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Film Diary / 13.02.2023

This morning, I photographed a moth at the garage in Central Avenue, which Peter Hendry promptly identified as an Australian species. For almost a year, moths at this once prolific site, have been few and far between after the owner changed the light bulbs yet again. It was one of three or four moths I saw, attracted by the heat and humidity. I had other moths of the genus in my album, but not this one. Which made the occasion all the more of a red-letter day.

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My Travels / 30.01.2023

Today I paid for my return flight from Brisbane to San Francisco and a deposit on the 14 day small group tour visiting, inter alia, Zion Canyon, Monument Valley, The Grand Canyon, Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks. The tour will involve a fair amount of walking. Travel between destinations will be in a mini-bus. Yosemite had been a goal of mine for decades; Monument Valley for nearly as long.

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Film Diary / 10.01.2023

Chris Burwell, emailed me today about the ant. It is a wingless female of a species of wasp in the family Mutillidae, which is carried by the male in order to procreate. It is reckoned that just under 200 Australian species in the family have been described, but the total fauna is probably at least twice this size.

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Film Diary / 04.01.2023

This morning I photographed an ant, new to me, on the metal railing in Driscoll Lane. It proved to be a tricky subject because it was moving so quickly without pausing. It was on the top rail until it descended to the lower rail via a stray wire and became disoriented. Try as it might, it couldn’t find a way to return to the top rail, failing to climb all the way on the wire or on one of the posts. While it was attempting to work out its next move, I was able to grab a single good close up. I googled sites devoted to ants in Queensland and Australia, trawling through hundreds of images without finding a match.