Tanya Loos
It has been a particularly tough summer – we had that strange dry lightening storm that went for hours, the threat of bushfires and above all an interminable lack of rain. I went to Queensland for a week and I was so pleased to see and feel a distinct shift in the seasons upon my return, with cold nights, the sky a softer blue, the European leaves turning red and yellow – and changes in our local fauna – despite the ongoing drought!
You may see tiny skinks no longer than your thumb moving rapidly away from you as you walk around your garden or in the forest. In autumn, the sweet little garden skinks that have bred over summer have hatched. Each female lays about five eggs, but they use communal nests which may have up to a 100 eggs!
Now that breeding season is over, brightly coloured male Superb Fairy-wrens are moulting into the non-breeding plumage – also call eclipse plumage. After a messy looking transition the males will look very much like females, except their tails remain quite blue and around their faces are darker in colour rather than rufous like the females.
One of my favourite autumn happenings are the tiny microbats foraging before dark! Last night, travelling to Hepburn to pick up a delicious pizza, I spotted a tiny bat foraging against the glowing dusk sky above Main Road. Microbats are eating as much as they can before the cold weather hits, including before it is truly dark. This is so they can enter their winter torpor period with a nice healthy layer of fat.
And you may notice our gardens and forests are a little quieter – this is because the breeding period has finished, and many of our spring-summer migrants such as Olive-backed Orioles and Sacred Kingfishers have returned up north.
One bird who is in the area is the wonderful Gang-gang Cockatoo – small families of charismatic cuties may be seen feasting on the ripe Hawthorn berries along the Midland Highway and in Hepburn Regional Park.
Very much hoping we have some rain for the Autumn fungi season!
Tanya Loos is a local naturalist, author and environmental consultant who loves to work in the environmental not-for-profit sector. She is the author of “Daylesford Nature Diary” available from her website or from Paradise Books in Vincent Street, Daylesford.
Have you got any nature questions for Tanya? Send them in!
