After an early wet start in December (cyclone Jasper’s aftermath brought us more than 550mm of rain) and then 2 dry weeks, the monsoon is on its way.

The frogs had their first outing:

swarming termites attracted a Boyd’s Forest Dragon:

Lots of beetles are out and about:

A number of Christmas Beetles also came to our moth light.

And many moths:

The moth sheet was the best it has been for a long time. Maybe the mild winter helped?

It was also a big season for the Red Roarer cicadas -they had an unexpected (i.e. not in sync with their supposedly 7 year cycle)

bumper population. Thankfully it didn’t last very long, 5 weeks of their ‘singing’ at about 85 decibels is quite enough for us.

Another big and noisy cicada is the Double Drummer (Thopha saccata). It was interesting to watch one hatching: