Jennifer Marohasy

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Its that time of year when the bush turkeys in Queensland start their nest building. The one in our backyard wants to build right in front of the door to the shed John erected a few months ago. John sweeps the leaves away, the turkey puts them back.

Bush turkey wanting to build a nest
Bush turkey wanting to build a nest

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  2. egg says

    Bastardi offers a long range weather forecast.

    ‘The Arctic is already showing, with the lack of ice melt this summer, what it will do once the AMO flips for good (in 5-10 years). It will recover.

    ‘The global temperature will drop, but it will not be a drop representing a coming ice age or true cooling, just the cycle swinging back the other way. Meanwhile the Antarctic cap will retreat, eventually to levels seen in the 1970s and early 1980s.

    ‘If the southern ice cap does not shrink, then that will be a problem, but I have confidence it will.’

    – See more at: http://notrickszone.com/2014/08/24/a-single-meteorologist-explains-what-165-billion-in-government-funded-climate-science-couldnt/#sthash.Tgz8dsLa.dpuf

  3. DaveMyFace says

    BUSH Turkey (QLD)

    or

    BRUSH Turkey (REST of the WORLD)

    Or simply that little shiiite big bird that ruins a garden? (Alectura lathami)

    We’re not fighting the male (or males) in our garden who builds the nest, we’re now fighting our neighbours.

    Who can win this battle, them or us?

    The only thing that works is fishing line, with pegs every 2 or 3 meters in the area they are building. Do a line at 50mm and at 200mm above ground level with a high breaking strength line all around the nest area then spread out trip areas all around it’s collecting path or line for litter.

    Very inconvenient for a while, but never failed for me.

    I actually leave an area free down the back (I’ve got room) and the mulch after the little ones have hatched is great for the garden.

    The neighbours always lose the battle, never told them what I do.

  4. spangled drongo says

    You have to leave a bit of room for those old scrubbers. They have been having a very lean time during the dry. Also the foxes have been playing havoc with them here and their numbers are down considerably.

    However the recent rains over Eastern Australia have been very beneficial and with the coming spring hopefully the insects, flowers and fruit will burst forth and see big improvements.

    It’s certainly reduced the fire risk.

  5. Robert says

    I’m told they eat the smaller varieties of bamboo shoots, those scrubbers. All they do in my grove is have a scratch and give up after they get through to the matting. Get serious ‘boo, get moso, I always say.

  7. spangled drongo says

    Robert, they have very discerning taste. Here, they eat my monstera delicios and I am lucky if I get any at all. ☺

  9. Neville says

    Another new SL study shows that SLs are rising 1mm a year on average around the globe.

    http://joannenova.com.au/2014/08/global-sea-level-rise-a-bit-more-than-1mm-a-year-for-last-50-years-no-accelleration/#more-37953

    And this 2014 Beenstock et al study finds there has been no acceleration in the last 50 years. So much for unprecedented melt rates of glaciers, WAIS, Greenland etc promoted by the extremist scientist, activists, their ABC, Fairfax and so much of the MSM.

  10. Farmer Gez says

    I forgot to mention on the last thread that BOM has also been truncating records to enhance trends. Our local BOM site has somehow lost all records before the 90’s. I’m sure they will be back soon in the new freshly baked homogenised form. I can smell the cooking now.

  12. Avatar photojennifer says

    Dave,

    I rather like the turkeys. Throw them something new and they will explore it. Throw them a peanut and they will work out how to open it. An empty or full bucket placed in the garden always ends up tipped over as they insist on having a look inside.

    We have three females and one male that regularly frequent this garden. Last year, after the ‘little man’ ran out of garden mulch for his nest I ordered in some extra cubic metres from the local landscape supplier and ran it around to the back yard in a wheel barrow… quite a few loads.

    I’m concerned if I give him a hand this year, John may end up without an entrance to his new shed. 😉

    We have wire mesh wrapped around my outside pot plants so they can’t get to them and also laid wire mesh over garden beds with new plants else they are destroyed.

  13. Hasbeen says

    We had a real problem with scrub turkeys at the Happy bay resort on Long Island in the Whitsundays. It was close enough for the birds to have flown in.

    We had a number of mounds, a couple in bamboo thickets, & they were an attraction to the tourists. They may have had a breeding season, but mound building was a year round activity for the males.

    We would regularly get young birds that would decide to build a mound against one of the individual guests units. We did not try fishing line fences, a new one on me, but we did have a little success with weed mat pegged down around the nest.

    This was only occasional though, & although the guests liked to see the turkeys in action building a mound, very few liked the idea of actually living surrounded by one.

    Our last defense against a turkey that could not be discouraged was removal.

    Lindeman Island is further of the coast, & did not have any turkeys. We regularly visited each others island with guests on our boat trips. WE finally took to trapping offending male turkeys, & relocating them to the northern side of Lindeman, well away from the resort, on these trips.

    I meant to check one day to see if, & for how long, these bachelor boys continued to build mounds in the forlorn hope of a lady passing by. Unfortunately I never got the chance.

  18. Avatar photojennifer says

    Excellent explanation of what the BOM has conceded by Jo Nova here…

    “In all three cases above the BOM tacitly admitted Jennifer Marohasy has the calculations of the trends right, and the massive changes from raw to adjusted really happened. In all three cases the weasel words “likely”, “consistent” and “may” are used with speculative undocumented reasons for changes. How are imagined and unrecorded site moves “consistent” with the definitive certainty of headlines like “hottest ever year”? Next time we’re told it’s another warmest September night in East Where-ever, will we hear that it’s a tenth of a degree warmer, but only according to a bunch of homogenized, adjusted thermometers which may have been 300 km away?”

    http://joannenova.com.au/2014/08/bom-finally-explains-cooling-changed-to-warming-trends-because-stations-might-have-moved/

    And its my birthday today. As I mentioned in the first comment at the new thread over at Jo’s site… I’m having a drink with a few friends at the Sunshine Beach Surf Life Saving Cllub from 5pm today if you would like to join us…

  19. Larry Fields says

    On our most recent Range Management thread, there was a short discussion of the Plains Wanderer, and how it thrives on land that it shares with grazing animals. Being an American, I’d never heard of this endangered bird before, and had to look it up.

    It turns out that that the PW is not the only environmentally sensitive species that can comfortably coexist with cattle. To wit: the wildflowers at Bear Valley, California. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

    Until recent years, there was a lot of legal immigration into our fair state. An increasing population jacks up the prices of houses. This in turn increases property taxes on nearby farmland. Some farmers and ranchers feel pressure to sell prime agricultural land to developers.

    However partnerships involving the state, non-profit organizations, and local landowners allow farmers and ranchers to continue their way of life, and to continue feeding city folk, without being bankrupted by spiralling property taxes.

    The spectacular wildflower scenery at Bear Valley is one such success story.

    BEAR VALLEY, COLUSA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    “Bear Valley in Colusa County, California is formed by Bear Creek which is a tributary of Cache Creek.

    “Upstream in the Bear Creek watershed the creek flows for 10 miles through a broad flat valley that has spectacular displays of wildflowers in the spring.[1]

    “The Bear Valley Ranch and Payne Ranch in Bear Valley have been permanently protected through a conservation easement that precludes development on the property, while permitting traditional cattle ranching to continue.

    “Hiking through the valley is not permitted, but many people visit Bear Valley and neighboring valleys each spring for roadside viewing of this wildflower hotspot.”

    http://www.wondermondo.com/Images/NAmerica/USA/California/BearValley.jpg

    http://www.rangelandtrust.org/conservation-bear_valley.php

  20. spangled drongo says

    Larry, the US rangelands, like Australia, has also become the home of the Cattle Egret which originated in Africa but has spread pretty much where ever cattle have.

    Unlike the Plains Wanderer though, they are far from endangered.

    They rely on cattle for food supply and I suspect they are partly responsible for the world’s frog population decline as their favourite hangout is typical frog habitat areas and they feed on any insect or small animal life the cattle disturb.

  25. spangled drongo says

    Neville, I told Neil White eighteen months ago that from my benchmarks the actual SLs on the east coast had not risen in my lifetime and even though he would not agree, I felt he did not fully believe in their earlier papers that agreed with the sat. crap.

    It takes time but the truth will out.

  26. Jim says

    Happy Birthday!
    Fantastic work on the BoM stuff.
    I’d be interested in a discussion of what is motivating BoM and similar authorities?
    Is it bias/misconstrued altruism/blind belief?
    I don’t believe in widespread, sustained organised conspiracy – people aren’t capable of that generally.
    To paraphrase Lindzen – it’s not remarkable that adjusting raw data is sometimes necessary. What is remarkable in the case of AGW, is that every adjustment produces more warming.
    It isn’t possible that every AGW scientist is morally corrupt or dishonest (anymore than it is possible that every sceptic is being paid by a fossil fuel company OR is being duped by someone who is).
    Groupthink is a possibility – climate scientists like journalists, lawyers, doctors etc, tend to define themselves as members of an exclusive group and are probably unlikely to easily dissent from establishment positions.
    What do you reckon?

  27. Beth Cooper says

    Happy Birthday, Jennifer, I would say you can look back to a year of important endeavour towards bringing on the open society, true ter the scientific spirit of
    the Enlightenment, what’s better than that? The Socratic Revolution and go-git-
    the- BOM – Bureau of Misinformation (or Memory Hole wiping the slate clean
    so that myth may prevail.)

    Beth the serf.

  28. egg says

    “I feel a maelstrom of emotions,” wailed University of Queensland climate change ecologist Anthony J. Richardson. “I am exasperated … I am frustrated … I am anxious … I am perplexed … I am dumbfounded … I am distressed … I am upset … I am annoyed … I am angry … I am infuriated … but most of all I am apprehensive.”

    Poor bloke. Monash University’s Dr Ailie Gallant also seems on the verge of a breakdown.

    “I feel nervous. I get worried and anxious,” she wrote. “I often feel like shouting.” Go to an AFL game, Allie. You’ll fit right in.

    “If climate change were not real, we would not have to be concerned about it,” moaned Melbourne University’s Kevin Walsh.

    “We wouldn’t have to worry about the future of our water resources, already strained by overpopulation.”

    Tim Blair / Daily Telegraph

  29. egg says

    ‘SUBSIDIES on renewable- ­energy power generation would be frozen at current levels until overall electricity demand recovered, under a plan the Abbott government is considering to ease pressure from the Renewable ­Energy Target on power prices.

    ‘The Australian has confirmed that one scenario in businessman Dick Warburton’s RET review, which has been handed to the government, would freeze the scheme at near its current level until electricity demand stops falling.

    ‘But the option would provide an opportunity for the amount of renewable energy to be increased if electricity demand started to rise before 2020.’

    Sid Maher / Oz

  30. Neville says

    Yes Spangled it will be interesting to see how this evolves over the next few years. Church, White etc will be involved in more studies I’m sure and we’ll just have to check their progress.

    In the meantime at least 30+ recent studies prove there is little difference in the rate of SLR before and after 1950. And the 2014 Leclerq world glacier study actually finds a slowing of retreat after 1950. So once again no impact from AGW at all.

    And big surprise the 5 year too late CBA of the NBN just shows what clueless fools Rudd and Conroy were. How would anyone ever think of voting for these idiots again? Literally back of the envelope stuff and costing us billions in lost funds.

    http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.marophp/heraldsun/comments/rudds_dream_your_billions

  31. Neville says

    Interesting that Phil Jones agreed in 2010 that if evidence could be found for the Med WP in the SH it would change the AGW debate. IOW so called recent warming since the end of the LIA wouldn’t be unprecedented or unusual at all.

    http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/02/14/phil-jones-momentous-qa-with-bbc-reopens-the-science-is-settled-issues/

    Well here are a number of PR studies that show the Med WP in Antarctica as does the recent Pages 2K study.

    http://www.co2science.org/subject/a/antarcticmwp.php And here are numerous studies that show the Med WP in the SH.

    http://www.co2science.org/subject/m/subject_m.php Just scroll down to find S America, Australia and NZ and central America.

    But will these fools now change there minds? This is easily the biggest con and fraud for the last one hundred years.

  32. egg says

    David Whitehouse on the Pause

    ‘You don’t have to look very deeply at the science to realise that, despite the headlines, no one has come up with an answer to the “pause.” Some place their faith that there is a major driver – the Atlantic or the Pacific for instance – that can explain most of it. Others admit that there will not be any one cause for the “pause” and that it is likely to be the result of a patchwork of influences. If so then they have to explain why such a patchwork has for 17 years kept the global surface temperature statistically flat in the face of rising greenhouse gas concentrations – surely one of the most remarkable balancing acts in the history of science.

    ‘For many the proof of what is causing the “pause” will not be forthcoming until it goes away and what is expected to be accelerated global warming resumes. But since whatever the culprit is would have been a very significant contributor to the pre “pause” warming in the 80s and 90s, one wonders how swift will be that acceleration?’

  35. egg says

    West Antarctica and Antarctic Peninsula melt due to cycles

    ‘This is because the Antarctic Peninsula in located in the west wind zone of the southern hemisphere. This southern hemisphere wind belt is subject to stochastic cyclic atmospheric pressure variations, as is the case with all other global wind systems. This is analogous to the northern hemispheric North Atlantic Oscillation NAO). In the southern hemisphere it is known as the Antarctic Oscillation (AAO).’

    – See more at: http://notrickszone.com/#sthash.RO0Mecy7.dpuf

  37. James Mayeau says

    Congrats on getting your turkeys to rake up the leaves, Jennifer.

    My turkeys turn their noses up at yard work.

  38. Larry Fields says

    The latest Racetrack Playa research

    Headline: The Mystery of Death Valley’s “Sailing Stones” Is Finally Solved

    Sarah Zhang

    On a dried-up lake bed in Death Valley are dozens of rocks that have puzzled us for decades. The rocks have each left a dusty trail, evidence of some unknown force propelling them forward. Scientists have now finally observed the rocks moving and settled on an explanation: Thin ice and a gentle breeze.

    Speculation about the origin of these sailing stones has ranged from hurricane-force winds to slippery algae films. In contrast, the rocks are actually being pushed around by delicate sheets of ice skating on sand, a solution that’s just gentle and non-grandiose enough to be true. The idea doesn’t come out of the blue; back in 2011, a scientist published his ice raft model after experimenting with sand in a Tupperware container.

    What is really remarkable is that in a study published today in PLOS ONE, scientists observed the rocks actually moving for the first time.

    You can read more at gizmodo.com.
    http://gizmodo.com/the-mystery-of-death-valleys-sailing-stones-is-finall-1627635478

    Larry’s comment: The word, “solved” in the title may be an exaggeration. Nevertheless the latest research does shed some light on the greatest mystery of California’s Death Valley National Park.