OCTOBER

I had the privilege of watching - with family members - a gargantuan storm front to the north-east, last Saturday night. There were several stacked pink-grey cumulonimbus clouds, wracked by lightening, that gradually moved towards the coast. It was formidable. Younger members of my family either freaked out and ran inside my house, or scaled a ladder and video taped the storm's Academy Award winning performance.

Last week, after dark, at Gambells Rest, I lured a trapdoor spider from its deep burrow with a leaf tip. The beastie was thicker-set than I thought it would be. I'm not sure if I've seen a live trapdoor before. The spider back-peddled when it realised there was no prey and it was exposed.

A Dollarbird and a White-throated Gerygone were calling close to home, yesterday, in sterling summer weather. I've only heard gerygones in the cow and roo paddocks next to Ferndale Reserve.

When barbecuing in the backyard on Saturday evening, I found a black praying mantis, about four millimetres long. I didn't think God made them that small.

It seems the morning frosts are gone. Earlier in the year, a Wingello resident who dropped off a ute tray-load of firewood to me, said he remembered frosts from his childhood that used to hang about until midday. He wondered whether global warming had changed things. I think 9:30am has been the latest I've seen frost in Bundy.

Waiting for my 130th Bundy bird species to show itself. Will it be an Eastern Shrike-tit, Straw-necked Ibis, White-naped Honeyeater, Glossy Black-cockatoo, Brown Falcon or Nankeen Kestrel? Paradise Parrot? Or something completely unexpected?

LJ, 31 October 2011.