Sunset 13 April

As the season has progressed the sun is moving along the horizon so that it is setting where we can see it.  That, combined with clouds in the correct amount and position, gave a good display on that day.

 While not as lurid, the reflection in the Inlet is a bonus!

Weather on 11 April

The weather on 11 April was interesting.  From the view of our power provider the word 'severe' was used when something broke about 1130 (but was fixed about 1700).

The official forecast for the day offered 4-10 mm of rain which is interpreted as 50% chance of more than 4 mm and 25% chance of more than 10 mm.  The computer forecast offered by Meteye was a bit heavier offering a range - at those probabilities - of  2.4 - 11.8 mm.  Meteye also gives a 10% forecast which was 27.4 m.  Here is the rain panel of the Meteye forecast from 0700 on the day.

 An early morning (0640) peek at the radar showed a nice belt of green heading our way from the West.

 By 0830 it was getting closer and some worthwhile totals shown behind it

 About midday the weather seemed fine after a few showers so I decided to go for a short bike ride.  It confirmed both axioms about Victorian weather:

• 4 seasons in one day; and 
• Don't like our weather?  Wait 5 minutes and it will be different!

I set off in pleasant sunshine and a breeze.  After 1 km it started to rain lightly with a strong wind.  at about 3km the rain got heavier and the breeze stronger.  Which was OK as I turned so had a tail wind.  By the time I got home the rain had stopped the sun was out and a gale was happening.

By 1640 hrs the radar image had a lot of crosses off the Gippsland Lakes,  That means lightning and would not  be a happy thought if one was up a power pole trying to fix something.

 In fact the lightning didn't get here until about 2000 hrs and gave a few pretty good flangs (flang = FLash and bANG).  Some of them were less than 1 km away which made me wonder about the longevity of the power restoration.  Rain was evident, as will be shown below.

The temperature was OK early in the day rising nearly to 20^oC during sunny spells.  A front came through about lunchtime and dropped the temperature noticeably.  The low temperature for the day was 9.4^oC around 1900 hrs,

 It was pretty windy at home with a peak gust of 48.3 kph around 1400 hrs.  I have shown both peak gust and hourly run in this chart: they're pretty much the same pattern.

 My records are almost calm compared to other records from BoM stations.

Mallacoota 65 kph at 1344

Gabo Is 107 kph at 0913

Wilsons Prom 132 kph at 1220 ; and

Hogan Island 143 kph at 1108

This led one correspondent to opine that they would like to sit out the passage of a cold front on Hogan Island as they would never complain about wind again.

Getting to the rain.  We got modest amounts through the day totaling to 8 mm by about 1800 hrs.  As shown in the next chart the falls got heavier as the evening wore on.

 I opined about 2100 hrs that the rain rate had not been unduly heavy.  Checking the results on 12 April shows that comment to have just preceded a blast (with flangs) at 180 mm/hr.  That is the 4th highest rate I have recorded in the 14 months we have been here.

So, cutting to the chase, how did Meteye perform?  Over the day as a whole the 10% probability was very close giving 27.4 mm of rain in comparison to the very handy 25 mm recorded.  (The BoM airport site recorded 30.4 mm and the Weather Underground site in town - physically about halfway between my WS and BoM - 28.2 mm.  Gabo Island only scored 10.8 mm demonstrating the localised impact of storm cells.)

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"!)