Rare overseas visitor flies into Lake Goldsmith for holiday | Nature Notes

This is the black-tailed godwit, a medium-sized migratory wader from eastern Siberia and northern Mongolia

There is just one bird at Lake Goldsmith, where it has not been seen before.

There are no previous records within 50 kilometres of Ballarat.

Although it is nicely coloured in rusty-orange and black when breeding in Asia, the black-tailed godwit is mostly seen in its plain grey non-breeding plumage when it visits southern Australia in our summer.

In body size it resembles a pied stilt, but it is more robust and has shorter legs and a thicker bill.

The black tail of the bird in the photo is clearly shown, although the bird is browner than most we see in southern Australia.

While common in northern Australia, the black-tailed godwit is uncommon anywhere in Victoria.

There are occasional records from inland and coastal swamps and lagoons.

More common in Victoria - and also rare in the Ballarat region - is the rather similar bar-tailed godwit.

Also reported last month at Lake Goldsmith were two pectoral sandpipers and a curlew sandpiper.

The pectoral sandpiper comes from northern Siberia or far northern America, while the curlew sandpiper is a far northern Siberian bird.

Another rare local waterbird is the glossy ibis. This one is usually seen a couple of times each year from October to December, and November reports came from Lake Goldsmith and Lake Learmonth, with 11 and 10 birds respectively.

This is an Australian-nesting bird, breeding mostly in wetlands in the Murray-Darling system. It is more common in northern Australia than it is in the south.

Lake Learmonth is currently hosting nearly 50 freckled ducks, which is a significant number of this rare bird.

BUTTERFLIES SCARCER

Almost all of our local butterflies are scarcer this season. This includes the usually common species such as painted lady and yellow admiral. The meadow argus is scarce too.

All three of these usually appear in and close to Ballarat.

The caper white, from inland Australia, has hardly appeared at all this year.

Common browns are just starting to be seen for another season. Late November is their usual appearance time, so it remains to be seen whether they too are scarcer than usual. The common brown lives up to its name every summer, rarely varying in numbers from year to year.

The jezebels (spotted and imperial) have both been uncommon. It is too early to comment on numbers of the cabbage white, although it seems to be scarcer.

NATURE QUERIES ANSWERED

Someone said this was kangaroo grass, another said wallaby grass and a third declared it was spear grass. The pretty "together" head has lovely burgundy streaks inside it. This grass grows around and about Haddon Common.J.D., Haddon.

This is a spear-grass, known to botanists as Austrostipa. There are several local similar tall-stemmed species, all of which are very handsome at present, especially when growing in drifts. They have a long fine bristle attached to their sharp narrow seed.

What is this large fleshy blue-black caterpillar? It was crawling along actively at night. M.D., Wendouree.

Your fleshy, hairless caterpillar is one of the cutworms (Agrotis), so-named because they chew off young plants at the base. It comes out at night, staying hidden underground during the day. Most cutworms are not as inky-blue-black as yours. It turns into an insignificant medium-sized brown moth.

• Questions and photos are welcome. Send to Roger Thomas at The Courier, PO Box 21, Ballarat, 3353, or email to rthomas@vic.australis.com.au