birding-aus

Bird irruptions and cicadas

To: "'Stephen Ambrose'" <>, "'Carl Clifford'" <>, "'Alan Gillanders'" <>
Subject: Bird irruptions and cicadas
From: "Tony Russell" <>
Date: Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:53:37 +1030
I'd have stayed inside !!

Tony


-----Original Message-----
From: 
 On Behalf Of Stephen Ambrose
Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 11:56 AM
To: 'Carl Clifford'; 'Alan Gillanders'
Cc: 'terrill nordstrom'; 
Subject: Bird irruptions and cicadas


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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