Friday night and Saturday morning

On the evening of 10 April a rather attractive Cumulus cloud hung over the Genoa River valley for quite a time.

 The next two images were taken at 1739 ...

 ... and 1743.

The next morning - 11 April - the sunrise was quite good.

 The moon hadn't gone down by 0623.

The Heathland begins to happen

One of the interesting areas near the centre of Mallacoota is the heathland near Davis Beach.  This got completely burnt by the fire and until recently has had bolshie signs by someone - probably the Shire - closing the track off.  The signs have now gone so we went for a stroll there yeasterday.

Here is an overview of the heath:

 In the past that was basically waist high Allocasuarina paludosa. (I have previously called this A. nana which is the species of Sheoke growing in heaths near the ACT.  However Joy Grieg's book "Wildflowers of the Wilderness Coast" backed up by Flora of Victoria have straightened me out.)  I suppose the key point is that there is none of it left now.

Some other species/genera are recovering.  Here is a Leptospermum sp.

 This is Banksia marginata.

 And some Acacia sp.  Joy only lists A. myrtifolia in this habitat but I can't find any images of thre juvenile leaves of that species.

 I apologise for the quality of the following photos: There have been so few around recently that I have got out of practice!  Hopefully they give enough to let you recognise the flowers.  This is a Wahlenbergia (possibly W. gracilis) aka Bluebell.  They were quite common.

 I think this is Leptorhyncos nitidulus.

 Scaevola ramosissima.  Quite common, but with a low growing habit can be hard to spot.

 Coronidium scorpiodes.

 An annoying species: it has distinctive shaped petals but I can't pick it at the moment and iNaturalist suggested Hypericum sp which I don't think is correct.  I did warn you about the naff photos.

 Hybanthus vernonii.  Only one tiny plant seen

Brachyscome spathulata: this species is appearing in low numbers all over the Mallacoota area.  Only 1 specimen in this site.

 Hypoxis hygrometrica - very common.  This was about the first floweer to appear in the broad area.

 Frances found an orchid!  Eriochilus cuculatus "Parsons bands".  Again, I did warn you about the quality of the photos.

 About the only possible risk of OHAS issues was this seat which looked OK, if  a tad black, until looking underneath showed the cantilevered situationthe support doesn't

An exercise walk at Bastion Point

I reckon any walk counts as exercise!  Fortunately the local police seem to be sensible and not wander around checking people's speed or endurance.

As we passed by the rocks some interesting marine life was evident.  

In the UK I'd just call these winkles, and reach for a pin!  Here we had thought they are Turban shells.  We have had some debate as to whether these are in fact Turbans (Family Turbinidae) or Top Shells (Family Trochidae).  Our current view, based on photos in "A handbook to Australian Seashells" by Barry Wilson, is the former with these resolving to Wavy Turbans (Turbo undulatus).  The definitive feature is the thickness of the operculum so a detailed look is needed.  We have eventually got to check the shells and the operculum was very thin: thus it is a Wavy Top (Austrocochlea concamerata).

This sea star had got away from a sheltering rock and when we first saw it had the tentacles curled in, giving a very odd appearance.  I missed that snap.

 There were lots of sea stars around the rocks!

I have never noticed sea star tracks until recently.  I have no idea why this one is crawling about, rather that curling up as did the first one .

 A sea anemone in one of the many pools.  At this site these are the commonest anemones rather than the purple jelly-blobs in other places.

At a quick glance - we were exercising after after all - I wondered if this was coral.  Looking at the photo they are clearly barnacles.

 Both species of Oystercatcher were evident as were a lot of oysters.

These black rocks intrigued me as they are very different to the brown rocks in the outcrops on the beach and nearby cliffs.

My initial thoughts were that they were the marine equivalent of glacial erratics.  Then Occams Razor kicked in and I realised they were probably ones that had been dropped (or otherwise escaped) when building the useless breakwater.

A couple of items of COVID amusement.

This one is easy for me: Minke.

 I have some attributes of several of these but the chip reference got the Seagulls across the line!

Casuarina Track - caution required

Most of the tracks around Mallacoota are still closed with officious signs borrowed from road works to say so.  The Casuarina Track - opposite the Health Centre - only has yellow caution tape, and the guys had clearly been wielding large chainsaws, so I decided to exercise caution and see what it was like for walking.

A bonus was that while riding there I finally saw the Emu that lurks around Nauta Place.

As I said, the guys have been wielding large chainsaws.

It is interesting what burns and what doesn't.  It seems that the wooden frame for this sign has not burnt at all but the informative sign has melted and burnt.

 I presume the question mark is asking do we take this one down?

 From looking at it I would say that it is very likely to assume a horizontal position once the top branches get weakened and a wind arrives.  So the answer to that question is "Yes".  However it looks as though it would fall away from the track so perhaps allow for a bit of "No."

Taking a different angle on the trunk and noting how much is left would tend to add strength to the positive answer.  However, noting the amount of twist as it went over perhaps the question should be changed to "How the heck do we drop that without killing ourselves?"

 There is a lot of regrowth evident on most of the trees.

The footbridge over Davis Creek has been modified somewhat.  While most of the platforn and the rails look fine, the supports have been burnt so it has dropped about 30 cm.  Not a problem  - unless one was riding a bike and not paying attention (and/or feeling nervous about a drop).

 At the top of the rise after the second gully (about 800m in) I had got to the end of the cleaned up area - but there seemed far less across the track.  I took that as a message from God and turned back.

Riding home there was a small - but enjoyable - interruption as a portly person toddled across the intersection of Genoa and Mirrabooka Roads.  Everyone stopped to let him past with myself and another cyclists as escorts.  He then shinned up a tree grunting loudly (possibly saying "Thank you"!)

More on wind

I have posted in the past about a comparison of data from my weather station (WS) and the Bureau of Meteorology site  The conclusion is that my data is reasonable as a general indicator of what the weather is doing (or has done).  To some extent this is a little surprising as the anemometer is mounted about 2m above the ground rather than 10m and is not well exposed other than from about NE - N -WSW.

With that being said, as I have compiled my monthly reports it has seemed to me that the wind direction has changed in the Summer months with a much higher proportion coming from the South East than in other seasons.  So I decided to check out what my ~14 months of WS data had to say about wind direction.

Cutting to the chase, my examination that follows with (unfortunately in some views) several graphs concludes that for 2019 at least there was a seasonal pattern in the direction of the wind.  ESE in January February, then WNW or N until July with WSW-W for the rest of the year.  I took a brief foray into barometer readings to see if they explained anything but have so far failed to find the silver bullet in that regard.

There are several measures of 'amount' of wind available from the WS: average speed over preceding period; high speed over preceding period; and run over preceding period.  As I take a period as 1 hour the wind speed and run are effectively the same.  I will start off using run.

The first chart shows the average hourly run recorded x month.  Note that I have truncated the vertical scale to emphasise month to month differences.  The surprising aspect is that November appears to have the fastest winds.

 Clearly the strongest winds come from the North.  I suspect this may be related to exposure of the site to that direction, but if that is the case I am surprised that the winds from the NNW and NW are not equally strong.

What I was most interested in was whether the apparent shift between segments of the compass was real.  I tried many ways of demonstrating this and concluded that the best way of doing so was to focus on the three segments (ESE; NNW+N; and WSW+W) which together make up 85% of recordings over the year.

My first approach was to look at the % of run recorded from those the segments.  There is a clear Summer peak in East winds, but it is still outweighed by the NNW+N segment in all months with WSW+W becoming dominant in late Winter/early Spring.

 Adopting a slightly different approach and counting the number records from each segment emphasises that pattern with East winds dominant in January and February; the NNW+N ruling until July and then WSW+W taking over for the rest of the year.

 I wondered if I could show the strength of winds to be due in some way to barometric pressure.  My first attempt was to plot daily run against average daily pressure.  While the trend line does slope downward (low pressure is linked to stronger winds) this is not significant.

My second thought was to wonder if the change in pressure (such as might occur when a front passed through) showed a pattern.  My measure of change was the difference between the maximum and minimum pressures in a day.  The trend line is again not significant.

Night things

Both the species in this post are linked to the darker hours.

The first are the Flying Foxes of Mullet Creek.  For most of this year the camp has been very quiet - none seen or heard from the road.  Over the last month we have seen the occasional 1 - 4 fly over our house (Angophora Dr., on ridge above Creek).  Earlier in the week I heard them from Lakeside Drive and on going into the track there found quite a few hanging around in the low (3-4 m)  trees.  They look quite small and are very nervous - perhaps pups?

Today (3 April) I went back on my exercise ride with my larger camera and found that numbers had grown significantly in the last two days.  Judging by the number I could see, and the way the ruckus seemed to be coming from quite a distance up the Creek, I suspect there would be at least 1000 bats in the area.

Here are some photos.  The light was not tremendously helpful, looking up into a bright overcast, so some of the photos have been post edited for under exposure.

My turning point for the ride was the Bucklands turning circle where the Nankeen Night-Heron was far more cooperative than usual.