Weather report March 2020

The month overall was quite dry (again!!!) and with quite moderate temperatures.  Humidity was normal  and while the month was windy that is expected around the equinox.

Rain

Overall my Weather Station recorded 35.2 mm which is 47% of average.  It is also much below last year's value for March.

Not surprisingly the pro-rata estimate for the year has taken a large dive over the month.

I have also looked at 12 and 36 month rainfall totals.  Both series bottomed out in December 2019 but has approached that level again after a miserable March total.  So I think it is possibly premature to celebrate the end of the drought.

Temperature

As a starting point here are the daily extreme temperatures over the month.

I see very little of note in those lines.  The daily range seems quite low, but it is difficult to compare with the BoM data, for which I have a long time series, as the afternoon sea breeze often restricts to maximum (and thus the range).  Somewhat to my surprise the average range this year 8.2^oC is actually wider than 2019 which comes in at 7.7^oC.

Another overall measure of temperature is the temperature anomaly defined as the difference between the current value for a measure and the long term average therefore.  Using BoM data for both values this resolves to 0.10 ^oC.  A chart of the progress of the anomaly through the month shows a warm start which soon "settles down" a little below 0^oC.

Most minimum temperatures were above average and most maximum temperature below average.  (Which logically implies that the range will be less than average.)  There was only one day in which the minimum was below average and the maximum above average.

Maximum temperature

The average maximum temperature for the month was 23.2⁰C.  Coming from my WS it is not surprising this was above the long term average.  It was almost idential to March 2019.

 Looking at the time series there is a slight (ie not significant upwards trend over the last 36 years.

 Minimum Temperatures

We were well below last year and a little above the long term average.

 Again the time series shows a non-significant upwards trend.

Humidity

Humidity was reasonably stable through the month with few high readings (as would be expected with little rain - to put the cart before the horse).  The most interesting observations were the few days in which the afternoon value was higher than the morning value.  They were following by high morning values so presumably reflect frontal activity

  The 0900 values were almost the same as last year and very little different to average.

 Afternoon values were well below last year (rainy) and average.

Wind

The chart accords with my memory of the end of the month being very windy.  My Great Big Anemometer (aka rotary clothes hoist) had already suggested that due to needing Frances to hold it still while I put out washing.  The run of 304 km on the 29th was the 11th longest run since I started the WS in February 2019 (the highest is 520 km last September followed by 470 km last March).

My WS is relatively sheltered compared to the BoM due to both the coastal location of the BoM station and it being at 10m above the ground while mine is about 2m.  So I have adjusted  the BoM readings to compare the two sites.   This shows March 2020 to be less windy than 2019 but slightly above average (allowing for the rubberiness of my adjustment to the BoM value they are the same).

The wind most frequently came from three directions this month.  (Note that where the slices are small the values overlap but the biggies are still legible.)

I will do an ad-hoc analysis of wind records in the near future.  To poke the data a little I have calculated the average speed for each direction.

It is possible that the absence of readings from ENE and E reflect the station being particularly sheltered from those directions.

Quarry Beach and the Airport

On 31 March we went to Quarry Beach for some exercise, which was taken.  There were 4 other cars there but this didn't make the beach prone to antisocial distancing so we carried on.

At the Western end of the beach we came across a flock of 7 Australian Pied Oystercatchers.  I had initially thought 2 of them were banded and flagged but on reviewing my photos I found I had got pictures of 3 different flags.

This is #85 which I had seen a couple of weeks ago.  It was originally banded at Corner Inlet (400km West) in August 2010 by the Victorian Wader Study Group.  At that time the bird was aged as 4+ years of age, so it is now at least 14 years old.  HANZAB is silent on the maximum age for the species but a site on American Oystercatchers says some members of the genus may reach 20 - 40 years.

 I tried to get a photo of the second flagged bird and it helpfully jumped.

Looking at the image I am pretty sure it was in fact #85 again.

However trying again I found flag SL doing an Ostrich impression ...

 .. and later, coming back to the car, #9A  was checking out the wrack line.

The sightings have been reported to the Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme.

I believe it is OK to return home by a slightly different route - especially if we don't get out of the car - so we swung around the airport.  There were quite a few flowers in the heath.   This is I think a Goodenia.

 No idea (beyond dicotyledon) on this one!

 Probably a Coronidium.

Getting round to the Gun Club track we saw our first bird.  It flushed from the side of the track at a high velocity.  The flight style was rather strange, making me think of a snipe - which would be bizarre in dry heathland.  Fortunately we saw where it dropped and creeping along the track Frances was able to see it and direct my vision to it.  Here is an image of some in-focus grass.

The bird went under the fence and a somewhat clearer image resulted.  That was good enough for some other members of the Mallacoota Birds FB group to identify it as a Blue-winged Parrot (rather than my assumption of Ground Parrot which I had seen here in the past).  Woo - hoooooo!  A lifer for me.  Blue-winged Parrots have been seen at this site in the past - perhaps 20 years ago -by very eminent birders.

Another day, another sunrise

I looked over Jordan the Inlet and what did I see?  Nothing "coming for to carry me home", but a low bank of cloud that looked propitious for a nice sunrise.  So I pointed the Pajero uphill, regarding this as an educational outing.

The Gabo lighthouse was emitting the occasional flash of light but I couldn't get my timing right to catch that.

 The surface of the Lake was very calm so the wake of this swan stood out nicely.

 A Red-necked Wallaby either checked me out, or paused to take in a bit of the ABC Breakfast show.

 Some gold began to appear in the clouds at 0718.

 Getting better at 0722.

 Here is 0724 ...

  ... and the show finishes at 0725

Birding in March

Here are links to a couple of reports on recent birding in Mallacoota.

1. The first three months after the fire.
2. The month of March

Sunrise 28 March

I glanced outside at about 0645 and it looked though there was enough cloud on horizon to give an interesting sunrise .  So I grabbed the camera and took the Pajero up to the top of Angophora Drive.

A wide shot at 0653.

 A bit lighter at 0702.

 The lower clouds are starting to glow at 0712

 Here comes the sun at 0716.

 The camera ran out of battery at 0717!

Sooty Oystercatchers

On the Big Weekend Jack Winterbottom took a brilliant photo at Bastion Point of a Sooty Oystercatcher giving beak to a polychaete worm.

Every time since, when  we have been to the beach I have watched the Sootys for a repeat performance with no luck.  On Monday 23rd one of the trio was giving a cunjevoi a serious going over.  I suspect the dark tip to the beak was staining from cunjevoi juice.

I couldn't see exactly what this one was probing, but it stayed in position for several minutes so was evidently tasty.

The waves eventually got a bit frisky for rock activities so all three birds moved on to the sand.  They seemed to freeze, with one foot raised and the head cocked to one side, before ramming the beak into the sand.  I presume they were listening for small invertebrates moving around under the surface.  I didn't get a snap of this.

Gipsy Point

The Wednesday Walkers followed up on a report of Parsons Bands (Eriochilus cuculatus) at the Gipsy Point cemetery.  They were there in numbers: and it was a big number - at least 100s.

 Apart from the petals resembling parts of clerical attire, from which derives the vernacular name, the overall appearance of the flower reminds me of an evangelist ranting about hellfire and damnation!

We covered the area fairly well.  (For some reason eBird prefers to record this as 0.91 km rather than the more sensible 1.29 Ha.)

Possibly the second commonest flower was Hypoxis geometrica.

A couple of colonies of Brachyscome spathulata were evident.

 Several examples of Lagenophora gracilis were found.

 One flower of Leptorhyncos nitidulus was found, and fortunately photographed.  Rumours of a "better clump over there" turned out to be Fake News!

Much of the bush around the cemetery was well burnt.  While the eucalypts seem to be sprouting well a quick glance suggested the sheokes were dead.  However raising one's eyes showed good greenery and some unburnt fruit in the top of the trees.

I suspect, based on suggestions from iNaturalist.org, this is Lycoperdon marginata.

 A Wolf Spider was ready to repel boarders!

 After checking the cemetery we went to the main part of Gipsy Point.  A large Goanna was swimming under the main jetty.

 In case you ever wondered what colour a goanna's tongue is, wonder no more: its pink!

 Looking across the Genoa River the crown of the woodland there looked to be in good order.  The understorey apparently burnt but the fire didn't crown until the top of the ridge.

Rock pools and sand at Bastion

As the tides are still low in the afternoon we took ourselves to Bastion Point to see what was around.  We stayed on the beach side of the ramp and found a few interesting items.

Two Brittle Stars (I think ) making nice.

 I'm not sure that this image shows what was intended but it was a clump of life all stuck together.  I found it impossible get them all appearing together but 1 is a largish shell (of which a second is out of frame to the right) glued to a turban-type shell (2) with its foot showing (3).  A Sea-star (4) was stuck over the back of the shells.

 A very clean Triton.

 One of the more colourful Sea Anemones I have found.

 A shield limpet.  We have been told these can be cooked like abalone and eaten.  Pass.

 Quite a few Sea Stars were off the rocks and making tracks in the sand.

 As was this winkle - the track was much deeper than the stars.

We saw this life form at Secret Beach the previous day.  This one was further from the waves and thus much easier to photograph!  From probing iNaturalist.org it appears to be some type of Sea Squirt.

We were briefly back in the area the following day and got a couple of photos of the exposed rock.  The first shows a couple of exposed pools in the top of a ridge.

 The second shows the whole reef looking towards the breakwater.