The first cygnets appeared nearly two weeks ago, while the first white ibis chicks hatched even earlier. The ibis chicks can now be heard giving their trilling begging calls from their nests. We can expect more cygnets to appear until December.

The ibises seem to have an even longer nesting season, with first chicks in August, or perhaps even in July. Their season seems to go through until mid-summer.

Welcome swallows were present in small numbers throughout winter. They were joined last month by similar-looking birds known as tree martins, which are just a little smaller, with white rumps. These birds feed on small flying insects over the water, so they will find more food with milder and sunnier conditions.

A surprise visitor to the lake last weekend was a male scarlet robin, another insect-eater. This is a rare and unexpected visitor to the lake. It was probably on its way to find a patch of forest to establish a territory for spring and summer.

The lake's population of freckled ducks seems to be reducing. Perhaps they have moved elsewhere, or they might just have changed location at the lake.

Blue-billed ducks were quite scarce for the past few months, but now they have returned in reasonable numbers again.

A male darter has been sighted recently, as well as reed warblers, great crested grebes and nankeen night-herons.

September is a month of much bird movement at Lake Wendouree. Some waterbirds arrive for spring and summer, while others such as coots often depart to nest elsewhere. Some use the lake as a stopover point for a few days before they continue their journey elsewhere.

Bushbirds are similar. While some come to stay for the next six months, there will be others arriving and staying for just a short time, before moving to other places to breed.

Lake Wendouree's total list of birds over many years is more than 170, indicating its value for birdlife. More than 100 can occur in any one year. It is clearly an important refuge for resident and visiting birds.

Just starting to flower on sunny days are the onion-grasses, introduced here from South Africa because of their attractive pink flowers.

They belong to the iris family, so they are not grasses at all, despite their name.

One has smaller pale pink flowers, while the other has larger flowers of bright magenta-pink.

One morning we found a fluffy black tail in our yard and wondered what it is from. There was no sign of any body, legs or flesh, just this lightweight fluffy and fleshless tail.

V.R., Invermay.

The tail belonged to a sugar glider. While the cause of death is impossible to state, the likely culprits are owl, fox and cat. Sugar gliders rarely descend to the ground, so an owl may be most likely - but both cats and foxes are very agile. The uncommon powerful owl is a possibility at Invermay. Both barn owl and boobook owl are smaller, and would normally take mouse-sized prey, rather than a larger sugar glider.

Like possums, sugar gliders prefer trees, but they may come close to the ground to feed on flowers and moths, making them vulnerable to foxes and cats.