Autumn well underway

 Autumn is well underway with wet cold weather driven by powerful east coast lows giving snow above 1500m. Here hasn't been so bad with most of the extreme weather being coastal.

 

A shift in lighting has occurred with short spectacular evenings followed by crisp nights.

Here the moon rises above clouds, the scene tinted by the low sunlight, followed by an overview of Tumut in the NSW Southern Tablelands displaying Autumn colours.

 

 

Below is a case moth caterpillar.

Back in October I found a case moth caterpillar at the start of a late spring.

Both were advanced specimens with cases measuring around 20cm in length.

Both found at the opposing boundaries of winter.

 

 

 

With not much in the way of fresh greens left and a cold winter on the way these caterpillars have a few months before warmer weather affords new growth. They seem to have a number of suitable plant species producing leaves to eat. This may allow winter feeding though all food plants observed so far have been deciduous.