Our visit to Joalah National Park was the first night filming since November 27 last year. In the last week or so, after a dry Summer, the weather has become wetter, though nothing like the flooding rains of recent years. The night was perfect. The insects and frogs, enlivened by the recent rain, were in full voice. We saw plenty of Great Barred Frogs, many spiders, some snails, possums, a bedraggled butterfly, a lone male harvestman, but no Leaf-tailed Geckos or semi-slugs. What saved the night was filming two Swift Ghost Moths, an exquisite species I first filmed on February 21 last year. Somehow a third specimen materialised much higher up the path on our way back. The moth has no proboscis, therefore cannot feed and may only last a day.
Today, I collected my camera from the repairer, having dropped it off on 19 December last year, and filmed with it for the first time since 15 December. My subject was 2 Cyana meiricki moth larvae in their cages before the cocoon stage. The larvae make the cages out of their own long hairs. The cages were made within the last two days.
This evening we went to Joalah National Park for the first time this season. It was on the cool side after the first rain in weeks. There were plenty of native cockroaches, some millipedes, a female Harvestman, a dragonfly, spiders and a snail. We saw two eels in the pool below Curtis Falls, one moderately sized, the other small. None of which I filmed. The highlight was filming a large Carpet Python partly stretched out on and partly coiled around, a bit of tree some 60cm off the ground. I also filmed a butterfly resting on a leaf.
To make full sense of this post, you will need to read the previous post first. What a difference 2 days make. I recalled a daylight photo of a semi-slug my friend Louise Piper sent me which looked like Cucularion parkini. It was taken on her letterbox about 200 metres from one of the entrances to Palm Grove. I had lost the photo, so asked Louise to re-send it. Whereupon I emailed it to John. I got his reply this morning confirming it was none other than his 1998 discovery. Louise’s photo predates my first encounter by 18 months, so we now have a new second sighting of a mollusc still apparently confined to the mountain.
The latest email exchange with mollusc expert John Stanisic, who has identified the various snails I have filmed, concluded on a most interesting note this morning. I had sent him 3 nocturnal frames of Semi-slugs on September 27 to which I received a reply yesterday, confirming one identification and requesting further information on the other frames which he stated were both of the same species. I promptly replied, telling him that I had filmed the two in Palm Grove National Park, the first in November 2011, the second in March 2012. Whereat he quickly responded with the identification. He had momentarily forgotten that I only film on Tamborine Mountain. On googling the species, Cucularion parkini (Semi-slug 2 on page 2 of the Night Life album) I found out that it was discovered by John in The Knoll National Park on Tamborine Mountain and written up in 1998, the year I began my video biodiversity artwork. I then sent John a congratulatory email and asked if the mollusc had been found anywhere else since. Which brings us to this morning’s email in which John declared that our sightings were the only others recorded. A true, only on the mountain and nowhere… Read Complete Text
It was third time lucky after filming was postponed from Wednesday to Thursday and then to Friday. Insects were to the fore in The Knoll National Park and little else, due to a strong, cool wind brought about by a change in the weather. First there were 3 moths on a leaf, two of them mating and oblivious to the effects of the breeze. Dan found a small insect with a greater ratio of body length to antennae length than any I recall filming. I ended up with surreal shots of disembodied antennae waving in vegetation. Amanda found a Net-casting Spider at a good angle for filming. The wind blew the net in and out of focus. Anxious to show Amanda one of our famous male Harvestmen we searched every inch of their rocky habitat to no avail. We did see a less spectacular female on the move and I filmed a Harvestman new to us which Dan found in our search. This was a fitting conclusion to our 90th night shoot of the series.
For a combination of reasons, among which was un-Spring-like weather, we did not start our night filming season until the 14th of November last year. Happily Spring has carried on from the warm and sunny August, the first in years, so we enjoyed our first night shoot of the new season. And we were richly rewarded by the abundance of possums in MacDonald National Park, which had been worst hit of all the parks by ex cyclone Oswald and had taken months to reopen. We saw Ring-tail Possums at the park entrance. The first creature I filmed was another Brown Huntsman, but Dan, who is a spider expert, pointed out that its distinctive banding indicated that it had just moulted. Then, I filmed a female Short-eared Brushtail Possum, close to the path and beautifully placed for the camera, with a youngster in its pouch. Deep into the park, we came across another Short-eared, this one with its young on its back, again, beautifully positioned for filming. Finally, close to the end of the circuit, Dan saw a rodent at the junction of the base of a tree trunk and its ground roots, with nowhere to go, allowing me to… Read Complete Text
On my walk I was brought up short by the sight of an Eastern Water Dragon sunning itself on a rock which becomes submerged after heavy rain forms a pond in an otherwise dry creek bed which it was today. I returned with my camera but the metallic sound of my tripod on footpath, alarmed the reptile, which promptly dropped over the edge of the rock. I set up the camera and waited. I was just explaining what I was after to a couple I know who were strolling past with their dogs, when I caught sight of the Water Dragon clinging to the side of the rock. It didn’t budge and I filmed away. Unfortunately it was alarmed by another passerby and the filming came to an abrupt end.
PS Although I saw it the next day, a doctor’s appointment prevented me from returning with my camera until the day after, by which time it had apparently moved on, because I did not see it again.
What with the website still not finished and the 100+ flora and fauna videos to do, I have not filmed for 2 months. The yardman who looks after some shops near my home, showed me what I believe is a Striped Marsh Frog, hibernating under a stone. The first such frog I filmed was also hibernating. I returned with my camera. After a few minutes the frog twitched a few times before deciding it needed to find a better hiding place in some adjoining bracken.
This was our last night shoot for the 2012/13 season and the 88th in the series. There wasn’t much doing. I filmed a Leaf-tailed Gecko with what seemed distinctive colouring (which viewing the footage will confirm or refute), a fine Stick Insect and an earth worm. I have been told that the rainforest earth worms are a different species to the garden variety.