Don’t be fooled by Melbourne’s Fool’s Spring

It starts with a message in the neighbourhood chat: “He’s back”.  

Magpie season is a defining feature of the annual cycle of life across many parts of Australia. In Melbourne, ‘The Swooping’ has become an often-shared meme that fits into the city’s ‘real’ seasons. 

While the ‘12 seasons’ list is generally shared as a joke, there’s a lot of truth to it. The traditional western four seasons don’t map onto the weather and climate experienced by most of Australia.  

So, is ‘Fool’s Spring’ a real thing? How do magpies know when to start terrorising? And how are these features changing, as the world warms? 

How deceptive is Melbourne’s spring of deception?  

We often think of ‘mid-winter’ as the date of the Read the full article on Unimelb Pursuit...