Port Stephens Diary of Natural Events - November


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

NOVEMBER

Most birds start to moult.
Black Faced Cuckoo Shrike are in abundance.
Crane flies emerge.
Baby Echidnas are 10 cm long and become too spiky for the pouch.
Dingo pups, aged 4 months, make their first outings into the outside world.
Whales are seen heading south.
Lacewings hatch.
Angophera costata sheds its bark.
Blueberry Ash starts flowering.
Prawns wait for rain to go to sea.
Trigger plants are now common.
Young magpies are being fed.
Wood-swallows nest after migrating south.
Blue Flax Lily has purple fruit.
Flying Duck Orchids abound.
Apple Berry and Lobelia gibbosa are in flower.
Sugar gliders leave the nest for the first time.
Antechinus babies ride their mother's back while she goes hunting.
Crimson Bottlebrush is in flower.
Broad Leaf Geebung fruit drops to the ground.
Scribbly Gum sheds it bark.
Flying Ants swarm on a hot day.
Stink bugs appear on Lemon Trees.
Galahs have their annual moult and their young become independent.
Red Jellyfish appear in the waters of Port Stephens.
Baby foxes are born.
Hungry Noisy Miner chicks chirp from the trees.
Red Ichneumon Wasps are common.
Quaking Grass grows its seed head.
Phascogale young are free to roam about.
Gulls moult their primary feathers
Eastern Rosella young are out of the nest and demanding to be fed.
Muttonbirds lay their eggs on Broughton Island.
This is a good time to collect seeds from the bush.
Grasshopper plagues begin.
Butcherbird young hatch.
Scribbly gums are in flower on Gan Gan Hill.
Antechinus babies are independent.
Wild Parsnip is in flower.

Michael Smith, 1999

Shuffle Shuffle, Gunyah 2012, 
Thomas Hungerford, Kate Brown, Anastasia Freeman, Michelle Genders, Robin Hungerford and Renee Oldfield