First signs of Australian spring

[echt]

It's been unseasonably warm and sunny here in Melbourne and I've spotted the first harbingers of spring, which doesn't officially start until 1st September:

Blowflies
Ants invading my kitchen worktops

What's it like where you are?

Hang on in there, it's meant to be warm again in a few days!

@TerrorAustralis That is just gorgeous. I remember as a child watching a programme called The Flame Trees of Thika (I think!), I had never otherwise heard of them. How amazing to step out of your house in the morning and see such a sight!

We are away for a few days in the lower North Island and there has been flooding, landslides and road closures. Roll on Spring😀

@wandawaves Oh wow, what a heavenly view!

Thankfully I am off to Portugal next week where I am hoping the sun will be blazing down as I wander along a beach such as that.

I doubt I will ever get to Australia or New Zealand however these photos and descriptions are making me yearn just a little!!

We are off to Portugal next year. Around 20 years since our last visit. Then it was around a 3 hour flight. Now around 30! We are returning to the same village and it will be interesting to see how it has changed. Enjoy your trip.

Portugal next year for me too... it must be the place to be!

Just spotted this, it made me laugh and reminded me of this thread.

No, no, no. Still very wintery here in Perth, and long may it continue. I get a little bit down when the weather warms up.

However, growing up in Hawke’s Bay, NZ, spring time is absolutely beautiful 😍

Thanks for the reminder. I want to buy some magpie food. We have had a few hanging around the path outside the house for the last six weeks or so and I assume they will be nesting nearby.

I’ve heard they are very clever birds and won’t swoop people they recognise as friends (or feeders). Fingers crossed!

Please don’t feed magpies - they learn to expect food and get very aggressive to those who don’t feed them.

I talk to them as I pass and they do tend to leave me alone. Hopefully they see me as friends!!

I’m open to any other suggestions that will mean my children and I don’t get swooped on the way to the car.

We talk to them too! 🤣

Bought some Daffodils. They give me joy that spring is just around the corner.

Magpies are darlings compared to nesting plovers!! Had some in my front yard. The absolute worst!

Plovers are my absolute nemesis. Awful things.

How do you pronounce plover? It’s one of those words I’d only ever read and not heard. I recently heard someone call them plovers with a short o, to rhyme with cover. But I always said it in my head with a long o, to rhyme with over.

The o in plover is pronounced Uh - pluhver. So yes, like cover.

There are at least three plovers living in the field next door. I have never heard such noisy birds. And they choose the most ridiculous spots for a nest! I’ve even seen a car park space fenced off because a plover has started to nest in the middle of it.

Spring notes - DH has cleaned the bbq. Our traditional Sunday Roast will be a traditional bbq tomorrow.

I know I am a little bit of a fraud being here (in SA ) but just had to share :

The swallows have arrived!! Now this is the final way we know we are really out of winter. It is just the nicest sight imo.

I'm no swallow expert but these little guys just flew all the way from the UK, that's 6000 miles.

And today it has started to rain. It hasn't rained since April in my parts. Just love that smell of the rain, when it's so dry it's just a smell all of its own.

Swallows and rain in one day. What isn't to love.

I saw my first black faced cuckoo shrike the other day. I really like them.

The snowdrops are just finishing, the bluebells (my favorites) are in full go and beautiful. The daffodils got blown to bits quite regularly by the nor’west! Always happens and the wind gives the blossom trees a good go as well! The rhodos are just beginning, but I’m looking at the snow on the tops and just know we’re in for the odd frost still…bye bye rhodos! I’m in the South Island NZ, it’s been a cold winter, the Spring is very welcome.