During the winter of 2018 the southern coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula has been battered by king tides squalls and gusty, cold northwesterly winds off and on for a couple of weeks at a time. It is off and on because in -between these intense, northerly winds we have the winter’s standard south westerly winds bringing rain in from Western Australia.
The rain eventually clears after a couple of days, we have a fine day, then we are back to the gusty northerlies again. Sometimes these changes in the weather can be quite atmospheric.
On the days of rain it is a matter of trying to go on the poodlewalks inbetween the passing showers, and then hoping that we don’t get caught in a squall out in the open. Often we see a lone surfer, and on other days there are groups of people standing on the cliffs look out to sea, presumably whale watching.
Sometimes we can see the showers coming in from the west as we walk, so we quickly return to the car, and and then sit the squalls out before we continue with our walk.
The odd fine day is very enjoyable as there is sunshine, little wind and soft light in the early morning. So I am able to walk along the coast without a coat and to play around taking some photos. Or even better, I can have breakfast on the balcony. On these days you can sense spring is coming.
I had been hoping these wild conditions would have resulted in dead dead sea birds being swept onto the shore. I have been looking when walking amongst the rocks, but, to my surprise there, I have not found any. Nor isolated bird wings, even when it is calm.
Maybe the birds have been swept ashore only to be quickly returned to the sea by the high tides before the poodles can come across them? My reason for looking is that I had been wanting to do some more still life photos with the dead sea birds in the open air studio.