A surprisingly floriferous walk opposite the Pony club

 As part of our planning for a presentation to U3A we walked the sandy Track Opposite the Pony Club yesterday (29 July).  We were surprised at how much blossom was around, possibly reflected the warmth of the month (anomaly +0.8C).

Here is the route, courtesy of eBird!

The first 400m cross a grass tree plain.  At present the grass trees are largely invisible beneath vigorous growth of sedges due to the very wet previous 2 years.  The tall shrubs in the background are Leptospermum laevigatum which fades out after about 200m into a Banksia serrata overstory.

There were several species of Acacia in flower.  The first encountered was A. oxycedrus.

Most of the A. suavolens had completed flowering, but this one still had some flowers.

The commonest flowering wattle, once past the heath, was A. longifolia.

This shows both a bank of A. longifolia and the eucalypt forest in which it forms the mid-storey

A. buxifolia is a very low growing species.

An interesting example of naming is that of A. ulicifolia which translates as "Gorse-leaved Wattle".  However the vernacular name offered in Joy's book is "Juniper Wattle": I can see why that is so, but the usual specific name for 'juniper like' is 'juniperina'.

On to other genera.  Epacris impressa was common.  It comes in various colours, beginning with white ...

.. a red form ...

.. and two shades of pink white a little more white in the background.

iNaturalist suggests this is Rhytidosporum procumbens, which gives a good match in Flora of Victoria.

Correa reflexa

I an pretty sure that this is a Hibbertia.  However I don't think it is the common species n this area H. aspersa.  From the species listed in iNaturalist in East Gippsland, checked against Flora of Victoria,  I suspect this is H. fasciculata: lets see what iNaturalist has to say about that.  As expected need detailed photos "as there are lots of similar ones" and taxonomists hate lumping.

A white, beardy jobbie must be some species Leucopogon and choosing between those in Joy's book, and with advice from a local expert, I go for L. virgatus.

There were a few Dillwynia sericea off the track in the heath but I couldn't be fussed getting yet another image of that species.  However in the forest Frances found one flower of Platylobium parviflorum (another 'pea').

When does Spring begin?

 For Mallacoota in 2023 the answer seems to be July 1!  It has (mainly) been a very warm month thus far with 2 maxima over 20C and 3 minima over 10C.  Perhaps that is why we found quite a bit of blossom in the Davis Creek heath on 27 July?

I'll begin with Hakea decurrens.  When fully blooming the flowers are white.

Earlier, the inflorescences appear more pink.

The first wattles are around.  Acacia buxifolia

Acacia suavolens

The family still known colloquially as 'peas' even though it is now called Fabaceae (after Faba = bean [although I think most 'beans' are now in the genus Vicia!]) has commenced flowering.  The usual suspect is Dillwynia sericea.

We saw our first flower for the season of another pea Hardenbergia violaceae

One of the dominant shrubs of the heath is Allocasuarina paludosa.  These are female flowers and a nut from previous years.

A butterfly paused its fluttering by.  I think it is a Varied Dusky-Blue (Erina hyacinthina), and an observer on iNaturalist has agreed with this.   (Note that in my copy of Butterflies of Australia by Michael Braby it is shown as a different genus: well done taxonomists!)

A Little Wattlebird tries hard to impersonate a Banksia integrifolia cone!

I am adding a few images from the 28th as the are more or less on topic!  The first image is a mass of blossoming Pandora pandorea (Wonga vine) at Bucklands carpark.

Looking down at the Lake showed each swan had a ring of ripples.  This is probably a comment more on the stillness of the Lake surface than the strength of the ripples.

Raising my eyes a little revealed a New Holland Honeyeater.

What I had actually gone out to see was the sunset.

Some birds, some clouds and a sunset

 The most exciting birds today were (again) not photographed.  When Frances did her exercise walk today she saw two black birds with red eyes near Bucklands.  Spangled Drongos, which have not been spotted in this area since 23 May - approximately 9 weeks.  I wonder where they have been hiding?  (Thinking on this after the initial post, the very last sighting I heard about was from Mullet Creek, rather than the Karbeethong Jetty - Bucklands area, so perhaps they were up the Creek sans paddle?)

I went to try to get some photos but failed to relocate them.  I did see a Satin Bowerbird wreaking havoc on a Pittosporum bush.

I really like the big blue eyes!

The next image focuses on a very large mistletoe on the edge of the rainforest pocket where the track heads off to Bucklands.  I think this is Dendrophthoe vitellina so should be very spiffy when it flowers.

The flock of Teal at the mouth of Mullet Creek seemed particularly large today.  I think I counted 40 Chestnut Teal out of this image and, counting from the image, 179 Chestnut Teal in the image (total 219 CT)  together with 12 Grey Teal. 

I cannot be fussed doing a precise count of sexes but eyeballing I suspect the flock is about 3:1 males:females, which I find rather strange. 

Later in the afternoon Frances drew my attention to a rather strange cloud formation.  Both photos taken with my small lens set on 18mm.

The 'front' eventually moved off to the East while the lines behind broke up.

The cloud left augured well for a sunset: and so it was!  All these photos were taken with the smaller lenses at zooms between 18mm and 45mm.

Note the lenticular clouds.

Getting a bit of colour!

LURID

Taken sitting on the lounge.  It was too nice sitting in front of the fire to go outside.

Unphotographed lifers

Sometimes it is nice to have a problem. As the weather was a little ordinary on 22 July (an improvement on the very average climate of the previous 2 days) I took myself off to Geology Point hoping that the Brown Skua seen by Jeff and Gary on the 9th of July was still there. The sea wasn't too lumpy as shown by Mummy Rock.

Sure enough the Skua was there: first seen sitting on the water and then in the air. It was still harassing the Gannets (of which there were at least 40 in the area. At one point the Skua whacked a Gannet, knocking it into the ocean.

So what is the problem?

That arrived a little later with an all dark bird, somewhat larger than the Skua, skimming the ocean between swells at least 500m away. I couldn't see the colour of the bill. but the tail looked rather short. Taking into account comments in ABG about the distribution of Sooty Albatross, I have concluded it was a juvenile Northern Giant Petrel.

Both Lifers!!!! Which to choose? Both are unusual in the area but as I am more certain of the Skua, that gets the tick.

Unfortunately both of the lifers were well out of camera range so I didn't have a photograph of them. Here are some snaps - at just about the edge of my range - of Gannets. The first two were straight out from my position - possibly 500m away.

I had seen a flock of about 25 birds sitting on the water to the East, bobbing up and down in the swell. From taking a guess at their position - I couldn't pick them up without the telescope, nor get a view of their position relative to the shore with the 'scope - they were at least 1km away. Something stirred them up so some of them are dimly visible in this image.

Later, sunset was quite attractive.

Early Onset Cabin Fever

The weather so far this month is rather odd.  I posted the following to Facebook on 18 July.

By 18 July my weather station had recorded a whole 3.8mm of rain. (BoM at the airport has only managed 2.8 mm.) The lowest amount previously recorded since my records begin (in1994) between 1 July and 18 July is 6mm (1994) and the highest 168.8 in 2015. The readings average to 47.6 mm. So, very dry!

For temperatures the word that springs to mind is warm. Only 4 days so far this month have an average temperature below the mean of past averages for the date.

While only 10 days have recorded a minimum above the average for the date 6 of them have been more than one standard deviation above the average. No days were more than 1 standard deviation below the monthly average.

For maximum temperatures 14 days have been above the long term mean but only 4 more than one standard deviation above the average. No days were more than 1 standard deviation below the monthly average.

None of the significantly high minima and maxima have coincided. 3 of the 4 significantly high maxima occurred on days when the minimum was below average. However 4 of the 6 significantly high minima were followed by an above average, but not significantly so, maximum. 

Of course as soon as I compiled that post the weather changed! The maximum on 19 July, and both values on the 20th were all significantly below the respective long term mean values.  That made the 20th officially a Cold Day. 

On the 19th I went out for a bird prowl, hoping to find and photograph the Nankeen Night Heron at Bucklands parking area.  Couldn't locate it but got a reasonable image of a White-faced Heron taking off from a jetty.

I visited a few other spots to see what was around, and the answer was "not much".   At Betka a Magpie decided to try to bum some food but I had none.

Frances decided she needed to emerge so we went for a drive to the airstrip to see if we could relocate the interesting birds I had found on the 16th.  The only colourful birds around were Scarlet Robins on the airstrip fence (we did find a female Flame Robin behind the buildings, but they are not colourful).  The Epacris impressa in the unslashed parts of the heath was colourful.

Before we went out (about 1100hrs) I had loaded the stove with wood, thinking to light it about 1400hrs. Soon after returning home (about 1330) I heard a crackle: although it all looked black in the firebox there was obviously a live coal left over from the 18th.  This wasn't a biggie and I let it run.  By 1630 the first charge had died down so I added a large half-round of stringybark in a way that I hoped would get it to burn slowly.  It had caught well by 1715.

By 1745 it was very well alight and I wondered if it might burn too quickly.

However by having the door firmly shut and the damper closed it calmed down, and by 1923 there was  just enough smoulder to keep the warmth happening.

Still nice embers by 0720 on the 20th.  More fuel was added and the fire kept going through the day

A little before the fire was recharged the sunrise had been pretty spiffy,

Towards sunset on the 20th the cloud formation was attractive from our settee.  Taken with my iPad as I was feeling too relaxed - possibly should be spelt L... A ... Z ... Y - to get my good camera!  

Some better photographs, I think from Coulls Inlet, were on the MCN Facebook page: I hope folk who are not on FB will still be able to see them.