Bio-calendar December

Early Summer

(November to late January)

December corresponds with start of the European calendar summer but many plants and animals have already adapted to the warming and drying out of early summer which in reality began in November for much of Victoria.

December is a time for seed development for many plants, there is a transition from the winter flowering eucalyptus to the summer flowering eucalypts. The grasslands are in their prime with forbs and grasses in flower, whilst many native orchids have completed their flowering and have seed developing.

The following list provides an insight to various life stages for some of the native plants and animals in Victoria during December, bearing in mind there will be some variation across different bioregions.  Please contact SWIFFT so we can add to the list.

Threatened fauna

• Ancient Greenling Damselfly Hemiphlebia mirabilis; flight (breeding season) November - February.
• Blue Whale Balaenoptera musculus, in feeding grounds of Portland through to May
• Brolga Grus rubicunda, fledglings leave the nest.
• Common Bent-wing Bat Miniopterus schreibersii, females at maternity caves to give birth to a single young (Dec – Jan).
• Eltham Copper Butterfly Paralucia pyrodiscus lucida, breeding commences late December.
• Fiery Jewel Butterfly Hypochrysops ignitus ignitus; emergence from pupation December-January.
• Golden Sun Moth Synemon plana, active in the hottest part of sunny days to mid December.
• Masked Owl Tyto novaehollandiae, fledglings ready to leave the nest.
• Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo Calyptorhynchus banksi; feeding pattern changes from Brown Stringybark forests to Buloke woodlands.
• Silky Mouse Pseudomys apodemoides; in the Little Desert, peak breeding occurs in late spring and summer which coincides with a climax in flowering and seed production.
• Striped Legless Lizard Delma impar; two eggs can be laid during spring-summer.

Threatened flora

• Adamson's Blown-grass Lachnagrostis adamsonii, flowering
• Button Wrinklewort Rutidosis leptorhynchoides, peak flowering period including November
• Jumping-jack Wattle Acacia enterocarpa; unique seed pods formed.
• Spiny Peppercress Lepidium aschersonii, commencement of flowering through to March.
• Basalt Peppercress Lepidium hyssopifolium, commencement of flowering through to March.

Other native flora & fauna

Fauna

• Koala; females giving birth to cubs (Nov – Jan).
• Little Penguin; chicks developing and ready to leave the nest.
• Bats - start of birthing; Eastern False Pipistrelle, Southern Freetail Bat, White-striped Freetail Bat, Chocolate Wattle Bat, Large Forest Bat.
• Bats - last month of giving birth; Gould's Long-eared Bat, Gould's Wattle Bat, Southern Forest Bat and Little Forest Bat.

Flora

• Mitchell's Wattle Acacia mitchellii; flowering.
• Cherry Ballart starts fruiting in summer.
• Sweet Bursaria flowering begins.

• Contact SWIFFT and contribute to the list.