Not bird-related - but still an interesting natural history observation
anyway:
The lawned area around our holiday cabin near Manning Point on the NSW
Mid-North Coast was swarming with hundreds of scorpions on the night of 3
January 2010, after 5 days of heavy rain. Each scorpion was running around
randomly in all directions, tails erect and opening/closing their
pincer-like palps. This was observed only on that one night in the 14 nights
that we stayed there and I was wondering if what we saw was a scorpion
mating frenzy in response to the rains. The lawn was on the edge of a narrow
belt of littoral rainforest. I don't know for certain the identity of the
scorpion species, but when discussing this observation on another internet
forum someone suggested it was a Marbled Scorpion (Lychas marmoreus).
As mentioned in a previous email, there were also lots of calling cicadas
for the entire time we were there, which Little Wattlebirds were feeding on.
Stephen Ambrose
Ryde, NSW
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of Carl Clifford
Sent: Wednesday, 13 January 2010 11:51 AM
To: Alan Gillanders
Cc: terrill nordstrom;
Subject: Bird irruptions and cicadas
It would be nice to be able to obtain "tuneable" noise reduction head-
phones so you could tune out the Cicada drone and still be able to
pick up bird song.
I have noticed that there are a lot of Cicada Killer Wasps around this
year.
Carl Clifford
On 13/01/2010, at 10:22 AM, Alan Gillanders wrote:
Greetings,
I remain unconvinced about what happens to the birds during cicada
peak events.
We have remnant patches of rainforest surrounded by grass. Where do
the specialists go? The neighbouring forests are just as noisy. Birds
are hard to find in these conditions, the noise is sometimes so loud
as to be unpleasant or even painful and so the birders leave, creating
an impression of fewer birds. This is something I'll have out with Max
Moulds when I track him down.
Regards,
Alan
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