We are experiencing an infestation of European garden snails. They like the wheelie bins we use for garden waste, but are particularly fond of our letterboxes with their paper contents. The contractor who cuts the lawn and trims the hedges left an invoice in my letterbox, the day before bin night, which is the only time I open it because I have a post office box for my mail. There was just enough of the invoice left for me to post it for payment, to our building manager.
Decades after being smitten by a photo of Ayer’s Rock (now named Uluru), I first glimpsed it as we landed at Connellan Airport after flying from Brisbane on October 10. Alas, cloud hid the red centre, which I longed to see. I was travelling with Simon and Nicole. Such family time is all the more precious at my age. Ayer’s Rock Resort is built below the height of the sand dunes, which, with sand plains harbouring salt pans, and the three immense rock outcrops of Uluru, Kata Tjuta and Mount Conner, define this part of Australia. An excellent guide book I bought at Ayer’s Rock Resort cited a dune height of 13 metres, whereas our helicopter pilot quoted 16 metres. Although the terrain is semi-arid, vegetation abounds – mainly mulga and desert oak trees and spinifex grass, with mallee and river red gum trees and various other shrubs and flowering plants – giving the land a pleasingly verdant appearance. Mulga trees and bushes are noted for their ability to collect water, whereas the rolled leaf of spinifex grass reduces the amount of water lost to the atmosphere. Spinifex is not nutritious for stock but it provides a good habitat… Read Complete Text
This morning I photographed a tiny moth at the garage. It was a bit above head high, so I returned with my step ladder after mid-day, by when the moth and the sun had shifted their positions. The moth was still above head high. With the aid of the stepladder, I managed to get closer shots of it. The moth was promptly identified as a male Apple Looper. PS Amazingly, next day, at the same location, I photographed a female. The moths have a wingspan of only 15 mm. PPS Re the 28.9.21 post – this afternoon I used my stopwatch to time walking from the metal railing in Driscoll Lane to my place, opening and closing the padlock at our back gate, picking up my camera three floors up, and driving my car from my garage to the metal railing. I never reckoned how much more than five minutes it would take. I stopped the watch at 9 minutes 6.55 seconds.
It must be Spring, well, really, it’s Driscoll Lane giving of its abundance again. This morning I stopped to admire a beautiful weevil on the metal railing, regretting that I wasn’t carrying my camera. There were two more creatures on the move nearby. One was a gem of a ladybird, the other, a yellow inchworm. I returned with camera and photographed the weevil, but the ladybird was whizzing along, so I turned my attention to it and took several shots, as best I could. By the time I was ready to take more photos of the weevil, it had vanished, so I photographed the inchworm again. The metal railing is proving to be a wonderful resource as a long pathway for small creatures. I reckon it takes more than five minutes for me to return by car with my camera, yet this is the second time in just over a month that I have been able to photograph a subject I saw on my walk when I didn’t have my camera with me. PS The replies from the two experts I consulted were (a) that the inchworm could not be identified beyond the family to which all 23,000 described… Read Complete Text
Around lunchtime I parked at the dry cleaner’s in Upton Street in Surfers Paradise to collect a woollen blanket. As I returned to the car, I couldn’t believe my eyes. The car next but one to mine was a Burgundy Honda HRV, number plate 105 VUV. My car is a silver Honda HRV, number plate 106 VUV. Where were you when you were needed 107 VUV?
In 1987 I came straight from London to Tamborine Mountain in subtropical south east Queensland – some twenty-two kilometres from the Pacific Ocean as the crow flies – and have lived there for the past thirty-four years. I was bowled over by the natural abundance and exuberance of the place — by the brilliant colours of the birds, the size and profuse growth of the vegetation and, above all, the alien beauty of the rainforest. I had not long been here when I visited nearby Lamington National Park and went for a walk on one of its many trails. Someone I happened to tell of my visit, remarked that there were areas in the park where no human foot had trodden.
This had an enormous impact on me, newly arrived from Great Britain, which, according to Paul Theroux, is the most minutely transacted, walked on, documented and recorded spot on the globe. For millennia its land has been bought and sold, mined, built on, fought over, grazed, farmed, re-arranged, hunted on, dug up, charted and mapped. It has been written about in poetry and prose, it has been drawn and painted, photographed and filmed and had music written… Read Complete Text
On the second day of Spring and after 33 mm of overnight rain which came from nowhere, I photographed 3 moths new to the album, a good haul at any time, which Peter Hendry promptly identified. One was a many-plumed moth which has six feather-like fronds on each fore and hind wing. The three previous plume moth species in the album all fold their fronds in the shape of a tightly rolled umbrella. This species fully spreads its wings like a geometrid moth. Various websites quote its wingspan as 1 cm, though the one I photographed could have been up to 1.5 cm. There were plenty of moths attracted by the rain at the garage.
Once again, Driscoll Lane yielded its bounty. Once again, I didn’t have my camera with me on this morning’s walk. I caught sight of a tiny, brilliant white, moving object on the metal handrail. It resembled a scale insect, but was a different shape. I collected my camera and found the insect still on the rail. The first series of photos had too much zoom and weren’t sharp. I returned for a second attempt and turned down the zoom. Unfortunately, the closest shot, while sharp enough, is not centered. PS The next day, my favourite entomologist, who has helped me for years, identified the insect as a mealybug ladybird larva. The brilliant white is caused by a waxy secretion which makes the larva resemble its mealybug prey. The larvae grow to a length of 14-15 mm, the ladybird is up to 6 mm long.
We have had a spell of mild weather in an otherwise cold winter, which brought out a pink-tongued lizard from its unexpected abode, the roof of the garages at my unit block. The next time I looked, it was no longer there. A little later it had re-appeared. It was the brown form, unusual for this species, which typically looks like its close relative, the blue-tongued lizard, with its black and grey banding. The species is quite large, growing to an overall length of 45 cm. It is found in coastal regions from mid New South Wales to the Cairns region in Far North Queensland. I caught sight of its pink tongue only once during 15 minutes or so, of watching it. It looked as if it was re-growing its tail.
I received a prompt reply to the email I sent this morning, from the mycologist who has identified numerous fungi over the years. It is ages since I have photographed or filmed fungi, (in March 2019 actually), but yesterday, as I set off on my walk, I noticed a bracket fungus on a small piece of broken off branch. It was in the park, on the other side of the road in front of my home. So I went inside to retrieve my camera. The email identified the fungus to genus. It contains 41 species which are widely distributed, especially in tropical regions.