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.

 

 

 

Finds while doing a little gardening

The frosts have stopped at last and so a little gardening was planned this afternoon.

Two interesting creatures were found in the process of cleaning up for planting.

The first is a Case Moth ( pictured below).

This little guy is of the family Clania Lewinni - the stick case moth an, although it favours gum leaves was found munching happily of a Raspberry bush.

Below is an arachnid ( and one of my favorites)

It is a Wolf Spider and this is crowded commuting taken to the max.

The mother will carry these spiderlings on her back and is most protective of them.

It was difficult getting this shot as she was very camera shy.

The weather continues to warm with storm chasing the flavour of the month.

Hopefully I will have some good lightning shots posted soon.