With more people out and about, exploring their neighbourhoods during coronavirus lockdowns, Nature Notes columnist Roger Thomas has had a busy year helping identify the amazing things they've spotted.
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A stalwart Courier contributor, his column has been going for 30-something years, by his estimate, "and it's not likely to stop in a hurry".
We sat down with Mr Thomas to find out his highlights from an unusual year, from weird fungi to flocks of corellas setting up shop in the middle of town.
"I'm sure there's more engagement with the surroundings, that's why I've been getting extra contacts and questions," he said.
"There have been more emails, including people, presumably on lockdown, who contacted me from Canberra, Bairnsdale...
"I've been impressed with the quality of readers' photos, I've had three different photos this year of hawks in backyards, for example, and they're pretty hard to photograph, but they were good enough for me to identify - brown goshawk, collared sparrowhawk, things like that.
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"It's not just telling their neighbours they've seen a hawk, they want to know its name."
What has been interesting as well are the places people have spotted wildlife, he said - it's not just all backyards, he said.
"There's been a bit sprinkled through the year about the Woowookarung Regional Park at Canadian, there were spring wildflowers, a powerful owl nesting nearby, and a square-tail kite," he said.
"It's interesting, Woowookarung is now a regional park - it's always been there, but it's got that title, so more people are going there and seeing things and enjoying it.
"I reckon it's really interesting that the Canadian Forest, as they used to call it, was always there, but now it has a new title and Parks Victoria have taken it over to develop it nicely and sensitively, so people are starting to appreciate it, which is tremendous.
"The Yarrowee River has been popular, from Gong Gong down to Sebas, and Victoria Park and the lake have been just chockers."
BIRDS
"The Cape Barren Goose - he's still there, he's been there all year.
"There were a couple of hundred little corellas right in the middle of the city, that was pretty unusual, and also in the city, we had a black kite right over Lydiard Street central, and not all that high up - black kites are paddock birds.
"Someone in Invermay reported 300 yellow-tailed black cockatoos, a very noisy flock
"We had a report of a very pale wattle bird, an abnormal colour, likely leucistic, then later in the year, a rusty brush-tail possum, which people sent in photos of.
"Someone else sent me a photo of a musk duck with a red fin
"We've had magpie geese spread out in Lake Wendouree, in the middle where hardly anyone can see them, they keep pretty well hidden.
"The common mynas, there's been a couple of reports of them at Lake Wendouree in November, a single bird on two different days, and nesting at Learmonth - they're gradually increasing.
"Plumed whistling ducks are pretty rare at the Lake Gardens wetlands, and they created quite a lot of interest for photographers."
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MAMMALS AND REPTILES
"Someone sent in a photo of a bat from Learmonth, which was interesting - it was in their letterbox, and I was able to ID that.
"There are seven black wallabies on one of the Lake Wendouree islands, and people are feeding them hay and carrots.
"They can swim away if they want to, but they'd have to cross a few busy roads, they're very popular.
"There was an echidna at Paul's Wetland in Wendouree, that's a bit like the wallabies getting to the lake - it was very unusual, I hope he got away.
"We've had a few snake ID pictures sent in, and a brush-tail phascogale, a rare mammal between Castlemaine and Daylesford.
"There was a Jacky lizard boxing his reflection, which was very interesting."
INSECTS
"There was a grass wasp who made a nest in a hose, which was sitting in someone's yard, full of grass strands, the picture was sent in that I couldn't identify it, turns out that's how they make their nest.
"They're not common, and you wouldn't notice them, it just looks like a handful of grass stems.
"There was an odd looking leaf-like creature, like a prehistoric grasshopper, and there were the usual baby spiderlings blowing, a Bogong moth picture - they do come here but not in great numbers
"Lots of people sent in questions about pests and weeds, people always want to know about them.
"There was a snail egg photo, fireblight beetles defoliating wattles - I'm not a pest controller, I can tell them about their life cycle though."
PLANTS
"In February there were fungi that normally wouldn't appear until autumn, they went right through longer than usual, species that haven't been seen for such a long, extended period - earth-star fungi, cage fungus, ghost fungi.
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I SAW SOMETHING!
Mr Thomas promised his Nature Notes column will continue in the new year, and encouraged people to send in photos of their own sightings.
You can send questions to Roger Thomas at The Courier, PO Box 21, Ballarat, 3353, or email rthomas@vic.australis.com.au
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