some recent birdie snaps

 From Mallacoota and Merimbula, 24 and 25 October.

Nesting Silver Gulls, Coulls Inlet.

Cattle Egrets, Seagull Island

Ibid, showing some plumes.

How to tell a Pelican from a Spoonbill.

Merimbula: Osprey on a nest.

Osprey in Flight.

A visitor

 About 2130 hrs last evening there was a loud bang outside.   This was followed by Frances telling me to bring my headlight.  We had a visitor who had climbed up a metal pole on to our railing.

We love koalas, but didn't want one climbing around the deck all evening so I shooed him off his perch and he disappeared down the garden.  10 minutes later he was back stomping up and down the deck and refusing to be further shooed.  He also seem determined to debunk the myth that they only eat a few species of eucalypt leaves, by adding my new Blundstones to his diet.  The boots were taken indoors.

I consulted our wildlife carer, who advised he was probably looking for love (or at least the physical manifestation thereof) and would probably go away eventually.

After about 30 minutes checking out the pot plants and peering through the glass door, ...

... he did wander off.  As there was no noise - in our hearing - we assume his search was unsuccessful.

Capn Steve's October 2025

 Being keen to get a good start to my list for Mallacoota in October 2025 I took my self off there on the morning of the 2nd, being joined later by Frances.  We ended with a fair list of 26 species.  The highlight was I think an immature Pacific Gull, the large bird isolated on the sand bank in this image.

The birds in the water are mainly Bar-tailed Godwits, with a few Red Knots mixed in.

A passing White-bellied Sea-Eagle stirred up the Crested Terns

September 2025 Weather Report

 The dominant feature of the weather this month has been lack of rain.  The cause of this appears to be a Sudden Stratospheric Warning event which first came to my notice in a Facebook post by cyclonesOZ on 27 September.  This article from the ABC has some detail: I haven't been able to find a definitive statement from BoM on the subject, although a spokesmeteorologist is quoted in the linked article.

Rain

With the aid of 1mm on the 30th we managed to achieve 17mm for the month.  This is the only 3rd highest September fall since my records (at the BoM site at the Airport or my WS) begin in 1975.  Here are the daily falls.

The highest daily fall was 6.6 mm: there are only 34 months (out of 570) in which the maximum daily fall was lower.  Not surprisingly the monthly total was very much below median and last year.

The pro-rata average estimated annual fall for 2025 is still high, reflecting the heavy falls in earlier months.  I note that the trend line of this series takes a major dive in September.

Temperature

My analysis of the temperature anomaly began with finding that I had used a series of averages incorporating temperatures from the BoM site rather than, as has been my recent practice, restricting the analysis to my WS data.  It is of interest that correcting this cock-up reduces the value of the anomaly from +0.65C to +0.13C! After a cold start the anomaly hovers around 0.0C for the rest of the month.

The monthly values of the anomaly are highly variable but the 12 month moving average shows relatively stable high values for the last 2 years.

The chart of daily extremes shows considerable variation especially for the maximum series, but higher values are much greater than those below the mean.

Minimum temperatures

The mean minimum temperature for the month was 8.7C, 0.57C lower than the monthly mean minimum.  The lowest temperature recorded was 4.0C, very significantly below the mean low for the month.  After running on the high end of recent experience for the first half of the year, the last three months have been on the lower side. 

There were 3 days - early in the month - significantly below average monthly low and 2 days - late in the month - significantly, or very significantly, above the mean monthly minimum.

Maximum temperatures

The mean maximum was 19.5C, 0.85C above the average maximum for the month.  The highest  temperature recorded was 25.2C on the 8th, one of 5 days through the month significantly above the mean low for the month.  The lowest maximum was 14.2C. one of 3 days significantly below average monthly high.  After running on the high end of recent experience for the first half of the year, the last three months have been variable but September is on the higher side.

Humidity

The daily readings for the standard times are reasonably 'normal' apart from 8th - 10th and 16th when the morning humidity was higher that that in the afternoon.  It is possible that these values reflect a wind shift to the South, although the phenomenon is not so evident in the BoM data.

The values for both standard times are a little lower than average.

Wind

The month was relatively calm with the maximum daily run only 127km.

Although the run is a little longer than that of August it is still well below the Average and 2024.

Tempest data

I am able to access data for a WS at the Wharf which uses the Tempest network and records some further very interesting data.  

Lightning strikes

As well as data from the WS Tempest brings in information from other sources including a tally of lightning strikes within 40km radius of the WS site.  For the Mallacoota site the raw data is made almost useless by a record of 6900 strikes (I believe real) in February 2025 dominating the chart.  It does give a good indication of relativities if plotted as log10 values (thus 6900 becomes 3.84).

The number of strikes in September was 23 (log10 =1.36).

Solar Radiation etc

The system has a range of measures of Solar Radiation and Brightness which are very relevant in these days of solar heating and power generation.  The chart below shows the value of solar radiation received and a 12 month moving average which eliminates the very obvious seasonal variation.

Applying a linear trend to the average suggests that the series is trending down, but the correlation coefficient suggests this is not significant.

A few flowers

 On the afternoon of 28 September I went for a walk down the track that runs from opposite the Pony Club to the Old Betka Rd to check out the flowers.  There was surprisingly little blossom evident: most of the Acacia seemed to have already produced pods and the Leptospermum was still fuzzy buds.  Here are some snaps of those I did find.  I'll add full names later.

The first 2 are Wedding Bush - Ricinocarpos.

A Pea!

The only Acacia in flower here.

Pimelia

Comesperma - possibly the commonest flower

Hibbertia

Most of the Epacris seems to have been buried in the jungle.

Tetratheca

I moved on to the Powerlines track opposite Karbeethong Rd.  There was more blossom here but my sore back meant I didn't get off the track much.

Burchardia umbellata (Milkmaids)

A Patersonia

Very few Orchids visible - too cool and cloudy for Tetratheca to be open. This Glossodia was all I snapped.

Night Herons at Bucklands

 In recent sightings I have reported on a good number of Night Herons (up to 12) being reported from the main Foreshore Campground opposite the VC.  This afternoon (3 August) Frances found at least 7 at the Narrows car parking area.  They were moving around as shown below.

The first sighting was 5 at water level.

Frances moved around the area finding one perched on a low bush ...

.. and then 5 up in the big eucalypt.

It was a little hard to keep track of where the various birds were, as they kept moving around, but she was confident there were at least 7 there By the time I arrived only 4 were left, up in the big tree.

I am sure they are breeding somewhere in the Inlet system!  HANZAB comments about th esite for nests as "Usually on horizontal limbs in crowns of trees; in forks under canopy; on top of shrubs and Lignum Muehlenbeckia; also in reed-beds."  If any fisherfolk - or indeed anyone - happen to spot a nest please let me know.

On the afternoon of the 4th we went back and started by seeing 1 Night-Heron perched on the jetty.  It bolted into the huge Angophora overhanging the picnic shelter, followed by its friend!  They were the only 2 we could find, although with rain seeming imminent we didn't hang about.  Herewith some some snaps.  The first two prove that digital zoom is your friend .

The next shows that red arrows are your friend, and suggests that if you don't see the birds fly into this tree there could be a flock of them up there and you'd be lucky to spot them.

August 2025 Weather Report

I am trying a new approach of copying the report from last month and editing!  

In summary a slightly cool month overall, with drizzly rain a feature of the precipitation.  Winds were generally light.

A few of the stats I have used are in  this Google sheet.

Rain

The total fall (87.8 mm) was notably above last year (22.6 mm) and well above the median.

It was quite evenly spread, with larger falls on the 24th and 30th.  Most of the falls were quite gentle with 97mm/hour on the 3rd being the only notable high rate.

Every month so far this year has been well above median, and at the end of August we are already above the annual total for 27 of the last 48 years. Obviously, we surpassed the annual median fall during this month, ending with a Year-to-date total of 938.2mm.  Not surprisingly, my pro-rata estimate for the annual fall is producing an estimate (1400.2 mm) well above average.  If this continues we will have the second highest annual fall recorded at my WS or the BoM Airport site exceeded only by the 1442 mm recorded at the Airport in 1985.  (Looking at the very long series for Gabo Island - starting in 1868 - only 3 years are >1400mm with the record being 1515mm in 1978.)

Temperatures

The temperature anomaly was  -0.42C with the maxima more below average than the minima.  The development of the final value shows warm  periods near the start and finish of the month, with a rather cold patch in mid month.

A plot of daily extremes shows both series fluctuating through the month.

Minimum temperatures

There were 3 days with significantly low minima, with the lowest temperature being 3.3C on the 19th.  This is not unduly cold with 8.6% of August minima being lower.  On the other hand in the period 21st to 27th 5 of the 7 days had a significantly high minimum, with the 13.6C on the 26th being the =4th highest minimum recorded for the month.

Maximum temperatures

4 days were significantly below average and 3 days significantly above average: these extremes were all spread so no heat waves nor cold snaps.  The coldest day (Max of 10.7C was the 9th lowest (of 1000 even) recorded.

Humidity

In essence a reasonably humid month, especially in the afternoons, apart from a surprising drop in afternoon readings on the 27th and 29th associated with fairly strong NW winds.

Wind

Many days had short wind runs, with only 5 being longer than 100m.  The longest run was 181kkm on the 4th, but that was only the 16th longest August run.  

Lightning and Radiation

 These data come from a friends WS which links to the Tempest recording system.  Very few (14) lightning strikes were recorded within 40km of Mallacoota this month.

The Solar radiation chart shows a series of 12 month moving averages (thus centred 6 months ago) for average solar radiation and a second series incorporating a reading for maximum solar radiation. Note that in both cases the chart appears to show a drop.  If produced with the axes showing the full range (ie starting at 0) the line appears almost flat in both cases. (Welcome to the world of Gee Whiz Graphics favoured by some elements of the Media!)

Most Metaphorical Day

The particular metaphor I have in mind is "This weather has got the pox."  I looked at 5 variables: low temperature; high temperature; rain; wind gust; and average solar radiation, ranking each day with the least pleasant reading (eg lowest temperature, fastest gust) as #1.  A small issue arose in that for 2 days the solar radiation reading was not available: I overcame this by ranking those days as #1.  I then calculated the average rank, both including and excluding the radiation variable.  The calculations are in this Google sheet and here is the result as a chart:

The two series are reasonably similar (reflected in a correlation coefficient of 0.81) with the poxiest day (the 30th) being the same - by some distance from 2 - regardless of whether radiation is included or not.  The same two days (31st and 23rd) were the most pleasant although switch order depending on the treatment of radiation.

It is a bit of a fiddle to extract the radiation data and it appears not to add very much.  So I will investigate whether to exclude it from future efforts.  The issue of missing data in this variable seems not to be a regular event.

I took this a bit further by covering all 7 Augusts (2019-25) for which I have data from my Weather Station.  This required a little fiddling about to sort out ranks for duplicate values (for example there are: 91 days with zero rain; 3 days with a minimum temperature of 3.3C).  However I got there eventually (giving the tied observations the same, lowest possible, score (eg the 0 rainfall days all got a rank of 215).  The results for the 7 years were:

Year	Avg rank
2019	97.63
2020	98.86
2021	113.72
2022	118.66
2023	132.39
2024	135.83
2025	101.74

As a low rank is less pleasant weather this suggests that this August was one of the less pleasant years while 2023 and 2024 were 'better'.  I shall look further at this in future months but it appears that a major factor driving down the average rank is lower rainfall and higher maxima.  Strong wind gusts may not be as important (noting that my WS is not well situated to record wind).