Lotsa photos: many of Animals without legs

 This is mainly about a trip we took to Merimbula, via Green Cape.  I shall begin by commenting on the title: I don't consider 'flippers' to be legs, so we begin early in the day with a few snaps of a seal swimming beside the Broome St Boardwalk.

Check the whiskers.

At the end of the Boardwalk I heard the call of an Australasian Figbird and with a little help from Photoshop Express, here is the male. The female was nearby, but I have too many photos in this post anyway.

So we headed off from home, with our first destination the Disaster Bay Lookout.  This first image is a reverse view of photos I took a few days ago on a trip to Nadgee.  It shows how the Bay Cliff could be considered a sea stack, if the encroaching sand was removed.

The pattern left by waves washing on the beach was intriguing,

Moving on to Pulpit Rock we were greeted by a large circle f white water, signalling that a cetacean (again flippers not legs), had just rejoined the water after a breach.  That didn't happen again but I did get a couple of snaps of parts of whales.

The view looking North.

We had hoped the Shearwater migration might have started but not so. The only ocean bird seen here was a solitary Gannet - by this time about 400 metres away.

I also snapped this Fairywren running around: it is fully off the ground and leaning into a curved path.

Rock platform with descending Frances!

The next photos were taken by Frances as went into the rock platform while I  continued to look for Cetaceans.  Looking back to the steps:

The Southern Wall.

An insertion in the wall.  No idea what it might be.

When the insertions fall out they leave these holes behind.

This shows the complexity of the rock here and a second type of insertion.

The underside of part of the wall.

When the geologising was done we headed off for a walk in the Heath.  Many New Holland Honeyeaters were squabbling in the bushes.

Grevillea lanigera 

Hakea decurrens showing fresh fruit (blue arrow); ripe but still green, fruit (orange arrow; and old dry fruit(red arrows).

Very old fruit and flower!

Euphrasia collina collina: Flora of Victoria notes 8 subspecies occur in Victoria with overlapping ranges.

According to the iNaturalist AI this daisy is Arctotis acaulis.  That has a common name of African Flat Daisy so a BIG HINT that it is not native here!  An expert has identified it as Argentipallium obtusifolium: part of the split of Helichrysum some years ago.

Definitely Bossiaea ensata: one of the few species I am certain of!

We ten moved to the Lighthouse area where a Nankeen Kestrel was taking 5.  The head looks grey, making this a male.

A good sized swell running and washing over the rocks.

Not kelp, but seal fins sticking out of the water

In the larger group I think there were at least 12 seals lounging around in the waves.

A view North from the Lighthouse.

While looking at the seals a young woman called out to us that there was a big Brown Snake between us and the lighthouse.  Frances soon spotted it.  A fine specimen: my guess is about 1.8m long and well muscled.  

It eventually took itself back into the veg so we left the area.  About 10m further up the track there was another of similar dimension.

At Pambula the first business was acquiring lunch at Wild Rye.  A 9.5 rated steak and kidney pie for me.  Despite closing the Cann River Cafe (and ceasing deliveries to Mallacoota) the Pambula operation will continue.  Apparently the problem is getting accommodation for staff.  Then to the small wetland to eat the pie and look for the (now resident) Magpie Geese.

Consistency in the Hinterland

10 September was Glossy Count Day, so I took myself off to Fern Gully Track, sort of in the Howe Range area.  Access is off the Fairhaven Freeway (a humourous name for a reasonable dirt road) which runs from the Johnson Bridge over the Wallagaraugh toward Fairhaven on Bottom Lake.  The drive (via Genoa) takes an hour, the same as going in a putt-putt rental boat to Dowell Creek.

Here is a map of Fern Gully Track: note the word "Track" which suggests it isn't going to be smooth.

It is interesting that the track has become a no through road because Parks have stopped - since the Black Summer fire - clearing the section indicated as overgrown and the alternate route .  has a locked gate into private property.  The next image proves the status as 'track', rather than road.  With sufficient incentive - eg being pursued by an angry mob, or possibly a bushfire - I could get up there in the Mazda, but lacking such incentivisation I was pleased I was in the Pajero.

The bush was not far off the road!

The track was in better nick, both state of the ground and freedom from vegetation at the far end

A general view of the forest with much flowering wattle.

Here is the wattle.  I have no idea of the species and neither the Plants of SE NSW app; Vic Flora nor (so far) iNaturalist are not helpful getting either species beyond Acacia sp.  Single ball flowers rules out A. longifolia, which seems to be the default in the area.  Consideration by an expert from iNaturalist has got this first species to A. genistifolia: much lusher than it grows on shale in the frosts o Canberra.

The second species.  This has been worked on by the expert and on the evidence of this photo can't be matched to any species.  A. subporosa is close but the the Plants of SE NSW app concludes this is rare in Vic and possibly hybridises with A. cognata (which has much narrower phyllodes).  So leave it at e Genus level.

iNaturalist suggests Daviesia ulicifolia for this pea which seems about right.  Confirmed on iNaturalist.

This is an Allocasuarina covered with cones.  Unfortunately there is a full complement on the tree, none having been removed by Glossies.

I noticed this large (close to 2m. nose to tip of tail) goanna sitting on an area of disturbed ground.  It was soon a little elevated.

It didn't seem unduly fussed by me!

I was hopeful of 3 species of birds on the outing.  Glossy Black-Cockatoo at this track; Black Bittern at the Wallagaraugh; and Brown Cuckoo-Dove at Gipsy Point.  I was consistent, on dipping on all three!

A few sky/cloud shots

 Some interesting cloudscapes/colours.  The first 2 are from the evening of 6 September and are a pleasant pastel effect.

Pastel was still evident the next morning.  As was the moon.

An interesting edge to the cloud on the morning of 8 September.

Rather chaotic jumble in the early evening of 8 September.

U3A Field Trip to Davis Creek Heath

 On 6 September a group of us met at the tennis courts and then visited Davis Creek Heath as a follow up to Frances presentation on Naming of Plants.  Here is the route we followed, courtesy of eBird.

Getting birds out of the way, there were few around possibly due to the wind.  The highlights were a Brown Falcon (which seem to be making a belated comeback after the fire) and Southern Emuwren (a well recognised recovery after the fire).

The plants are presented in alphabetical order of scientific name.   (Following on from the talk the meaning of the scientific names is shown in this list of all plants identified in the area, not just those in the images below.)  

Comesperma ericinum

Comesperma volubile

Coronidium scorpioides

Dillwynnia sericea

Hakea decurrens

Hybanthus vernonii

Fruit of Leptospermum continentale

Patersonia occidentale

Prasophyllum elatum - apparently it is a very poor year for orchids due to the lack of rain for the previous 3 months.

Pultenaea hispidula

Sphaerolobium minus

Tetratheca labilladierei

Tetratheca pilosa latifolia

Thysanotus patersonii

August 2023 Weather Report

 In summary, and for those in Mallacoota stating the obvious, hot - for the time of year - and very dry.  I shall go into more detail below, but the average temperature was 1.8C above the normal and the rainfall was the second lowest total for August.  Combining rainfall totals for July and August the period was the 4th lowest rainfall since my records began.

A common comment about weather forecasting is "Look out the window!".  In a similar vein, to assess the temperatures this season look at the wood heap.  We have in the past considered that we need 5 trailers of firewood for a Winter.  This year we have rarely lit the fire and probably only used one trailer-load (thus far at least - September is starting off cool).

Data Quality Note

My weather station delivered a dodgy record on the 1st of August.  This wasn't immediately obvious and in attempting to fix this I ended up trashing the data from 0900 on 1 August to 0600 on 5 August.  Thus there is a gap in some variables for that period.  Fortunately I had saved the rainfall and extreme daily temperatures in spreadsheets so the gap is not too serious (for this purpose).  I am mainly stating this as an aide-memoire in case I become perplexed about more detailed analysis later!

Rainfall

What is this thing called rain?  An advantage of very low totals is that trivial amounts, such as the 0.2mm due to a heavy dew, show up more obviously!

The usual comparative chart confirms the poor state of affairs!

The prorata estimate of expected annual rainfall is at 655 mm by the end of the month.  That would be the 2nd lowest annual total since my series began in 1975.  A chart showing the progress of this estimate gives a steady decline since the 9th of May: nearly 4 months.

Temperatures

The obvious overall indicator is the anomaly showing the difference between average temperature for the month and the long term mean for August.  For 2023 this resolves to +1.8C, which in the time series chart shows as the highest monthly value since November 2020.  The moving average (which cancels out seasonality) moves further away from the trend line.

For the month of August the early part of the month was very warm indeed (see discussion below) and after dropping briefly mid month, with the anomaly going below +1C, built up steadily again towards the end of the month.

A plot of daily extreme temperatures shows the same pattern.

Minimum Temperatures

It is tempting to ask "What is a minimum temperature?" with a month this warm.  The average minimum was 7.88C which is 1.5C above the long term mean.  Surprisingly, this average is below that for the last 2 years.

Looking at my time series of plots from my weather station puts this month's minimum in the middle of the pack.

In terms of extremes I note daily extreme reading that are significantly above or below the long term average for the month.  For this month there were 8 minima >1 Standard Deviation (SD) above the long term mean, and only 1 minimum >1SD below the long term mean.  Obviously, no cold spells (3 consecutive days with min and max > 1SD below the mean).

Maximum temperatures

The average maximum for August was 17.59C.  Although 1.85C above the long term mean (including an adjustment to improve comparability between my WS and the BoM Airport site) this is only the 4th highest average maximum for August: the highest August average (18.6C) was in 2009 while 2007 and 2013 both scored 17.8C.  

Looking at the series for my WS 2023 is well above other recent years (but as indicated in the preamble to this section well below some other years).

The counterpoint to Cold Spell is Heat Wave, which I define as 3 consecutive Hot Days (which are Days with both minimum and maximum more than 1 SD above the long term mean maximum for the month).  There were no Heat Waves in this month although the period 3rd-4th(close, but no cigar), 22nd and 29th were Hot Days.  Going further the minimum on the 4th and the maximum on the 4th and the 22nd were more than 2 SD above the mean.

Balancing those days, to a limited extent, were 3 days with maxima more than 1 SD below the long term mean.

Humidity

Both standard humidity readings were lower than 2022.  The reading for 0900hrs was less depressed than than for 1500hrs, which continued the situation of other months in this year of being significantly lower than for 2022.

Wind

The data from my weather shows it to have been a very calm month.  I haven't been able to confirm this from other sources, but have no memory of ferocious winds, so will believe the data!