[update] – The source of the pumice is likely to be from the 2012 Havre Seamount eruption 800km NE of New Zealand. The eruption of this undersea volcano produced floating rafts of pumice estimated to be up 26,000 km²! Thanks for the info Matt!

These shelled creatures are known as Gooseneck barnacles. They were covering the recently washed up pumice on Elizabeth beach. Many of them were still alive, you could see them extending their fan like fronds.

This is a collection of unusual structures on the underside of a small sandstone overhang. It’s made of different material than the surrounding sandstone, it’s a hard to the touch with no visible sand grains. Most of the surface is made of tiny nodules that almost look like condensation on a cold surface. In the center is a more prominent raised area that looks like a cast of an animal burrow.

I’ve done a previous post on the Eastern Spinebill , I just wanted to share a new photo, this time of a male. As often seems to be the case in nature the male is more striking than the female, I guess they need to impress, and it’s not like they can buy a fancy car.

Male Eastern Spinebill – what a hansom devil

Alisterus scapularis

The King Parrot is another common bird in the the area that I was oblivious to until recently. It was my next door neighbor that pointed them out to me. I reckon the name suits, they are a medium to large bird, 43cm in length, males have a striking red colouring  over their head, breast and underside and have deep green wings. Females are the same size with similar colouring but with green heads. King Parrots are frequent visitors to our yard, I had one land on my hand to eat some birdseed last week.

More data from the BOM, this time I’m plotting their historical tidal measurements along with moving averages over 6 months, 1 year, 5 years, 10 years and 30 years. Tidal measurements are for Sydney taken from the Fort Denison gauge, the data includes monthly averages for low and high tides and the mean, going back to 1914. Like the temperature data there are local rises and falls that last 10 years or more, but the consistent long term trend is up. Click through to have a play with the chart, select the data sets you want and they will be displayed.

Camponotus consobrinus (sugar) and Ochetellus glaber (black)

I was taking the 2 boys for a walk down to the river on the weekend when we came across a lone sugar ant in the middle of a swarm of about 20 tiny black ants on a patch of exposed sandstone. At first it looked like the small black ants were teaming up to attack the sugar ant, but after watching them for a while it was clear the sugar ant was not trying to get away, and was in fact chasing and attacking the much smaller black ants!

Besides the boring old weather the Bureau of Meteorology website has a lot of pretty cool stuff. Something I’ve been digging into lately is their climate data. Depending on the weather station you can find rainfall, maximum and minimum temperatures going back over 150 years. I’ve used their temperature data for the Observatory Hill station in Sydney to make a graph over time, I’ve also calculated moving averages over various time periods. It’s turned out some pretty interesting results. There’s a clear warming trend since the early 1900’s for maximum temps and around the mid 1940’s for minimums, but it’s not all smooth, there have been some ups and downs that have lasted over 10 years. Click through to the interactive graph and have a play, you can turn the various data series on and off to compare. You have to be a bit patient, it can take a few seconds after you click to send through the new data points and graph them.

Calyptorhynchus funereus

I used to think that a black cockie was a black cockie, it turns out that the name is a general descriptive term for several species of cockatoos with black colouring. The cockies that visit my yard are Yellow tailed black cockatoos. For the last few years they’ve been turning up for just 1 day, chowing down on Banksia flowers, gnawing off many small branches, and then flying out not to be seen for another year. Yellow tailed black cockatoos are big, noticeably bigger than the Sulphur-crested Cockatoos that are here year round. They have black feathers all over with a yellow patch on the cheek and the tail.

Neochmia temporalis

The Red-browed Finch is a spot on name for these guys, the other thing to add is they are small and they are fast! Red-browed finches enjoy hanging out in the garden near to the ground where there’s good cover from scrub and small trees. I’ve not seen them flying in the sky or anywhere in the open where there’s no cover. There’s a prunus tree in the backyard that they build a nest or 3 every year. Their nests are made from twigs, tightly woven into an enclosed ball shape with one small doorway. Red-browed Finches are a common bird that are found up the entire east coast of Australia. They are found in grassy areas interspersed with dense understorey vegetation, often along creek lines.