Two days ago, I phoned the Queensland Museum to speak to the person in charge of the Museum’s images, having last spoken to him at the start of the pandemic, when I was advised to delay updating my Image Library. The Museum’s images had still not been put online. The person I spoke to was no longer at the Museum. I left a message for his successor and spoke to her yesterday. She wasn’t aware of my Image Library, a rather unsettling admission, but found the Deed of Gift. She is now waiting for me to update the Library, which I began doing today, starting with transferring the 246 video frames of Stills 24 to my Image Library folder and creating and writing a new data document, listing subject matter with species identification and location. Ahead is writing data documents for all the photos I have taken from the beginning of 2019 to the end of 2021.
This morning, I resumed filming a native tree in flower, having been thwarted by rain a few days ago. It is the first time I have filmed anything since September. In the interval, the tree was unfortunately in a more depleted state. I had noticed it on my walk. Not only was it a pretty plant, it was also attractive to native bees, which are stingless and tiny compared with the European honey bee, also present at the tree along with several ants. In order to be able to film again, I had to buy a new battery, because the two I bought with the camera had given up the ghost.
I delivered an order for five books from the Vice President of the Lamington Natural History Association, after she emailed me about stocking the book in the Binna Burra visitor information centre. I phoned her right away and she was so complimentary about the book. She lives in Beechmont and I brought the books to her house. It is ages since I have driven to Beechmont, another of those alluring upland settlements of which the mountain is the most northerly.
Today was an exceptional day for moths at the garage. I replaced a moth already in my album with a better close up I photographed this morning and added a better close up of another moth only identified to genus. Plus, I photographed two moths new to my album, one of which has so far eluded identification.
The other day Nicole emailed an itinerary with the latest round of Qantas Link deals from Brisbane to Longreach. The prices have reverted to pre-covid levels. Having run dates in late March past Simon & Nicole and being given the go-ahead, I today booked my flights, which cost over $200 less than the last two tickets.
This morning I photographed a moth which looked both familiar and unfamiliar. Too often, faced with this situation, the conundrum is resolved by species variability. But on this occasion, the moth was the same genus, but a different species to the one already in my album.
I didn’t have to wait long to photograph a new moth at the garage. Indeed, I photographed two. The first moth flew away when I returned for a better shot, but then I noticed a second moth which I photographed instead, but realised that I needed my stepladder, which I duly fetched and used. I thought I already had the first moth, but wasn’t sure. The expert confirmed that both are new.
Yesterday, I photographed possibly unprecedented multiple satin bowerbird bowers, at the same location where, in August 2019, I photographed extremely rare twin bowers. The sun shining through the surrounding vegetation resulted in photos with excessive contrast. I returned today and benefited from the even light provided by cloud cover. The builder had erected a line of four bowers, plus a bower behind the one on the right. The amount of decoration is around the average or a bit less for a single bower, which was the case when there were only two bowers on the site.
I live in hope of finding new moths at the garage. This morning I photographed what looked like a moth species new to my album, only to have the expert identify it as an existing species, but one which is notoriously variable. A few days ago, I photographed a moth which I knew I had, but this time was able to take a much better shot, which is always most satisfying.
The lockdown officially ended on October 22. Between June 16 and July 30, I shipped 9 books to library suppliers, but I logged more orders than that by phone. I suspect some libraries did not follow through nor could I get clear answers about which library I was actually supplying. There is little point in resuming contact with libraries there, until the New Year.