Only ten to 15 millimetres across and to about 25 mm tall, it is usually found on bare clay ground on roadside banks or in forest clearings. Sometimes it grows amongst moss.

This toadstool has a couple of common names. Yellow belly-buttons and yellow navel are most common.

As shown in the photo, it usually occurs in groups of a dozen or more, its bright colour and neat form making an attractive picture whenever it is found.

The cap commences umbrella-like, then becomes flat, then finally a shallow funnel shape, with gills obvious and running down the top of the slender but tough stem. The gills are the same colour as the cap.

A close look will usually reveal that yellow navel grows not on completely bare ground, but where there is a fine layer of green algae.

Another similar species is dull orange.

The fungi season has lasted longer than usual this year. We can expect to find fungi until dry weather stops their growth and dries them up. Even then, there will be some species appearing in springtime, as they do each year.

Like wildflowers, many of the fungi have their main appearance time, with some having longer seasons and others shorter.

More books and other publications support the increasing interest in fungi. Digital photography is helping to increase the interest, too.

One of the stranger Australian bird names is emu-wren. Similar in size and shape to a common blue wren or fairy-wren, the emu-wren has unusual tail-feathers - rather like the feathers of an emu, hence the name.

The southern emu-wren was one of more than 40 bird species recently found by Ballarat Birdlife members in the Anglesea district. It is not a common bird, and is seldom easy to see, so the sighting was a highlight of the day.

The male southern emu-wren has a blue throat, but is not as brightly coloured as the fairy-wrens. There are only six of the unusual tail-feathers (10 in blue wrens), and the tail is nearly twice as long as the bird's body.

The emu-wren is a resident, living in the same general area all year round. Its preferred habitat is near-coastal heathy and reedy vegetation, although it is not regarded as a true coastal bird. It has never been seen in the Ballarat district.

Over winter we have noticed many pairs of crimson rosellas feeding quietly on the gravel edge of the road. Are they feeding on seeds, or gravel, or something else?

S.J. Eganstown.

Roadside feeding is certainly a popular winter activity for crimson rosellas.

These parrots would most likely be feeding on fine gravel, which they use for digestion.

People keeping parrots in captivity are sometimes advised to add fine gravel to their birds' diet for the same reason, although some experts say that gravel is not a necessary addition for parrots.

There would be very little seed available on the edges of bitumen roads at this time of the year, because summer and autumn are the main seeding times.