Spring comes to South Aus

 

Canola, near Milang

Blossom, Strashalbyn

Surf's up, Dapp Beach

New Holland Honeyeater

Laratinga

Highland cattle, near Clarendon

Magnolias, Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens

Dunes, Parson's Beach, Newland Head CP

Galah, Belair NP

McLaren Vale Visitors Centre

The Colours of Winter, 2024

 

New Holland Honeyeater and strawberry grevillea

Pretty roo at Happy Valley Reservoir

Levels could be higher in Myponga Raservoir

Nixon Skinner CP

Purple swamphen, Happy Valley

At Nixon Skinner CP

At Byards Road wetlands

Byards Wetlands

Low, low water at Myponga Reservoir

Cheeky-beak: our New Holland again

The Year of the January Green

Brodie Road Wetlands, from the roadbridge

Superb Fairywren at Onkaparinga Wetlands

Roo family at Onkaparinga Wetalnds

McLaren Vale area

Australian native bee at the Ironbarks, Kuitpo

 

Flinders Ranges

Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens

Gleeson Wetlands, Clare

Nangawooka

Something so extraordinary happened that it's worth blogging about. This ... Never ... Happens. I'm not exaggerating. In fact, I've been ransacking my memory for any other year in which the South Australian landscape was green as County Cork in January, ten days after the summer solstice ... and I can't remember any other time. There was a year (1971 or '72, I can't quite recall) when it drizzled until shortly before Christmas, but by New Year the hills were baked brown and the catchments were half empty, as usual. This year? Well --

This never happens. Except, apparently, in an El Nino year with some weird dipole values and a heck of a lot of monsoonal activity in the north and east. Put it all together, and you get a cool, sometimes misty, and rather wet summer for us, which translates directly into ... green. And I have to say, I like it. A lot. The climate could settle into this pattern and stay right there, if it were up to me...

The Year of the January Green

This Never Happens. I'm not exaggerating. Am searching my memory for any other year in which the South Australian landscape was green as County Cork in January, ten days after the summer solstice ... and I can't remember any other time. 

This never happens. Except, apparently, in an El Nino year with some weird dipole values and a heck of a lot of monsoonal activity in the north and east. Put it all together, and you get a cool, sometimes misty, and rather wet summer for us, which translates directly into ... green. And I like it. A lot. These images were all captured after New Year, and as far apart as McLaren Vale and the Flinders Ranges. Green!!!

Some uniquely Aussie faces

 

Little Raven at Belair NP

Little Wattlebird at Nangawooka

Superb Fairywren at Mt Loft Botanic Garden

New Holland Honeyeater at Port Elliot

Pelican at Clayton Bay

New Holland honey eaters!