On my walk this morning I passed a tree stump which had come to life with a great variety of fungi, spurred on by a burst of sunshine after a period of rainy weather. When I returned a few hours later, some of the fungi had shrunk, but the others remained as I first saw them, except that now I found additional fungi tucked away between roots or low down close to the grass. I have kept nineteen of the twenty eight shots I took, featuring perhaps up to eight different species of fungi, though were an expert to scrutinize them, the number is likely to be fewer. PS I emailed Nigel Fechner six images on 7.4.25. He identified the species of two fungi, one of which confirmed my identification from specimens in my album, and the genus of three more. I only sent him images of fungi which were not degraded.
Looking out of my spare bedroom window, I was drawn to a sinuous shape on next door’s roof. I realised it was a snake sunning itself and grabbed my camera. The snake lifted its head and cast around to better acquaint itself with its location. I steadied my arm on the window ledge and held my hand to the glass as I zoomed in on the snake, from a distance of some eight metres. The shots revealed a green tree snake. It was quite a large specimen, perhaps 1m 80cm long. After a while it withdrew under the roof where it may have taken refuge to get out of the way of the wind and rain of the cyclone.
On the 17th, I photographed a Yuuca which I had previously seen on my walk. I took up to ten shots, but when I tried to upload them to my laptop, a ‘no data’ message repeatedly appeared on my camera monitor. Somehow, I was able to upload two of the shots, but either the data card or the camera needed replacing. Yesterday I bought a new card and this morning, on my walk, I photographed the plant. In the intervening days it had lost most of its flowers. Crucially all the photos were uploaded to my laptop and I could view them as I took them, which was impossible with the fault. You can imagine how relieved I was not to have to buy a new camera. I kept four of the nine shots I took today. This is the first plant I have added to the ‘Other Flora’ album in nearly two years. I sent the trailer of the archive to a prominent botanist who criticized my project because the flora content was not confined to native species. However, my remit on the mountain’s biodiversity is to include everything that freely grows or moves.
Robyn Law reminded me of a pair of brown gerygone nests she had seen, hanging from a shrub next to a footbridge over a tributary of Plunkett Creek. I drove there this morning to photograph them. The branch was below the walk way, which restricted the angle to an overhead shot. I could not get a photo showing both nests, but had to settle for a picture of each separately. I also had to wait for the breeze which caused the nests to sway incessantly, to die down sufficiently to allow a decent shot. I only saved five out of seventeen photos.
In the afternoon, I took a photo of an Australian white ibis, almost five years ago to the day since I photographed my first white ibis on the mountain, which is also on page one of the Birds album. The bird was foraging in the recently mown grass in the park across the road from my unit. It was feeding in the park the following morning. I normally encounter the species on the coastal strip. I have otherwise only seen the straw-necked ibis up here. The white ibis is widespread across much of Australia and is closely related to the sacred ibis of Africa.
This morning I photographed a green tree frog resting on my garage door. In January 1999, I filmed one on the door of Unit 3. It was among the first animals I filmed. It had snuck under a cobweb which gave the illusion that the presence of the frog had predated that of the cobweb. The species is native to northern and eastern regions of Australia and to the lowlands of New Guinea. It can grow up to 11.5 cm long.
The moment I saw the moth under the eaves of the garage wall in Central Avenue, I knew it was a species I had never seen. I needed my stepladder to photograph it. Miraculously, when I returned today, it had shifted its position to a better angle for the camera. The species has an interesting distribution, being found in southern Africa, Asia and widely in the Pacific islands, including New Caledonia, Fiji and central Polynesia. In Australia the species occurs in Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia. Wingspan is 4 cm.
I had another and better opportunity to photograph a Little pied cormorant at the pond in Driscoll Lane, two years after photographing a juvenile bird there. This is one of Australia’s most common water birds and is found throughout the country. This bird is an adult.
A bit of a fallen twig, some 15 to 18 cm long, with a tiny fungus attached to it, caught my on this morning’s walk. It was lying on some roadside grass. I ended up with three out of nine photos for my image library. It is quite a while since I last photographed a fungus and contacted Nigel Fechner, a noted mycologist. I asked him to hopefully shed some light on what I have found.
This morning I photographed a planthopper on the picket fence in Driscoll Lane. With wings spread, it was no bigger than my thumbnail. Peter Hendry emailed its identity later in the day. It is an Australian species, known as a Passionvine Hopper. It occurs from northern coastal and adjacent inland Queensland to western coastal South Australia and Tasmania. Today’s image is a much closer and clearer shot of the insect, than the one I took at the end of January, which it replaces in my Other Fauna album. I didn’t think I would see the insect again so soon – underlining the benefit of living where I film and photograph, allowing me to get another chance for a sighting and a better shot. Until I encountered this species, the wings of all the planthoppers I have filmed or photographed previously, were folded.