2 walks in nearby NSW

 I have a memory of someone enquiring on the Mallacoota Birds Facebook Group about the condition of Maxwell's Forest Reserve (on Maxwell's Rd in NSW) but can't now find the post. At the time I didn't know, not having been there since the fire. However today we went there. Shortly after we turned off the highway we noted a sign to the Python Track (regarded by Google as Python Firetrail) and through that looked worth exploring at some stage. However we had an objective in mind so pressed on to the Forest Reserve (12 km of reasonable forest road).

The Reserve is close to the pin for Royds Rd.

You may be aware of the military acronyms which escalate the level of shambles: SNAFU (Situation Normal, All...); TARFU (Totally And Royally ...) and FUBAR ( .... Beyond All Recall).

The lovely rainforest walk is at least TARFU and, given the Parrothead Government of NSW's level of interest in environmental matters, I suspect is actually FUBAR. The images show where the track used to start and the state of (dis)repair of a picnic table.

There was obviously no point in trying to follow the walk through the rainforest. The first 200 m would be battling through the revegetation and who knows in what condition the fire had left the rainforest. If it burnt, which seems highly likely, it would be utterly impenetrable. So Frances suggested going back a little to a track marked to a Picnic Area and exploring that and then the Python trail. An excellent suggestion. It was only about 500 m back to the first track.

The next image, from Google Earth, was acquired on my computer at home, as I took a compass reading on my phone at the turn point and another when back at the car. It was pleasing that they agreed almost exactly on altitude and snapped to a track on the computer screen. Note the many areas of rainforest visible off to the sides: again the regrowth was going to be very difficult to get through.

The most interesting plant seen had a lot of fruit and the somewhat hop-like appearance made us think of Dodonea sp. Then we noticed the thorns and Bursaria spinosa got elected (confirmed by a few flowers seen later)

It was a tad upwards going back: about 70m elevation gain in 900m. The reason for the rain gear was not rain - it held off while we were walking - but the expectation of mosquitos etc.

So back to the Python track.  I have used this snip from Google maps as it names the creeks in the area.

The sign to the trail.  (The signs do the job and would be a lot cheaper than the flashy metal street signs deployed by Parks Victoria: I'm not sure how long they will last.)

The Python track is much flatter than the higher one and very sandy.  This first few metres had more Tabanid flies than I have ever met elsewhere.  These are related to March flies and are biters: the Rid worked in keeping them moving.

A patch of Drosera as we got into a sedge zone before descending a little to White Gum Creek

This is the crossing of White Gum Creek, where we turned.

An Eastern Iris-Skipper butterfly (thanks for the ID Em Dale).

A common attractive flower which I (and iNaturalist thus far) can only ID as Goodenia sp.  However @jackiemiles has delivered via iNaturalist with G. humilis - with a vernacular name of Swamp Goodenia this is right on the money.

Some of the Banksia serata (Old Man Banksia) were nicely in flower.

The nuts on some of the Allaocasuarinas suggested this coulfd be a happy place for Glossy Black-Cockatoos (but not this day).

Some nature notes

 This covers a few activities in the Mallacoota area on 3rd and 4th February.

The first entry is a stroll around the woodland opposite the Pony Club.  It can be a quite interesting area and we hadn't been there for a while.  It was in fact very quiet, apart from the noise of the strong wind in the trees.  We did the full loop.

On the first leg through the heath we found a tea-tree looking shrub.  From consulting iNaturalist and Flora of Victoria I have concluded this is Baeckea linifolia.  This and the two plants which follow have been confirmed by Jackie Miles (an expert  from Brogo in Bega Valley) on iNaturalist.

Next is a pea, which we quickly had to a Dillwynia, and consulting iNaturalist, Flora of Victoria and Wildflowers of the Wilderness Coast have it to D. glabberima, based on downturned tips to the leaves visible in the second image.

The payoff for doing the loop was spotting some Dipodium variegatum on the second leg.  I initially identified it as D. punctatum but apparently the force of taxonomic evil have split that and the second  Mallacoota version is now D. variegatum.  This is less common in our area than  D. roseum but more common than punctatum (and the spots on the pedicel are deterministic).

On the morning of 4 January I decided to throw COVID caution to the winds and go to Captain Stevenson's Point as it seemed the density of semi-wild life in the campground had dropped a fair bit.  I wrote down quite a few species of birds but the only unusual one was an adult Pacific Gull sitting on a sandbar.  Nearly all the Pacific Gulls I have seen at Mallacoota in the past have been juveniles.

Driving around town on the 4th I noticed this pink flowered Eucalypt (??) in the main street ...

.. and a white jobbie - possibly the famous Mallacoota Gum - at the start of Betka Rd.

We went for a stroll from Bastion Point.  We are not anti-tourist but the contrast in the beach between now and a week ago was astonishing.  We saw 5 other people in the hour we were down there.

This "line in the sand" seemed very friable and I think was the remains of layer of charred vegetation laid down after the fire.

Another line was composed of shells of various sorts.

These vertical lines were left as the rhyzomes of grass were dragged out by the waves.

This bank was about 1.8m high and had obviously been seriously undercut.

I think it was somewhat after high tide but the sea was still washing over the sand into Develings Inlet.

There were a number (~20) of Red-capped Plovers running about on the inland side of the sand bar.  A single Red-necked Stint was also there, presumably stacking in the food before heading off to Siberia to breed.

A fair frenzy of gulls was happening at the Captain Stevenson's Point end of the sandbar.

I took this to capture the various wing positions adopted by the gulls.  Few of them seemed to be actually getting food just acting as though they had had a good serve of red food colouring. 

I saw what looked to be a strange patterned tern and took lots of pictures trying to capture it.  I failed in that endeavour (and have found that it was merely a rather young Crested Tern anyway).  However I have ended up with some pretty fair shots of Crested Terns in flight!

You can just see the small fish this one has caught

Weather Report January 2022

 In summary, almost a definition of La Nina.  Above average rain, very high humidity and above average temperatures.  The departure from this picture was low maximum temperatures.

Rainfall

Total rainfall was above average and a little above 2021.

The heaviest daily fall was on the 6th, but non-trivial (ie above 0.2 mm) amounts fell on 12 days.

Maximum rain rates were quite high on 4 days, with all 4 coming in the top 25 days (of 1085) I have recorded.  However the highest rate (93.6 mm/hr) is only the 11th heaviest recorded and well below the heaviest (274 mm/hr on 37 March 2021). 

The fall on 6January was a lot higher than expected for the date meaning the prorata estimate of the annual fall began with a bang (or splash).  It has dropped significantly through the month.

Temperatures

The anomaly began with very high values but gradually dropped ending with a value of +0.47C

Comparing BoM values with the long term averages by day through the month clearly shows the positive value of the anomaly to be caused by above average minima on the majority of days,  There were not many days in which the maximum was above average but only 4 on which both minimum and maximum were below average.

As usual a similar pattern is shown by my weather station, with slightly higher maxima due to reduced exposure to the sea breeze,

Minimum Temperatures

The average minimum temperature recorded at my WS was 18.06C, the highest recorded in 30 years. Not surprisingly  above last year, and well above average.  There is not a significant trend in the data.

Maximum temperatures

As explained in this document I have adjusted the historical (BoM) data (prior to January 2019) to compensate for the effect of an afternoon sea breeze cooling BoM data more than my WS data.  After the adjustment, the maximum for January 2022 is below average, but very slightly above the value for January 2021.  Again there is no positive trend in the data.

Humidity

The most notable feature of the chart of daily  standard-time readings is the closeness of the morning (0900 hrs) and afternoon (1500 hrs) reading.  The average difference is around 11 percentage points but on 15 days in this month the difference was less than 5 points higher or lower.

With a this/last/average comparison it is obvious that the average values for both periods were well above average and particularly above the values for 2021.

Looking at all values of humidity (rather than just the 2 standard times) January 2022 was the most humid month I have recorded in 3 years.  The next chart shows average humidity fort he last 36 months and a rolling 12 month average to dispel any seasonal factors.  The moving average shows a fairly significant upwards trend.

Wind

The daily runs show a very draughty start to the month followed by a relatively calm period for the final 3 weeks. The period 5 to 7 January had the 7th longest (of 1058 days) 3 day cumulative run (896 km) since I began recording.  The longest 3 day run has been 1108 km in September 2019.

The January run was above average and 2021.

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