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. 

This morning, I photographed a moth at the garage in Central Avenue, which Peter Hendry promptly identified as an Australian species. For almost a year, moths at this once prolific site, have been few and far between after the owner changed the light bulbs yet again. It was one of three or four moths I saw, attracted by the heat and humidity. I had other moths of the genus in my album, but not this one. Which made the occasion all the more of a red-letter day.

Chris Burwell, emailed me today about the ant. It is a wingless female of a species of wasp in the family Mutillidae, which is carried by the male in order to procreate. It is reckoned that just under 200 Australian species in the family have been described, but the total fauna is probably at least twice this size.

This morning I photographed an ant, new to me, on the metal railing in Driscoll Lane. It proved to be a tricky subject because it was moving so quickly without pausing. It was on the top rail until it descended to the lower rail via a stray wire and became disoriented. Try as it might, it couldn’t find a way to return to the top rail, failing to climb all the way on the wire or on one of the posts. While it was attempting to work out its next move, I was able to grab a single good close up. I googled sites devoted to ants in Queensland and Australia, trawling through hundreds of images without finding a match.