-headed Flying Foxes.

A highlight of our Lake cruise on the Loch Ard was interacting with the Sea Eagles.  They start off in the trees watching the boat ...

... and then come and take the chunks of chook (photo by Rob Bilson).

Walking on the Cemetery Track, where the forest was unburnt, some of the Banksia serrata (Old Man Banksia) were coming in to flower.

There were some very big, very old, trees along there!

Here is the Loch Ard at 0700 hours with folk getting on board for transfer to Howe Flat.

The conga line shifts to the boardwalk at Howe Flat.  This was a very very birdy 4 km walk from the jetty art which we were dropped off.

The track after the board walk was completely dry and had been mown.  However the dried scum in the mown area shows that water had been up to the base of the taller reeds - it would have several inches deep in the middle of the path.

A female spider in her web over the track.  Some of her much smaller male consorts are also visible.

On the coastal dune the Banksia integrifolia was flowering.

Although the track was dry some members needed to cool their feet.  The ocean was up to the job.

As I walked back I saw an Eastern Bristlebird fly across the track and watched it for about 15 seconds as I fumbled for my camera.  Which I got in position after 16 seconds.

I came back a different way to remove some pink tapes.  The vehicle access was still damp.  I didn't need to put on the heavy wellingtons I had schlepped on the walk.

On Monday we went to Bastion Point.  There was very strong runout of the mouth.

Red-necked Stint.

Double-banded Plover (non-breeding plumage).

Comparison image for Double-banded and Red-capped plovers.

The tideline in this image shows how the waves had been breaking over the dune earlier in the weekend. No wonder the pelagic trips were cancelled (again).

Gannets

 The sea looked a little lumpy today so I took myself to Fisherman's Point to see if any interesting birds flew by.  Bird of the day was Short-tailed Shearwater of which 2 skimmed past.   Had I not used them on Monday Australasian Gannet would have got the tick today as several (16 in about 30 minutes) glided past heading West.  Here are the photos I took: pretty much at extreme range.