It's Djilba

 This is the Noongar season which coincides approximately with August to September - the Noongar are the First Nations people indigenous to this part of south western Australia. Djilba is a bit of a mixture with cold clear days and warmer rainy periods. There are six Noongar seasons which makes much more sense than attempting to shoehorn our weather into the traditional European pattern of only four seasons. In that system we'd be still be in winter with spring another month away. Now there's more recognition that this really doesn't work and it's becoming common for the Noongar seasons to be acknowledged.

This is the time when the wildflowers burst into bloom creating spectacular carpets of colour. Last weekend we visited family on a bush block north of here and along the way we could see they are just starting to come out. Then this morning I noticed the first of my kangaroo paws are open. 

As you can see from this not great photo those I grow are the red and green variety (Anigozanthos manglesii) which is our state's floral emblem. They tend to be less tough than than the hybrid varieties commonly found in gardens (they're very prone to a fungus called "ink spot" for a start) but I like their rich colours so I persist. There are still some places in the hills to the east of the city where they can be found en masse and it's a lovely sight. As I live close to the coast - not their preferred location - I settle for a few pots to give me a taste of the bush. I have to say that they aren't all that easy to come by with only a couple of nurseries producing them. Still I think they're worth the effort, don't you.

And It's Back

- the masked woodswallow that is. This shows one of these handsome fellows. Not my photo unfortunately but I was lucky enough to find this image by Jim Bendon online and available under a Creative Commons licence. I particularly like this image because it shows the sleek body shape and large wing span of these elegant birds.

Image by Jim Bendon - Flickr Woodswallows7
CC BY-SA 2.0









We don't see masked woodswallows around here very much but every year around this time I catch occasional glimpses of them. Whether there's a breeding pair or two that likes the area and returns annually or they're just nomadic wanderers I don't know but the arrival marks the point where we're now past the coldest part of winter and are heading towards spring and Djilba, the Noongar season of first spring and season of conception which lasts from August through September.

Most of the sites I looked at say masked woodswallows fly in large flocks but that's certainly not the case around here. I have only ever seen them singly but as one site mentioned that some pairs come to the Swan River region to nest I assume that's the case with those I've seen.