The House(s) of Fran_mart

I realise that I haven't posted for four days - an unusually long break for me.  The reason for this is simple, that there hasn't been much to post about. Much of this comes down to the weather which has been cloudy and often with strong wind.  This does not make it pleasant to be outside so I have been staying indoors a fair bit, mainly finalising an article for Canberra Bird Notes (of which you'll see more when it is published). The birds themselves have largely followed my example.  It has been a bit of a struggle to find bird of the day on occasion: on Thursday I used House Sparrow (not that common in Canberra these days but I saw one hopping around the car park at Fyshwick Markets); Friday was looking like Common Myna but a flock of migrating honeyeaters contained some White-naped Honeyeaters which are quite uncommon here.  Plants have definitely adopted Winter mode, and all that is flowering on our block is Melichrus urceolatus (urn heath).   A...

In the glory days of The Empire strong hoppy Ale was developed to be delivered to the thirsty troops in the Colonies.  A Pale Ale was sent to India (thus IPA).  Walking past Plonk in the Fyshwick Markets they were selling a 6-pack of various styles of IPA put out by 4 Pines brewery of Manly. They are described as the "Bastard children of the British Empire". The 1st Bastard was an English style. Very tasty and a little dangerous at 6% ABV.  The bitterness or hoppiness as measured by IBU is 47, which according to wikipedia is not high for an IPA.  I reckon its a lot better than a "session beer"as suggested on the 4 Pines site. The 2nd Bastard was an American style.  I guess Custer was a bastard! The blurb on the label says that "Just like America it will fight you!"  At 6.3% ABV it would probably win!  Also IBU 70 so seriously hopped.  An excellent brew. The third bastard was a NZ style.  Apparently James Cook brewed some Ale in...

The last couple of days have been rather draughty here.  Nowhere near as bad as the Central Coast or the Hunter but still cold and unpleasant to be outdoors. To quote B Dylan Esq "You don't need to be a Weatherman to know which way the wind blows ....".  I don't think he was thinking about checking the direction your Pistachio leaves had blown. Nor the pine needles drifting across the drive.  Anyway the wind blows, the willow leaves end up in Whiskers Creek!  Meanwhile back at the ranch, fungus are sprouting.   As they are white underneath (and growing around a pin-oak) there is no risk of me eating them. In due course I will be eating these colourful spuds.  When I dug them, covered in dirt I didn't realise they were different varieties.  Frances advises that under the skin they are equally different in texture! It is also apple harvest time. Just so that one doesn't get too depressed at the thought of about 5 months of Winter t...

As the weather cools down the number and range of invertebrates around the ranch are decreasing.  The Giant Willow Aphids have vanished from the willows by Whiskers Creek, and there hasn't been a swarm anywhere that I can see since 2nd April. However I have got a few images that I thought worth dropping into a post. This moth ( Phalaenoides glycinae ) was investigating Dahlias rather than grape vines.  I am pretty sure this is a caterpillar of a Tiger Moth (family Arctiidae ).  A late season Potter wasp (family Vespidae ) taking a tour of the boot of our VW. From the 17th onwards the weather has been cool and humid/rainy.  These are the conditions in which Swift Moths ( Oxycanus dirempta)  c an be expected on the windows in the evenings.  Only one has volunteered thus far. The next image caused me to change the title of the post from insects to invertebrates.  There is a hint in that statement that arachnophobes may wish to close th...

That seems to be the standard weather forecast: basically covers all options and pretty much matches most weather in the Canberra area.  It was certainly appropriate for the first few illuminated hours of 16 April.  I really like cloud patterns and hope you do as well! Here comes the sun!  This was taken just outside our house looking to the east at about 0620.  A slightly different angle but almost the same time as the previous snap.  By 0740 we were down at Captains Flat Rd on our dog walk.  Here was the cloudy and con-traily view across the Hoskinstown Plain. Add on 10 minutes and the cloud was looking somewhat like an alien starship with vapour trails all over the sky.

30 members and guests assembled at the car park of the Belconnen Soccer Club for a walk around some of the damper parts of this area of Belconnen.  This snip from Google Earth shows the various spots, with 1 being the car park.  The other numbers appear as red  in the text below. Once all had signed on and announced themselves we first headed to a little known pond 2 in the Northern section of this open space.   The recent rains had restored some liquidity to this site.   Including the "car park list" we scored 16 species here - all pretty much as expected. Knowing that the main McKellar Pond 3 was the haunt of Australasian Bittern and Australian Little Bittern we took ourselves off  in that direction.    It was also pretty well supplied with water. Alas, neither of the aforementioned rarities were present.  Several more expected waterbirds were added together with Red-browed Finch and European Goldfinch.  As we moved towa...

Autumn is definitely underway and the willows along Whiskers Creek are reacting in the tradional way with yellowing and falling leaves. What we have noticed this year, for the first time is that where the leaves have fallen on the drive, and then been blown away is that they have left traces behind, which look rather like heron tracks.  On the concrete of the Creek crossing the traces are more the traditional stains of leaf rot. My suspicion is that these traces reflect the leaves being covered with honeydew following the invasion of Giant Willow Aphids  ( Tuberolachnus salignus)  for the past 3 months.  The fall of honeydew from the trees was such that the gravel of the drive stuck to our tyres the first time we drove through the shade of the trees each morning.  The aphids have now disappeared for Winter but I expect them back next Spring.

What do ducks do when their preferred habitat is disrupted by, for example, a big loader doing road works about 20m away? In the case of the famous Plumed Whistling Ducks of Trucking Yard Lane you move to the other side of an earth bank and stack some Zs.  What if cattle decide to come and drink out of the Bungendore Meadow Dam?  You stop sleeping on the bank and take to the water if you are a Grey Teal. If you are an Australian Shelduck you go somewhere else (such as Lake George, about 5km away)!

We have been through a couple of rather dry months, which led to no flow in the 2 creeks on our block.  That ended on 6 April when we scored 18mm of rain (all of which sank into the ground with little or no run off).  It was followed by 43mm on the 7th and 21mm before dawn on the 8th.  That did run off. A side effect of this was the postponement of the ANPS Wednesday Walk for the 8th so I went a did a few chores. As a result of the first chore I strolled down Yass Rd in Queanbeyan to the ACT border.  The bridge in this image carries the railway line into Canberra.  It also marks pretty much the border of the ACT: I suspect this is a coincidence of interests as the easiest route for the line is to follow the Molonglo which is the border a little to the East.  There was not a pile of stunned birds under the bridge: despite the rulings of some administrators they fly back and forth as though the border didn't exist. The Molonglo is nearby and had a ve...