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 winter solstice.  

Around the 21st of June, the Southern Hemisphere is at its greatest angle to the sun thanks to the Earth’s tilt.  

Our days are at their shortest, the Sun is at its lowest point in the sky, and it can be comforting to think that things are only going to get brighter (and maybe warmer) from here.  

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But that’s not actually the case. Australia’s coldest month of the year is July; our seas hit their coldest temperatures in mid-August as oceans take longer to cool down than land; and Antarctica’s sea ice can continue to grow until mid-September.

Our inland deserts also gets mighty cold overnight at this time of year because the bare earth cools very quickly after the sun sets.

For those of us in the south or east, this means we can have freezing winds from the north and the south during the colder months of the year.  

By mid-August, however, it’s easy to forget these features of our climate. The sun is getting higher in the sky, the days are getting longer, there are flowers and a bit of warmth – winter is over, right? 

Not quite.   

The days are now as long as they were in April and May, but the water around us is a few degrees colder. This set up makes sunny spells particularly glorious but also means a change in the weather can bring a blast of bitingly cold air.  

And because there is still plenty of cold air sources about, these blasts can stick around, plunging us back into winter once again.

What’s going on with plants and birds?  

Although our wall calendars suggest we’re only just getting to spring, the natural world is already well and truly warmed up (so to speak).  

Contrary to popular belief, spring isn’t the only time for flowers. Many native species start flowering in late winter – from the glorious golden glow of wattles to the secretive sprouting of orchids and rare wildflowers. Late winter can be a surprisingly colourful time of year.  

The insects are getting ready too.  

You might have noticed that our invertebrate friends, the cutey crawlies, seem to disappear over winter.

That’s because most of them spend the colder months dormant or as eggs hidden away waiting for conditions to improve.  

As the mercury shifts, you’ll start to notice very hungry caterpillars, the nymphs of ladybirds and baby praying mantis on patrol.  

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And of course, we can’t gloss over The Swooping. Yes, magpies are notoriously aggressive this time of year, but a little extra info might help you cope.  

Did you know that not all magpies swoop? Researchers have found it’s only about one in 10 that put on their annual angry pants, and it’s typically the male.  

Second, they’re doing it out of love – not for you, of course, but for their future brood.  

A protective magpie will start swooping once eggs have been laid and will continue until the chicks have left the nest (usually about six weeks, give or take).  

Most importantly, magpies are incredibly intelligent and remember human faces. So, if your local magpie likes and trusts you, you likely won’t get swooped.  

Not to add fuel to the fire, but magpies aren’t the only protective parents. Masked lapwings (plovers), magpie larks, even willy wagtails are known to get pretty feisty when it comes to warding off actual (or imagined) threats.  

So, when does Spring actually…spring? 

Officially, 1 September (also known as Wattle Day) is the beginning of meteorological spring in the Southern Hemisphere.  

These meteorological seasons are the ones we’re most familiar with. They’re based on average temperatures and largely because it makes calculations convenient when determining statistics about the weather.  

Alternatively, you could use the astronomical seasons. Using this schedule, spring doesn’t begin until around 22 September, the spring equinox.

This is when the sun is directly over the equator, and both hemispheres receive the same amount of sunlight.  

After this date, our days become longer than our nights, while our Northern Hemisphere friends begin their descent into the cooler, darker months.

However, if you want official spring to be a time of truly reliable warmer temperatures, things get a bit messier.  

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This time of year is a season of transition, so you can expect more dramatic swings in weather over southern Australia in the next few months.

An Antarctic blast can turn up even during the height of summer.  

Not only that, but climate change means the timing of most spring temperatures are creeping earlier and earlier.  

For example, the average temperature in Melbourne on 1 September in the 1950s and 1960s now occurs around 21 August. In fact, 2024 saw  Australia’s warmest August on record by a huge margin. 

These weather and climate changes in turn affect the life patterns of the living things that depend upon them.

A mismatch between a plant species flowering and a pollinating insect arriving due to weather-related cues can spell disaster for both species. 

Australian botanist Tim Entwistle has long argued that eastern Australia needs at least six seasons according to plant behaviour, including ‘sprinter’ (which we’re probably in now as we come out of winter into spring), and ‘sprummer’ (spring into summer). 

But if we want to avoid being caught off guard by our changing seasons, Indigenous seasonal calendars are much more effective and informative.

Local calendars have intricate connections to plant and animal behaviour, as well as community and cultural activities.

The reason Indigenous calendars work well is because they’re based on evidence – changes in plants and animals, and subtle changes in weather patterns. 

Melbourne Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece recently agreed at a Future City Forum, saying “when you think about it, it makes sense”.  

Perhaps we’ll soon see a formal adoption of the Kulin nation calendar, which describes at least six seasons.  

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As Melbourne swings wildly between frost-covered mornings and sunny, warm weekends (and everything in between), we have much to learn from Traditional Custodians with their deep knowledge of Country.

Let’s start by taking a proper look outside to connect with the seasonal and global changes occurring all around us.