Lunar Eclipse 8 November 2022

 U3A Mallacoota and District organised (thanks George and Fiona) a viewing of the Lunar Eclipse from the lawns of Karbeethong Lodge.  The U3A Dobsonian telescope, and two other Dobsonians were available for viewing the moon and available planets.

Start time was 2000 hrs to follow the development of the event.  The following photos by me, were taken with my Panasonic FZ300, hand held.  (I must get a tripod attachment for it!)

My guess was that at least 30 folk were there which I think is a good turn out. It shows the community interest in such events.  By the time we had set ourselves up on the lawn it was 2008 hours, with the moon well clear of the Howe Range.  

The shadow starts to creep in 2009

2021

2022: the green lights on the channel markers in the Lake are also visible!

2046.  Around this time it was felt development had slowed somewhat.  "Like watching lions."

2056

Finally, at 2115, as scheduled we achieve totality and a red moon.

As a bonus the big telescopes allowed views of the moons of Jupiter - two are visible in this image.  I heard some people say they could pick up the bands of colour on the planet, but not with my camera. 

As a major bonus the rings of Saturn were also visible through the telescope.  No photo of that I'm afraid.

Gorging on Genoa

 About 10 days ago the BoM plot of River Height at the Genoa Gorge gauge had the river somewhat over minor flood level.  Unfortunately I had an attack of common sense and didn't drive up there to see what it was like.  Instead I went today with the BoM plot as in this first image:

At a broad level the view downstream had plenty of rock visible.  I suspect about 90% or more of this would be under water at minor flood level.

There were some nice mini-rapids visible when zooming in.  Judging by the lean on the shrubs there has been a bit of hydraulic pressure on them recently.

The view upstream was approaching idyllic!

If still waters do indeed run deep the quality of these reflections suggest the water was indeed deep!  

I had a few hoped for bird species (Turquoise Parrot, Diamond Firetail and Yellow-tufted Honeyeater) but all had engagements elsewhere.  However I did hear both Painted Buttonquail and Brush Cuckoo, neither of which are common in the area.  Here is my full list.

And most importantly, in view of my history on the walk down to the viewpoint, I didn't fall over!

Weather report October 2022

 This may be a short report as we're in Canberra at present.  The month was wet - 3rd wettest October on record but temperate in terms of therms (anomaly very slightly above 0C).  It was also very windy.

Rainfall 

The month ended with 169.8 mm which as noted above was the 3rd highest fall on record. It didn't get close to challenging for second place (206mm in 1976 - which had the highest annual fall of 1442 mm).  The BoM recorded about 164 mm at the airport (there is no reading shown for 31 October) and 157 mm at Gabo Island.  Allowing for the squally nature of the falls (see below) such variation is quite reasonable.

My Weather station recorded non-trivial rain (>0.2 mm) on 15 days, with some emphasis on 21st to 27th.  

Some of the rain rates were quite impressive: the 240mm per hour recorded as a storm passed by on the 25th was the 3rd heaviest my WS has recorded.

At the end of the month my prorata estimate of the annual rainfall was 1450 mm.  A small amount above the existing high (deep?) record.  Another way of estimating the likely annual fall is rainfall to date plus the median falls for the next two months: the estimate in that way is 1326 mm: there are 3 exiting values higher than that.  We won't beat Sydney's effort - broke the all-time annual rainfall record in October - but it is going to be a wet year.

Temperatures

The overall measure of temperature difference in average for the period and the long term average  ended up at very close to zero.  There is a little rubber in that comment as the BoM site at the airport showed a maximum of 28.2C in the current record for 31 October (which seemed rather high) and a couple of other readings are not available for unknown reasons. Here is the development of the anomaly through the month: steady climb after a cold start.

Minimum Temperatures

Continuing a recent trend the average minimum temperature was above the average and 2021.  Only May and June this year have been below average.

Maximum Temperatures

In contrast the maximum temperature (18,6C) was well below 2021 and particularly the average.  Such a low average maximum has only been recorded twice since the BoM site commenced in 1993

Humidity

In summary a muggy month.  The lack of relative humidities significantly below 60 % s noticeable, as is the similarity of morning and afternoon readings - especially for the rainy period 21 -26 October.

As would be expected from the above the readings are well above average and 2021.

Wind

I have recently been concerned that my anemometer was under-reading the wind speed.  I don't think that was the case for October with a daily average run well above average and 2021.  

The strong winds were particularly evident from 12 - 14 October, which also showed as a period with very high gusts at the Airport.  On 13 October the total run was 539km, with hourly runs at a constant value in the mid 20 kms.  This was the longest run I have recorded.

 

Random Ramblings

 This covers things we have seen in the last few days of October 2022.  The first two show the level of water a day after the near flood.

We decided to walk the track opposite the Pony Club towards the poo pits.  People have obviously driven it while wet, with more accelerator than sense, and the downpour has then unimproved the track. 

Our aim in the walk was to check the flowers.  There were lots, beginning with the genus Patersonia.  There are three local species and the distinguishing feature used in Joy Grieg's book is the height of the flowers relative to the foliage.  IMO that makes this P. fragilis, stems shorter than foliage.

Stem equal to foliage (P. glabrata) ...

.. and stems longer than foliage (P. occidentalis). 

Melaleuca sp - I think M. squarossa.  One large colony in a damp area.

Only saw one orchid in the whole walk.  Caladenia carnea.

A pea.  I have put it on iNaturalist but as it is a fuzzy snap and doesn't give much about the leaves I have little hope.

It did make a spectacular understory in places.

Brachyscome spathulata

A range of shots of Xanthorrhea sp showing the development of flowering.  The grass-tree plains are still showing the many spent spikes after the massive flowering of thousands of plants in 2020.

The biggest: close to 2m to the tip of the spike.

An odd little fungus.  An observer on iNaturalist has suggested genus Hygrocybe.

The next day I went to geology point for a sea watch.  That was good as there were few birds to watch.  This immature Great Cormorant was obliging (and wet).

Finally this creche of Australian Wood Ducks/Maned Ducks/Maned Geese were amusing to watch.  Both the female and the singular duckling jumped into the water when the rest were led under the jetty.

October 2022 Bird Report

 I seem to be very busy recently, a situation which looks likely to continue for a few days at least, so this will be  a rather brief report.

We had quite a few visiting birders this month which gave us quite a good list of species.  One party made a visit to Howe Flat (before it was closed for deer shooting) which added a few less common species to the list (including of course Eastern Bristlebird).  The total number of species recorded at 144 was quite a bit lower than the 176 recorded in 2021.  That was very high due to:

• BLEG holding a week-long campout in the area; and
• The Spectacled Monarch sighting attracting a number of other experts to the area.

For trend-line enthusiasts I tried fitting a polynomial to the monthly data for 2022 and depending on the order of the function it suggested that we were going to have either bonanzas for the rest of the year (4th order) or barely see a bird in  the next 2 months (3rd order).  As this blog is NOT bought to you by the Murdoch press I will merely say that is what happens when you get too fancy with a small number of observations.

Looking at the number of species x category in comparison to all Octobers, we appear to have over-achieved for most passerine groups but done less well for seabirds and parrots.  The low result for night-birds merely indicates bad luck and possibly limited after-dark outings.  We had a few days with a very good roll up of waders so I anoint them as bird-of-the-month, rather than tapping a single species on the shoulder.

I have also done a little exploration of the migration status of species recorded in Mallacota as detailed  here.  We recorded 25 Summer migrants in October 2022 (42 of the species seen in any October are Summer migrants) while 1 Winter migrant species was 'hanging on' (3 in all Octobers).

10 species were recorded exhibiting at least one type of breeding behaviour.  Possibly the most interesting breeding performance is that of White-faced Heron and Whistling Kite which have swapped copses on Angophora Drive.  The Herons have raised chicks (at time of writing close to where the Kites nested last year and vice versa.  I have attached snap of one of the three Heron chicks.

And here is a better view showing all three  chicks!