I saw the bird on my walk this morning, swimming in the dam, then much depleted, which forms in the paddock next to Driscoll Lane after persistent rain. I knew I had never seen it before and that, as it swam, it looked so unlike the few ducks who were also in the water; even more so when I photographed it on the bank, at up to 28 times optical zoom. The bird was an immature Little Pied Cormorant, lacking the white above the eye of the adult. It is one of Australia’s most common water birds and is found throughout the country. PS I saw it swimming and diving next day, the dam level having sharply risen after overnight rain. Its dive took it a fair distance underwater. I didn’t have my camera with me.

This morning I photographed a female goliath beetle, aptly named, at the garage and emailed a photo to the Curator of Entomology at the Queensland Museum who has been so helpful and supportive for many years. He identified a female in 2016, but I think this is a different species. In reply to an email I sent him last week which included a fetching photo of a ladybird with raindrops on its body, he disarmingly asked if I would mind if he passed on the image to the beetle worker who literally wrote the book on this group of ladybird beetles in the Australo-Pacific region? I replied that I would be honoured.

This morning, I resumed filming a native tree in flower, having been thwarted by rain a few days ago. It is the first time I have filmed anything since September. In the interval, the tree was unfortunately in a more depleted state. I had noticed it on my walk. Not only was it a pretty plant, it was also attractive to native bees, which are stingless and tiny compared with the European honey bee, also present at the tree along with several ants. In order to be able to film again, I had to buy a new battery, because the two I bought with the camera had given up the ghost.

Today was an exceptional day for moths at the garage. I replaced a moth already in my album with a better close up I photographed this morning and added a better close up of another moth only identified to genus. Plus, I photographed two moths new to my album, one of which has so far eluded identification.

This morning I photographed a moth which looked both familiar and unfamiliar. Too often, faced with this situation, the conundrum is resolved by species variability. But on this occasion, the moth was the same genus, but a different species to the one already in my album.

I didn’t have to wait long to photograph a new moth at the garage. Indeed, I photographed two. The first moth flew away when I returned for a better shot, but then I noticed a second moth which I photographed instead, but realised that I needed my stepladder, which I duly fetched and used. I thought I already had the first moth, but wasn’t sure. The expert confirmed that both are new.

Yesterday, I photographed possibly unprecedented multiple satin bowerbird bowers, at the same location where, in August 2019, I photographed extremely rare twin bowers. The sun shining through the surrounding vegetation resulted in photos with excessive contrast.  I returned today and benefited from the even light provided by cloud cover. The builder had erected a line of four bowers, plus a bower behind the one on the right. The amount of decoration is around the average or a bit less for a single bower, which was the case when there were only two bowers on the site.

I live in hope of finding new moths at the garage. This morning I photographed what looked like a moth species new to my album, only to have the expert identify it as an existing species, but one which is notoriously variable. A few days ago, I photographed a moth which I knew I had, but this time was able to take a much better shot, which is always most satisfying.

This morning I photographed a tiny moth at the garage. It was a bit above head high, so I returned with my step ladder after mid-day, by when the moth and the sun had shifted their positions. The moth was still above head high. With the aid of the stepladder, I managed to get closer shots of it. The moth was promptly identified as a male Apple Looper. PS Amazingly, next day, at the same location, I photographed a female. The moths have a wingspan of only 15 mm. PPS Re the 28.9.21 post – this afternoon I used my stopwatch to time walking from the metal railing in Driscoll Lane to my place, opening and closing the padlock at our back gate, picking up my camera three floors up, and driving my car from my garage to the metal railing. I never reckoned how much more than five minutes it would take. I stopped the watch at 9 minutes 6.55 seconds.

It must be Spring, well, really, it’s Driscoll Lane giving of its abundance again. This morning I stopped to admire a beautiful weevil on the metal railing, regretting that I wasn’t carrying my camera. There were two more creatures on the move nearby. One was a gem of a ladybird, the other, a yellow inchworm. I returned with camera and photographed the weevil, but the ladybird was whizzing along, so I turned my attention to it and took several shots, as best I could. By the time I was ready to take more photos of the weevil, it had vanished, so I photographed the inchworm again. The metal railing is proving to be a wonderful resource as a long pathway for small creatures. I reckon it takes more than five minutes for me to return by car with my camera, yet this is the second time in just over a month that I have been able to photograph a subject I saw on my walk when I didn’t have my camera with me. PS The replies from the two experts I consulted were (a) that the inchworm could not be identified beyond the family to which all 23,000 described… Read Complete Text