There has been a marked shortage of moths at the garage this season. It could be due to a cool, dry Spring. I did photograph three moths a month ago, but no others until stormy weather set in a few days back and even then numbers were far fewer than after comparable rain periods. Today I photographed three moths and emailed images for Peter Hendry to identify.

Thwarted by the weather a week ago while trying to benefit from Mark and Dan’s  availability during school holidays, we managed to do our first night filming of the new season. Robyn completed the party. Mark had opted for The Knoll National Park. The night was exquisitely still, if a little cool. During the day storms had raged to the North but spared the mountain. There was little activity except for a lone possum, some tube and trapdoor spiders and  a few snails. The only subject worth filming was a group comprising a semi-slug and two snails eating a fungus. At one point the antennae of all three were twitching in the same shot.

In the morning I filmed a male Satin Bowerbird tending its bower in a bushland garden belonging to friends of mine. At one point a female appeared and I got brief footage of the two of them. In the afternoon I was on one of my regular visits to the ‘bird feeding’ garden and filmed Little Corellas, a galah and a Blue-faced Honeyeater.

Days when I film a new bird species are few and far between. The previous occasion was in April this year when I filmed a Marbled Frogmouth. On my rain-interrupted walk I noticed a bird I took to be a Topknot Pigeon feeding in a nearby garden whose owner provides food for large numbers of a variety of birds. I had heard about but never seen the pigeon (the sighting was confirmed when I consulted my Slater’s Field Guide to Australian Birds). The pigeon was fortunately around when I returned with my camera and I filmed it for say 30 seconds give or take, resolving to try again in the afternoon. This I did, but the pigeon was a no show. However I managed to add to my footage of Crested Doves and Blue-faced Honeyeaters before filming some Little Corellas, a species which I had seen on the coast but never on the mountain. They look like a smaller version of the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, but with less pronounced, white crests. I can’t recall when I last filmed two new bird species in one day.

It’s amazing what difference a bit of rain can make. Moths and fungi appear as if from nowhere, even in winter. I filmed both at the garage in Central Avenue, the first time I have filmed fungi there. They were small and grey, growing in a cluster through the gravel. It was good to get back behind the camera after my trip and given the winter slow down in activity.

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.