Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Twist my palm.

Twist my palm - I'll twist yours!
It's monsoon season......the effects of Cyclone Debbie which hit the coast of Queensland hard on Tuesday 1100 km north are now being felt down in the Brisbane area. It's no longer classified as a cyclone but t's still a major storm and it's rained solidly for about 14 hours in Brissie, roads are flooded and the prediction is for a total of between 400 and 500 mm rain in one day. To put this in perspective the average rainfall for Manchester in one year is 800 mm! Fortunately the local brewing company Burleigh Heads has a fine tropical beer called Twisted Palm with which we've been able to dull the senses. Running is on hold at the moment although we did manage a park run at Chermside at the weekend.


OK Sarge - we're on our way.

These funny looking blue things are soldier crabs. We came upon masses of them, nay thousands of them, down on the beach at Beachmere. From a distance it looks as if a pale blue carpet is moving over the sand. On closer inspection the army is on the march - but no! What's happening? Where have they gone? At our approach the crabs dig themselves into the sand like a shot and there's no sign of them. Wait a minute or so and some of the braver (and bigger) soldiers emerge from the sand and one by one they line up again in formation and they're off.

Splash splash.



And just to show we're still eating up the miles, this is from the Chermside Parkrun where I found the only puddle - there'll be plenty of puddles this weekend mind! Getting quite used to running in heat and humidity now


Sunday, March 26, 2017

Cyclone Debbie - no she's not the 'home help'!

Path of Debbie
Should have been on the plane to Proserpine this morning but it's cancelled. Proserpine airport is right in the path of Cyclone Debbie and we're now booked for a flight on Thursday! We are due to visit relatives who are battening down for the storm - they are on the coast (between Proserpine and Hamilton Island on the map) and apparently the south side of the cyclone has the strongest winds - 220Km/h - not to mention the rain and high tide - hope there's not too much damage to see on Thursday!

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Flight of the Night Parrot!

Can't catch me!
Just reported this week in the Australian press is a fascinating story about the first sighting in over 100 years in Western Australia of a Night Parrot. What's also remarkable about this is that until three years ago this bird was presumed extinct - in 2014 the present of Night Parrots was confirmed in a remote part of western Queensland! This bird is seriously elusive and has been considered the Holy Grail of the bird watching world. This is the only photo captured by a determined group of Western Australian twitchers and unfortunately it was flying away, hence the rear end shot.

My own contribution to the Australian world of ornithology is this snap of a White Faced Heron at Redcliffe north of Brisbane. This rather tame bird hopped over these rocks at the water's edge and then jumped on the verandah of a house close by to be fed by an elderly Australian lady. For those in the know this common bird is not in the genus Ardea, which is where most herons fit in, but it's Latin name is Egretta novaehollandiae (Egret because it's more like an Egret and Novaehollandiae because it's Australian. New Holland being the name given to Australia by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman. Tasman actually never got to the Australian mainland but he did discover an island off the south coast - guess what that's called?)

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Nancy!

Thought I'd start with my cartoon of the week! This is one of her best - Nancy cartoons were drawn by a fellow called Ernie Bushmiller who had a laconic sense of humour (well he was American!) Not sure where the cartoons appeared but I remember seeing a lot of them many years ago.

We'll go at a snail's pace!
In Australia when people tell you they're 'moving house' it's often because they are moving their house! We've heard a right old racket for the last couple of days at the back of where we're staying in Brisbane. Last night a flyer appeared through the letter box explaining that our neighbours are 'moving house' - sorry for the inconvenience. I didn't spot that they'd said it would happen at midnight! I looked over the garden fence this morning and the house has wheels on it. Not sure I'll be up at midnight tomorrow to watch but we'll most likely hear something. I guess the roads will be quiet at that time.







Monday, March 6, 2017

It's Hot Your Majesty

The big ship sails up the alley ally ooh!
View from the bedroom window this morning. Queen Mary 2 sails into Airlie Beach! It's the biggest ocean going liner in the world and Cunard's flagship. This information I was fairly familiar with but I had no idea it was built in France! It dropped anchor just after dawn on a hot sultry day - I bet they have some good aircon though. Not many of the passengers seem to come into town and they mostly seem to jump onto little boats heading for the Whitsunday Islands.

This chart shows what we're up against. It's only 32 degrees but the humidity makes it seem much hotter - at 2 pm, as you'll see, the 'real feel' is 42 degrees. This is bit like windchill in reverse. Still Thursday is looking good - only 27 and a bit of rain - sounds like heaven!! I set off on my early morning run a bit later than usual, 6.15 am hasn't been too bad. but a 6.45 am start means that by the time I get back an hour later I'm struggling with the heat and even after a cold shower I'm still sweating.


Speedy Vicky conquers the rain in her 50 Parkruns t-shirt!
Shouldn't really grumble as the Parkrun on Saturday was bliss - pouring rain cooled us all down (a bit!) Just going back to "The big ship sails up the alley alley ooh.' I remember singing this nearly 60 years ago, I don't know how widespread the rhyme was but it was a playground song that originated in Salford near Manchester and the 'alley, alley ooh' was the Manchester Ship Canal. The huge ocean going ships used to sail almost into the middle of Manchester and must have towered over the terraces houses that backed onto the canal.

Friday, March 3, 2017

There came a big spider

Don't move just hold it right there - I'm coming for you!
The Northern Golden Orb Spider! One of the biggest spiders in the world - bigger than my hand and quick off the mark, these guys' special talent is for weaving invisible webs across footpaths and then lying in wait for unsuspecting passers-by. Of course they're hoping that assorted bugs will fly into their webs and provide sustenance for a few days but these traps are also inconvenient for humans as the webs are a bit messy when you walk into them and the idea of a 6 inch spider crawling across your head is a bit unnerving - no they're not lethal unlike most of the other spiders in Australia but they can give you a painful bite! Fortunately we've spotted all the giant spiders that have lain in wait for us thus far on our rain forest walks.

Phew!
Last Saturday a hot humid Parkrun at Airlie Beach on the Queensland coast gave me a particularly slow time. Thirty degrees, humidity the like of which I've never come across before plus jet lag all conspired against me - but it was a lovely course. Will give it another go next week! Ran in a real downpour this morning and was hoping it would cool me down but it just felt as if I was sweating very heavily - will my shoes dry out in time for the 7 am start tomorrow? Managed to snaffle a lunchtime pie today - a peppered steak pie at Proserpine Pies and Pastries and finished off with a rather large custard croissant - tasty! The locals sat outside but we were content to sit in the nice chilly air conditioned interior.
G'day mate!
Quite pleased with this photo from a big deserted beach this morning as we didn't see these chaps until we were almost on top of them, they flew off but we then managed to stalk them close enough for this shot of one of them. This is a Red Capped Plover, a dainty little thing isn't it! We also spotted a couple of larger waders on the same beach - these were a solitary Whimbrel and some Bar Tailed Godwits - these latter birds travel from the Arctic on their non-stop flight to Australia - the longest flight made by any migratory bird in the world. They weren't able to tell us if this was with Quantas or BA!