Garbage truck, Fernmount, NSW

Garbage truck, Fernmount, NSW,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.

Someone told me I spoiled the Woolgoolga photo the other day, by having a garbage truck in it. Looks like I've blown it again.

Bellinger River at Fernmount, NSW 1

Bellinger River at Fernmount, NSW 1,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.

Every two weeks I go to 2BBB at Bellingen to record Almanac programs in advance (they play the five-minute talks each morning). Today I was five minutes early so I stopped at Fernmount and snapped one of my favourite Bellinger River views. Then the rain came.

Boy and dog, Woolgoolga headland

Boy and dog, Woolgoolga headland,
originally uploaded by wilsonsalmanac.

I snapped this today, too, from the headland at Woolgoolga. Sandy Beach is about 5 miles south, on the horizon.

Today's cloud

Had to go to Woolgoolga PO today ... snapped this cloud while I was at it (click).

Night turns to day

That was some lightning last night. Click.

Sunday afternoon news flash

It's quite warm and sunny today, with a steady northerly blowing along the beach. Nice and sheltered in the yard, though. Being a Sunday, there are a few people on the sand and in the water, pretending it's Summer but their teeth seem to be chattering a bit still.

The Gouldians are shedding a few feathers and some down, moulting in preparation for the hot weather a-coming. They're perched on high and have been for an hour or two, because I put a book down next to their feed tray, and they are creatures of habit. I suppose they're waiting to see if the book moves. They'll have some wait: it's not from the mobile library.

Yesterday was the cusp of this fine weather following what seemed like, but probably wasn't, a whole wet week. I snapped this photo then (click to enlargicate). Shame about the tracks left in the sand by some Neanderthal, but the umbrella guy seems to make the shot interesting. Huge drops were falling around the time I snapped it.

Nothing much happening. Ain't it grand?

New mouths to feed

The swallows that nest at the Ponderosa have some new mouths to feed. This pic taken yesterday while about eight swallows zoomed around me in something of a state of agitation.

Tagged: swallow, swallows, birds, nature, wildlife, nest, nests, australia

Good morning!

And it is a very beautiful morning.

At 7am it was 20 degrees C (68F) with a mild nor-wester blowing. Looks like a fantastic day ahead, and I think the butterflies agree. The garden is alive with them on this Spring morning, and all around Sandy there are thousands of white butterflies with black-edged wings (anyone know their moniker?), cousins of these ones from the Ponderosa garden.

Smiling green gargoyle

This guy, who is about as big as my fist, is tonight on my roof like a gargoyle guarding The Ponderosa.

The Green tree frog is his common name, but the Latins call him Litoria caerulea. It is "native to Australia and southern New Guinea. It can be found both in the northern and eastern parts of Australia ... More specifically from the coast to the drier interior of north western Austrailia, Northern Territory, Queensland, SA, and NSW" (source).

Frogs are in dire straits all around the world, so I feel very protective of this bloke. However, I don't like his chances, because of dogs as much as any of the other myriad things, such as pollution, that threaten to eradicate these beautiful and once familiar critters. (Perhaps some other Sandysiders have noticed that the family of Eastern bearded dragons that last year lived in the scrub at the south end seem to have gone missing this year. Unleashed dogs would have to be in the list of suspects.)

Here's some recent news about frogs:

"Frogs are facing an extinction crisis, with one in three of the world's species heading for oblivion.

"As the environmental bellwether for the damage caused by human activity, it was never easy being a frog.

"But decades of pollution, habitat loss, climate change and exposure to the deadly fungus chytrid have decimated the global amphibian population.

"The World Conservation Union (IUCN) yesterday described it as 'one of the worst extinction crises of our time' and announced a global action plan to halt the decline."
The Australian, September 22, 2005

The Action Plan for Australian Frogs
Google search frog+decline

Tagged: frog, frogs, australia, extinction, frog+decline, environment

Summer has come early

Updated: 12:00 PM EST on October 06, 2005
Observed At: Coffs Harbour Mo, New South Wales
Elevation: 16 ft / 5 m
90 °F / 32 °C
Partly Cloudy
Humidity: 20%
Dew Point: 55 °F / 13 °C
Wind: 8 mph / 13 km/h from the East
Wind Gust: -
Pressure: 29.81 in / 1009 hPa (Falling)
Visibility: 19.0 miles / 30.0 kilometers
UV: 8 out of 16

And the sand is hot! The frangipani is sending out its shoots which will add to the shade over the entrance to the Ponderosa. In the pic (click to ecbiggify) you'll also see flowers on the towering mango that shades the cabin. Unfortunately it doesn't set good fruit for all its hugeosity.

Sandy Beach photo comp coming $oon!

Check out the news near the foot of the Sandy Beach Wave page and bookmark A Sandy Beach Almanac for more news to come. Donors of cash and prizes are invited to join the fun and will be fully acknowledged online.

Sandy Beach Certified Idiot Derby

Seen on Sandy Beach on the weekend. Just think, if I'd been able to afford Bellingen's Global Carnival, I would have missed this idiot. Click to emlargify.

Tagged: activism, suv, 4wd, 4X4, anti+suv, anti+4wd, anti+4X4, environment, beach

Sandy Beach pix on my flickr page

Well, I knew I'd get round to it one day. Finally opened a flickr account to store&show some photos of Sandy Beach and stuff like that. I've had fun putting the first pix in. The link is http://www.flickr.com/photos/pipwilson/

And there's a little flickr badge in the sidebar of this page. Kinda cute :)

Tagged: flickr, photos, photography, file+sharing, tags, tagging, tag

It feels like Summer: kids having fun

Click to embiggen

Updated: 12:00 PM EST on October 03, 2005
Observed At: Coffs Harbour Mo, New South Wales
Elevation: 16 ft / 5 m
Humidity: 31%
Dew Point: 54 °F / 12 °C
Wind: 15 mph / 24 km/h from the NE
Wind Gust: -
Pressure: 29.99 in / 1016 hPa (Falling)
Visibility: 25.0 miles / 40.0 kilometers
UV: 10 out of 16
Source (there is also a linked Weather Underground
sticker permanently in the sidebar on A Sandy Beach Almanac)

Showering with naked birds: How to

Gouldian finches need to drink water about 2-3 times a day. I have a water thingo for them, as well as an old TV dinner tray (curried prawns and rice) that I change the water in each day, ideal for a birdbath. I keep both of these in the shower, but it's my shaving mirror that Elizabeth and John Gould seem to find the best drink in town. They don't bathe every day, but they never fail to join me in the shower.

For a treat, Gouldian finches love a spray of millet, as the second photo shows (click thumbnails to embiggen). They get very excited when they hear me go to the box of millet sprays outside the bathroom, and when I bring it to them they're like puppies when they see the dogfood.

Gouldians are said to be almost impossible to get near, and it's certainly true of Johnny and Lizzie. But because they share a small space with me, viz The Ponderosa, they're not as skittish as most Gouldians, and will even sit on my hand and eat -- if hungry enough.

They love the warmth created when I shower and will always perch above me when I do. I guess it's like a sauna for them. As long as they're not exactly above my head (for obvious reasons) I don't have a problem with that because I've always wanted a couple of naked birds in the shower with me. The good thing about Gouldians is that they weigh only about 15 grams and their poop is negligible -- and these guys do it all in the shower, not on my bookshelves. My canary, sad to say, was three times their size and a peripatetic shitter. He had to go whence he came, ie, to the cage of a friend in Sandy Beach. Gone, but not forgotten, dear Fairfax of the Loose Bowels.

Here's an Australian Museum Fact Sheet on the Gouldian finch for those interested. It's pretty good, except for this:

"The Gouldian Finch is mostly silent, although a high-pitched whistling 'ssitt', may be uttered from time to time."

Not so. They chirp just like any other little birdies, and Johnny sings a few times a day. He's not exactly Placido Caruso, but it's a delightful song and it goes on for quite some time. As a matter of fact, he's singing up a storm as I write, just after 9am. The fact sheet also neglects to mention anything about Gouldian bathroom behaviour, nor the use of TV dinner packaging.

Tagged: gouldian, finches, gouldians, birds, pets, australia

Frogs have been naughty in my fishpond

Beautiful day today!

Temperature: 71 °F / 22 °C; Humidity: 29%; Wind: 12 mph / 18 km/h from the SE.

The fishpond outside my door was becoming a disgrace, and since Spring is sprung, old Adam the Gardener came out in me this morning.

I got rid of all the rubbish (click thumbnail), tipped some boiling water on some clinging roots and stems that were too hard to extract from the concrete, and planted a grafted Grosse Lisse tomato. I've never grown grafted tomatoes before, and I've been told that you don't trim the laterals as you do normally, but you stake them. We'll see how she goes.

Getting down and dirty with the pond, I got a good glimpse of frog spawn and I'm really pleased with the shot from my Olympus C-370. I regret that I disturbed the eggs in my vigorous gardening but hope they will survive Oaf Wilson and the goldfish.

As most people these days know, frogs are disappearing worldwide. I've long been of the opinion that, wherever I live, if I haven't seen a frog for two years or haven't heard a frog for one, my locality is sick and needs a lot of restoration. By that rule of thumb, Sandy Beach isn't totally sick yet.

Frog decline
The Frog Decline in Australia (1996 paper)
Declining Amphibian Populations Task Force
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frog#Distribution_and_status

Tagged: coffs+harbour, frog+decline, amphibian, frog, frogs, gardening, tomato, australia