Thankfully Mark’s Easter school holiday ran to a second week and it was as if normal service had been resumed when we filmed in Palm Grove. The air was still and mild. The exceptional haul was found within 500 metres of the park entrance, starting with a beautiful green beetle, followed by a flat worm (only the third I have filmed), a Sooty Owl (the first, a rare find) and the largest Stick Insect I have filmed at night. PS The Sooty Owl turned out to be an also rare Marbled Frogmouth which I had not seen or filmed before.

This was our first night filming since the 4^th of March and the one before that was on the 4^th of February. I just cannot muster a crew now that Hugh is no longer available and Mark only during school holidays. The time when we filmed every week, weather permitting, is becoming a distant memory. But enough of regretting lost opportunities. Tonight Mark was on holiday. I filmed a number of moths and a tiny frog. The glow worms were more abundant than at any other time this season. After substantial rainfall over Easter I wondered whether there would be sufficient water in the pool below the bridge over Sandy Creek for us to see the eel. No sooner had I expressed the hope than Mark caught sight of it. It didn’t like the spotlight and stayed under the bridge.

Our 114^th night filming walk was the first in exactly four weeks, thanks to a combination of rainy weather and the difficulty of finding a crew. Mark & Hugh are no longer regularly available and a new-comer cried off last week. Ideally I would like to film at night once a week during the season (from mid September to mid May).  This evening we returned to Palm Grove where I filmed a tiny snail on a palm leaf, a cage built by a moth larva in which it pupates and a pair of mating katydids. Valerie’s Austin Bug Collection website provides a succinct account of an act which appears to be quite secretive and which she has never seen. “The male transfers a large jelly-like mass called a spermatophore to the female. This has two parts: a small packet of sperm which is inserted into the female followed by a larger glob of nutritious gel, a nuptial gift that the female consumes to help with egg production.” For the statistically minded, this is my 350th post.

As the media is fond of reporting, the Gold Coast and its hinterland dodged a bullet as ex-cyclone Marcia veered out to sea instead of continuing its overland deluge southwards. The more than 200 mm of rain that fell on the mountain in a little more than 2 days was but a vigorous glancing blow. Yesterday I collected the camera from Steve. He was able to capture the six tapes, the time-coded DVDs of which I hope to pick up later this week. We agreed that I should use my back-up camera for establishing shots. Today I filmed more butterflies and used the back-up camera to film wide shots of the flowering vine which attracts them. I also used it to reprise wide shots of a small flowering plant growing out of the trunk of a maple tree and to re-shoot a definitive garden shed.

We started tonight’s shoot in The Knoll at the regular time. While still in the picnic area I filmed a 2 ½ metre Carpet Python slowly on the move. It looked as if it had almost recovered from its latest meal. The night was mild and there was much to see if not to film. We had just begun our return when for the first time ever we saw an eel in the pool beyond the bridge over Sandy Creek. Our previous night walk in the park was little over a month ago, just after rain had revitalised the rainforest, but the pool was almost without water and the creek was little more than a trickle. Further rain, culminating in over 200 mm in two days a week ago, had transformed the scene. But mystery surrounds the sudden presence of the eel which was a good metre long, indicating that it must have been in these waters for a considerable time.

Dan and I checked Joalah for bats during the past year or two, Dan as recently as a few months ago.  The camp had moved on, until Dan saw bats returning to roost at about 3 am during our midnight walk. Today I returned to Joalah to check the situation. In the past one could smell the bats from quite a distance. This time I saw them almost as soon as I smelt them. They were nearer the bridge over the creek than previously, still hanging from the tops of palms some 50 to 60 feet above the ground. Until I check the footage I won’t know if I have better close ups than first time round. Still, it is good to know the bats (Grey-headed Flying Foxes) are back.

For over 2 years I wanted to begin a night filming walk at midnight to see if there was any noticable change in the line-up of creatures we saw. Realistically one walk could not be conclusive. Dan and his partner Amanda had agreed to participate which effectively meant scheduling the walk during school holidays. The year before last they were travelling which limited their availability. Last year I was without my camera for the duration of the holidays and beyond. Postponed from January 12 due to rain, our first and probably only midnight walk after 110 walks starting at 7.30 pm, occurred today. We chose Joalah because that is where the sequence of filming the rainforest at night began. It was appropriate that Jaap joined us because he was on the very first walk. The night was hot and sticky. After good recent rain and current warm temperatures, distressed rainforest was a receding memory. The midnight start in a way meant recommencing the record. Accordingly I decided to  film creatures of which I already have sufficient footage, such as a Spiny Rainforest Katydid, a Brown Huntsman Spider, a Leaf-tailed Gecko, Giant Water Spiders, a Long-finned Eel and a Net-Casting Spider…. Read Complete Text

Last week, with Mark back spotlighting because it is school holiday time, I copped the first leech of the current season, where else but in Palm Grove. I filmed an Eastern Small-eyed Snake on the move, a female scale insect, larger than the one I filmed in 2010 and round not elongated, plus a new lacewing. Tonight we returned to Joalah with an outsize party of nine consisting of 7 crew members and two guests of Jaap’s. For the same reason that Mark was spotlighting, Dan was back carrying the tripod and using his young eyes and his zoological  training to great effect. The night was hot and humid and after yet more rain the ground was soft. Jaap spotted another of the round scale insects, smaller than last week’s. We saw so many creatures – eels, a catfish, Giant Water Spiders, snails, millipedes, a large caterpillar, glow worms, a snake, beetles, a stick insect nymph, a Short-eared Possum. But the highlight for me was filming a Powerful Spiny Crayfish, a creature I had never seen, which Dan discovered walking along the path near Curtis Falls. With its 15 cm body length and menacing claws, it is appropriately named…. Read Complete Text

We suspended night filming on 5 November because of increasing lack of fauna due to the distressed state of the rainforest through lack of rain. This evening was our 107^th foray. We were in the Knoll and for the first time in nearly two years Jaap was with us, spotlighting. The night was warm and sticky. Though it was dry under foot, the amount of rain we received in the past week or two was sufficient to liven things up, (last Wednesday evening was fine, but alas, I couldn’t raise a crew). Thus we saw any number of Great Barred Frogs, two Leaf-tailed Geckos, an echidna foraging off the track, two Pink-tongued Lizards, lots of orb and trapdoor spiders and much else.

I spoke to Chris Burwell this morning. He has just returned to work after a holiday. He wanted another shot of the dragonfly to pin point the attribution and having looked at it he phoned to confirm that the dragonfly is an Australian Emerald. (See FILM DIARY 1 November 2014).