Mallacoota snaps

 Having heard a report of Striated Heron at Coulls Inlet I took my self off there of 30 March.  I didn't find the Heron, but get a few images of an obliging Azure Kingfisher.

The next shot was from a good bit further away and used digital zoom as well as the full 400m.

Late in the day I thought the cloud visible from our front door offered the chance of a fancy sunset.  It didn't, but I think this is nice!

The next morning produced fog over the Lake.

And eventually a good sunrise (phone photo as we started out on our walk.

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.

Back in Mallacoota

 We had a relaxed drive back to Mallacoota on the 12th July and found a few things of interest on the 13th.  For some reason I found the day cold, while the thermometer said it was actually quite warm, with a maximum of 19.4C.  Frances suggested that if I went and sat on the deck I would soon warm up: this happened.

It also gave me a good view of this patch of clouds.

The patch seemed to be moving quickly towards the North.  This made me recall that on our morning walk I saw a condensation trail heading South which seemed an unusual time for this.  Checking with Flight Radar it was simply a Sydney-Hobart flight which is quite common - perhaps I just haven't looked up at the right time in the past?  Taking a rough guess, using the distance in the image to Cann River as similar the aircraft was about 50km out to sea.  The most interesting point was that it was only travelling at around 380 knots: my memory is that they are usually doing about 450 knots.  There must have been strong Southerly winds.  This would account for the speed of the clouds also.

The Lapwings nest on the lawn next door is full.

A New Holland Honeyeater perched in a Grevillea.

Some more clouds arrived to make a spiffy sunset.

Sunrise on the 14th was pretty spiffy also.

The reflection of the sky in the Lake is just visible in this.

The moon, such as it is at present, also appeared.

On our morning walk, a seal feeding between the shore and Seagull Island entertained us.  Sorry, only phone photographs.

In the evening the sunset was one of the best I have seen.  The first photo was with my larger lens looking towards Karbeethong.

The next two are a little later looking North (see Mt Imlay) and photos using the small lens

The final image was taken from the lounge

Yet more sky images

 The sun and clouds are doing a pretty good job of spectacular recently.  Following a pleasant pastel sunrise on 13 June, there was an intriguing sunset on that day (the cloud led to 6.4mm of rain) o followed by an colourful sunrise, on 14 June including a moon!

The pastel sunrise, at 0706 hrs.

The sky got very cloudy late in the afternoon but a gap appeared over Karbeethong which was well illuminated by 1636 hrs.

At 1640 I switched to my smaller lens to get a wider view.  Mt Imlay is just out of the frame to the right.

This tales a view continuing to the left (West) of the previous image.

The sunrise on the 14th wasn't so unusual, but still attractive at 0644.

The moon enhances this image.

On the 15th there was a good collection of lenticular clouds (referred to by the Cloud Appreciation Society as 'lennies')  in the general direction of Mount Drummer.  The first one in particular has a good impersonation of a UFO!

A little later they were just nice to look at.

As I expected/hoped sunset was pretty lurid on the 15th.  For those interested, when I zoomed in on the bird it had a clearly forked tail, so it is a fairly close Welcome Swallow rather than a distant raptor (or Pelican)

Ieri, oggi e domani

 I was thinking what to call a post about yesterday and today when I recalled an Italian film from the 1960s called (in Italian) "Yesterday, today and tomorrow".  Directed by Vittorio de Sica, starring Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni: what's not to like about that?  I'm not sure about 'tomorrow' but here is some stuff about yesterday and today (6 May 2023).

I went hunting for the Spangled Drongos seen in Karbeethong.  That was a fail, but I did like this accumulation of waterbirds on a jetty.

Towards Bucklands 2 Little Pied Cormorants posed.

A beetle - probably a species of Soldier Beetle - landed on my windscreen.  Possibly the most unusual element of this is how clean is the windscreen!

Cuteness doggified!  Gipsy says hello!

A series of photos of the sunset on 5 May.  I expected it to get really colourful but that didn't happen.  Enjoy the shapes of the cirrus.

And some silhouetted trees!

Early on the 6th the Mallacoota Institute of Bloke Studies (Aquatic Division) gathered for a bream fishing competition.

The Terrestrial Division of MIBS was not to be outdone and gathered behind Commercial Rd.  Formal attire was required (courtesy of the official outfitters ALDI).  

I did comment in another place about the gender balance of this gathering but was then advised that - what was described by my adviser, Shanna, as - "chicks" were in large numbers at the far end of this symposium.  Apparently they were scoffing scones and freedom frogs (??) as well as loading trailers.

A suspiciously clean ute.

Here is my share!  I think we now have enough for the coming Winter.

Sunday (domani e domenica 😁) was revolting.  Barely went outside all day!