The House(s) of Fran_mart

For most of this year - certainly since March 2011 - it has appeared to me that the weather forecasts for Canberra issued by the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) have been a bit of a dogs breakfast.  By that I mean they have been all over the place.  I place great weight on the phrase "appeared to me" since I have not tried to record events in any structured sort of way. By way of example, here is a summary of my memory of the weather forecast issued prior to 31 July for the period from Sunday 31 July to about Friday 5 August. There were to be no frosts in this period (ie all minimum temperatures would be above 0); There would be showers on Sunday and then showers again from Wednesday through  Friday. The forecast issued in the afternoon of 31 July (a more or less dry day after a -2 minimum) has A mininmum of -3 for Monday and 0 for Tuesday.; Isolated showers on Friday. This seems to be quite a significant level of change.  To try to get a handle on whether this vari

I have commented in a couple of recent posts about the lack of warmth overnight.  The past evening was the coldest yet.  I do not make this call based upon the official records but upon the fact that our water pipes froze lat night for the first time this year.  They also took 4 kettles of hot water to get them thawed.  (After 2 kettles on the pump inlet failed I went and gave the outlet at the tank a serve also!) We have a thermometer on the verandah which reads 'warm' by about 5 degrees (due to the shelter and - presumably - some radation from the house) but gives a fair relative measure.  That was as low as I have seen it this year, and took a long while to show any increase in temperature, Once the sun did rise things were generally quite attractive, so I went and took a few snaps of ice crystals on foliage. The next day (30 July) started equally cold, and again our pipes were frozen.  Later in the day I spoke with a near neighbour who had recorded -10, rather tha

On the other hand, any comments from arachno philes about the ID of what follows would be welcome. After a bitterly cold (-6 - yes I know my Finnish and Canadian readers will regard that as 'possibly cool') night and morning the day turned out to be a beautiful Canberra Winter day getting up to about 15 degrees.  So I went for a walk around the block to see what was occurring. The Melichrus urcelotaus (Urn Heath) is beginning to flower and the various other heaths around the place are getting buds.  Spring isn't here yet, but one might be able to see it in the distance. I did find a rather sick looking Eucalyptus meliodora (Yellow Box) with a large bit of loose bark.  On tugging the loose bark a large (say 8cm across the legs) spider ran out. A very attractive beast in an understated way.  As the light was fading it was difficult to get a really good shot but flash seemed to help a bit.  I have only a general book on spiders, and shall try to read it more closely t

I was a bit late arriving today (bird duties for awhile in Aranda) and joined the group at morning tea.  Some guests were present, but hadn't signed on I believe! Moving on up the hill a litle we found a Eucalypt in flower.  There was much debate about the species (most buds were in groups of 3, suggesting E. rubida , aka Candlebark, but some groups of 4 - 6 also found) and a sample has been taken away for further analysis.  The flowers were pretty Nearby a flower of Amyena micheli (a mistletoe) was found.  Ths species is only supposed to flower in Summer! A few flowering Acacias were found.  In order, the two images are A. dealbata and A. genistifolia At a lower level the Melichrus urceolatus was coming into flower as opposed to the buds which have been evident for some time. Somewhereabout this stage in the walk I found a very hairy caterpillar adhering to the back of a leave.  It wasn't moving much but looked a bit fresh to be officially designated as an ex-caterpil

There are a great number of raptor nest cameras around the world.  A couple of them are linked from the banner page of The Nature of Robertson .  However I have just become aware of an Australian version.  This is focussed on the nest of a White-bellied Sea-eagle in Homebush aka Sydney Olympic Park.  It has the great advantage of having an infra-red camera so can show what is going on in the hours of darkness. The text accompanying the images suggests that the chicks will hatch around 14 August. Enjoy!

Today I had to take our car in for a BIG service after 125,000km in about 4.5 years.  This meant it would be in the hands of Capital Subaru for several hours so I packed the trusty treadlie in the back and took myself off for some travels.  After a tour de poo-pits in Fyshwick (nothing of great import there) and a stop for a service of my dental work in Civic I headed West towards the Cork Oak plantation.  Last year I blogged about the massive number of Fly Agaric I found there.  That was early June (ie 6 weeks earlier in the year) but I would have expected some trace of the fungi to be evident.  Not one as found. However the cork has been harvested, giving the oaks an interesting appearance. My estimate is that the height of the debarked area is about 1.5m and the depth of the cork about 2cm.  This produced a very strange effect.  The litter on the ground under the trees is a mixture of fallen leaves and acorns: Surprisingly the place wasn't full of parrots or cockatoos gor

We have tried to avoid knowing the daily results of the Tour de France until we have seen the SBS highlights.  However this morning on our run I saw a neighbour's copy of the Canberra Times which rabbited about Cadel Evans being so close - but still a National hero.  Obviously he had lost. Supporting this view was the absence, on Sunday, of headlines in the Sydney Morning Herald , New York Times and Washington Post screaming that Cadel had done the business.  ( A similar quietness in the New Zealand Herald might have indicated that no-one from Palmerston North had won.)  After seeing the race I found the linked Post article: about 12 stories down in their sports pages and the Herald article in a side bar (because it isn't - thank goodness - Rugby League).  The offending newspapers did remedy their lack of interest on Monday (although the NZ Herald had it somewhat buried, and their report was exactly the same as the SMH, so both took it straight from AP). But we already had

.. but I can't remember voting for him. I will begin with a digressive trip down memory lane. Those of mature years may remember a great film from 1967 of the same title as this post.  I have two particular memories related to the film: In the opening scenes of the film itself the main man - played by Oliver Reed - marches through the streets of London with a large axe over his shoulder.  He then uses said axe to smash his desk, in an advertising company, to smithereens!  Much better than a simple note. The culmination of the film is the last ad he directs.  It is about a photographic film product (which comes in yellow and black packets) and concludes with people using this product to snap a nuclear holocaust.  Very powerful stuff.  The character is very annoyed when his film castigating advertising is awarded a "best ad of 19XX " gong! However when it appeared on Australian TV the advert was not shown: possibly the TV station involved didn't want to upset a c

Today I went to various spots in the ACT to see what was going on.  Several of these visits will have some interest to environmentally aware people (and perhaps also to the ACT Government and its public servants). My first thought was that I might have been a tad previous in suggesting Winter was over .  When, at 9:30am, I parked at ANBG the external temperature was 1 degree! However I had a very pleasant walk through the gardens.  A very promising sight was a Gymea Lily about to burst into bloom in the Sydney Gully. Generally there were a lot of plants in, or close to, flower.  The Banksias on the track closest to CSIRO were doing a splendid job of attracting Honeyeaters and one close to the Eucalypt Lawn was hosting a red Wattlebird. You can even see the red wattle!  I also noted these flowers of Hakea Petiolaris which I thought interesting. My next call was to the Museum of Australia, expecting to visit a free exhibition there.  It turned out the exhibition wasn't free

As I happened to be in the vicinity of Kelly's Swamp this morning I went in to see what was floating, or wading around.  Seeing was a tad difficult due to the amount of reeds that are invading the swamp.  However from one of the hides I spotted a rather unusual looking duck. I have shown it to the left in this image so as to include a 'normal' Pacific Black Duck (PBD) for comparitive purposes.  I have asked the members of the COG chatline their opinions as to whether this is an albinistic PBD or a hybrid with some other mallard-oriented species.  My initial guess is that it is a hybrid based upon the normal colouring around the supercilium (aka eyebrow). Advice from members of COG is that it is a partial albino.  Hybrids with mallards usually have orange feet and legs and curly tail feathers,  This bird doesn't have those attributes.  Also the mallard hybrids are usually much larger than the PBDs, and this one is similar in size to the standard duck. The second pho

.. of Winter.  And not before time - I have found the last week particularly unpleasant and empathise with those folk who haven't had four weeks on the North Coast! However a couple of days ago I noticed that about 25% of the Superb Fairy-wrens around our garden have got into full breeding plumage.  So far the males seem happy to tolerate each other's company. Then this morning we noticed the first Silver Wattle ( Acacia dealbata ) blossom. The weather forecasts are talking minimums greater than 0, and showers for the next few days, so one is hopeful that the days of -6 have departed for another year! The first shower did start in late afternoon.  It was very light but with the sun peering through a break in the dark clouds a rainbow was indicated.  Here is the end of that:

The ANPS Wednesday Walkers took themselves off to a Southern part of Tallaganda National Park.  We stopped twice on Wild Cattle Flat Rd to explore tracks running up into the bush. Of course we were in the middle of Winter so matters were rather low-key both as regards birds and flowers. At the first stop I thought we were going to be in the interesting situation of walking for about an hour and not recording a single bird.  Things did pick up on that a bit and I ended with 5 species recorded.  This included hearing a distant Superb Lyrebird calling briefly. In terms of plants at this stop I was most impresed with the size of some of the Eucalyptus sieberii (Silvertop Ash)  and the burls around their bases. The second stop kicked off well for birds with a Wedge-tailed Eagle soaring overhead and a mixed feeding flock of at least 50 birds of at least 5 species passing by as we ate lunch.  The birding highlight came at the highpoint of this walk when another Lyrebird gave a beaut