The bird was feeding in flowering mistletoes on wattles, and it also spent time on the ground, apparently searching for food there as well.

The spiny cheeked honeyeater is almost the size of a wattlebird.

Its unusual name refers to short, slightly spiky feathers on the side of its face, but these are hard to see in the wild.

More noticeable features are the dull orange throat and chest, a bicoloured pink bill with a black tip and a grey rump. The eye is blue, an unusual colour for birds.

The last known report in the Ballarat district was in the 1990s, when one frequented a flowering tree at Creswick Nursery for a few days.

There were only a couple of local reports prior to that. All have been in autumn and winter.

The spiny cheeked honeyeater is mostly an inland bird of mallee scrubs, but there is also a small population along the coast in central Victoria, including the Bellarine Peninsula.

There are occasional reports from Lethbridge, but the bird does not normally visit higher altitudes such as Ballarat.

It is a vocal bird, frequently giving various unhurried rolling, gurgling and clicking notes. The bird is usually first noticed because of its calls.

It seems to feed on berries from mistletoes and other plants as much as it does on nectar from flowers.

A recently received photo of a small bright blue toadstool from Woowookarung Regional Park at Canadian shows the amazingly-coloured pixie's parasol fungus.

With a cap smaller than a five cent coin, this is a tiny toadstool. It grows mostly on damp wood and is usually damp or glossy on top. It normally grows in small colonies, although the recent photo shows just one.

Both the cap and the stem are rather brittle. The stem is white, sometimes with a tinge of blue.

It belongs to the group of Mycena fungi. There are many different sorts of these, found in a wide range of colours, but very few of them are blue.

The blue "pixie's parasol" is a favourite of photographers. It is more common in Tasmania than it is in Victoria.

The fungi season has been a long one this year, and is expected to continue for most of June.

Photographers have been having a busy time discovering and identifying the many different species.

Another recent Woowookarung photo shows an attractive pink one, perhaps another of the Mycena group.

We would like to build a box for rosellas to nest in. Can you give us some advice?

D & A. A, Golden Point.

Eastern rosellas like a fairly deep box, at least 400mm deep. The entrance should be about 65mm wide. This may also attract crimson rosellas and rainbow lorikeets.

The box needs to be about 150-200mm square. Place about 50mm of small woodchips in the bottom to act as a bed for the eggs and chicks.

Natural hollows would have rotted wood or similar material in the bottom.

The inside front panel, below the hole, needs to be rough enough to enable young rosellas to climb up to the hole when they become large enough to leave the box. This can be done by making saw slots, by nailing a small "ladder", or attaching some wire mesh.