About Me

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Canberra-based naturalist, conservationist, educator since 1980. I’m passionate about the natural world (especially the southern hemisphere), and trying to understand it and to share such understandings. To that aim I’ve written several books (most recently 'Birds in Their Habitats' and 'Australian Bird Names; origins and meanings'), and run tours all over Australia, and for 17 years to South and Central America. I've done a lot of ABC radio work, chaired a government environmental advisory committee and taught many adult education classes – and of course presented this blog, since 2012. I am a recipient of the Australian Natural History Medallion, the Australian Plants Award and most recently a Medal of the Order of Australia for ‘services to conservation and the environment’. I live happily in suburban Duffy with my partner Louise surrounded by a dense native garden and lots of birds.

Monday 6 January 2014

Cicada Update

This is an unscheduled posting, prompted by an observation in Nowra again over the weekend. A few weeks ago I discussed cicadas here, after a previous visit there when the dominant - indeed only evident - species there was the hyper-abundant Redeye.

This time I found what appears to be the beginning of the emergence of another species, the magnificent Double Drummer Thopha saccata. I am tempted to use the term 'fearsome' because the volume of sound produced by this one is startling, even relative to the massed choirs of Redeyes. In an area of dry forest my eardrums literally seemed to be vibrating with the sound (well fair enough though, I guess that's what eardrums do!).

My cicada book, M.S. Moulds' Australian Cicadas 1990, describes the song as "Particularly loud... When populations are large the noise is almost unbearable to be near... On very hot days singing continues for many minutes with only occasional momentary breaks." I certainly don't feel inclined to dispute any of that; bird watching was nearly impossible, as I was pretty much unable to hear their calls.
Double Drummer.

The choir gathers; the Redeyes still have the numbers, but two Double Drummers can be seen at the bottom, and a couple more higher up. Soon enough they'll have the majority.
As I've said before though, I can't really begrudge them, as they've only got four weeks to eat, drink, sing and otherwise make merry.

BACK TOMORROW

1 comment:

Susan said...

Holy cow! That is a lot of cicadas, and the Double Drummer looks fab.