The rosella is an adaptable little suburbanite

Fortunately, it is not a rare bird in Ballarat, even though its numbers have declined here. It is found particularly in larger gardens, parks and golf courses.

Away from Ballarat, it occurs in open bushland, as well as on country roadsides.

It has managed to survive in Ballarat and suburbs, somehow finding sufficient food and nesting places not already occupied by starlings or other birds.

While its natural food is small seeds taken on the ground, it has adapted to find a variety of other food including weed seeds, berries, fruit, buds and flowers, as well as almost any birdseed provided by local residents. It can be a nuisance in fruit trees.

Eastern rosellas feed on the ground, and in shrubs and trees.

As well as the items already mentioned, they also eat insects, especially grubs found in eucalypts, but also scale insects and grubs in galls.

Seeds of clovers, onion-grass, thistles, capeweed, sorrel, flatweed and other weeds are taken, as well as the fruits of hawthorn and wild roses. Seeds of native trees and shrubs are also eaten.

Such a wide variety of food has no doubt helped eastern rosellas adapt to suburban life.

Studies have found that they prefer to feed on the ground, but feeding in trees is more common in the middle of the day.

A Queensland study found that they tend to feed in shade more often than in the sun, but those results may not necessarily be the same in Ballarat.

While small groups of eastern rosellas are often seen, flocks of more than 10 are rare.

Rosellas are now investigating nesting places. While their natural sites are holes in trees, they readily accept nest boxes. A box 400 or more millimetres deep, with a 65mm hole near the top, should suffice

MAGPIE GEESE

A few magpie geese have been present at Lake Wendouree for a couple of years now. They spend most of their time out on the central mud islands.

Last weekend six of them were spotted in the open grassland of the North Gardens - a new habitat for them. Saturday's rain must have made the area more inviting.

The usual food of magpie geese is rhizomes (fleshy roots) of sedges, as well as grass seeds.

Leaves are mostly eaten when rhizomes and seeds are not available, but perhaps the North Gardens birds tried a brief change while the ground was wet.

NATURE QUERIES ANSWERED

We found this out the front of our block at Bunker's Hill. Do you have any idea what it is?

C. & D. R., Bunker's Hill.

The red fungus-looking mass is raspberry slime mould, named for its resemblance (close up) to raspberry fruits.

The numerous small raspberry-like segments are clustered tightly together and can become a compacted mass 15cm or more wide.

The cluster soon matures into a purplish and then brown mass as it ages and eventually dies.

Tiny individual tube-like segments can be seen more clearly in the later stages.

Slime moulds are not fungi, although they resemble fungi in appearance.

They do not have the hyphae or "root system" of fungi, but rather creep along the surface feeding on microbes as they go.

Like fungi, they reproduce by spores.

• 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