Port Stephens Diary of Natural Events - August


An extract from Michael Smith's "Port Stephens Diary of Natural Events"...

AUGUST

Eastern Rosellas engage in courtship.
Echidna egg hatches and young attach to a teat.
Cup Fungi appears.
Bandicoots start breeding.
Occasional snow on Barrington Tops.
Wattle Day, some wattles are in bloom.
Cup Moth cocoons on gum leaves.
Young foxes start exploring and playing.
Pee Wees start building their mud nests.
Dagger Hakea in flower.
Antechinus mate.
Male Brown Antechinus die, leaving the females to raise the next generation.
Koels arrive from Papua New Guinea to lay eggs in other bird's nests.
Kookaburras lay two eggs.
This year's baby Quolls become independent.
King crickets lay eggs in Banksias.
Gnat orchids are in flower.
Painted Lady Butterflies emerge.
Pardolotes dig nest burrows.
Welcome Swallows arrive.
Euphrasia Collina is in flower.
Butchers Birds are active.
Koala cubs leave the pouch and climb onto their mother's back.
Donkey Orchids are in flower.
Mosquito wrigglers are abundant in pools of water.
Ducklings can be seen walking to water.
Reed Warblers return from the north.
Pallid and Bronze Cuckoos call.
Cormorants begin nesting.
Potato Orchid flowers open.
Greenhood Orchids everywhere.
Quoll babies are grown up.
Fairy Penguin eggs hatch on Broughton Island.
Wading birds arrive from Siberia (Stints, Curlews and Sandpipers).
Flies overwinter as lavae and pupa in crevices.
Rulingia hermannifolia in flower behind Kingsley Beach.
Gymea Lily in full flower.
Spring has started.
Sawfly grubs cluster on Eucalypt leaves.
Pixie Cap Orchid and Greenhood Orchid have reduced to just leaves on the ground.
Pink Finger Orchid in flower.
Yellow Robins nest.
Skipper Butterflies appear.
Milkmaids in flower.
Sugar Glider twins are born.
Cuttlefish come close to shore to breed in the shallows.
Oystercatchers start to breed.
Red Wattlebirds depart.
Michael Smith, 1999


Emily Valentine Bullock, Cast of Crabs - North Arm Cove, 2011
Emily Valentine Bullock, Cast of Crabs - North Arm Cove, 2011
Emily Valentine Bullock, Cast of Crabs - North Arm Cove, 2011
Emily Valentine Bullock, Cast of Crabs - North Arm Cove, 2011
Emily Valentine Bullock, Cast of Crabs - North Arm Cove, 2011
Emily Valentine Bullock, Cast of Crabs - North Arm Cove, 2011
Emily Valentine Bullock, Cast of Crabs - North Arm Cove, 2011