With a wingspan of about 55 millimetres, this individual was found outside next to a glass window where it had apparently been attracted to a light the previous night.

Its small, narrow antennae are not easily seen, parallel with the surprisingly straight line of the forewings.

Not obvious at first glance is the raised section at the rear of each wing, where part of the wing-edge is bent up.

The dark shadow of this vertical edge can be seen more clearly than the section itself.

This makes each wing look like a bent or folded dry gumleaf.

Another amazing camouflage feature is the tip of each wing looking as though it has been singed by fire, where the extreme tip appears to have been burnt off, leaving a fine black singe line.

The abdomen is normally held in the unusual bent position shown in the photo.

The twisted moth is not frequently reported in the Ballarat district, but it is probably not rare.

It is more likely to be a creature of forested country rather than the suburbs, although its caterpillars are known to eat leaves of non-local eucalypts.

The caterpillar is narrow, firm and green, also well-camouflaged, and rather like a young twig. It feeds on eucalypt leaves.

Although the species is often known as the grey twisted moth, this local specimen was more of a light brown colour. It would be very difficult to see in a bushland situation.

The twisted moth is found across most of eastern and southern Australia.

There were 136 swans counted at Lake Wendouree earlier this month.

They were among the total of 1467 birds found at the lake.

The swan total is similar to that of recent years. 82 of them were adults, and 54 were this year's youngsters. The low total number of birds - 1467 - is due to a lot of the coots moving away to other wetlands a couple of months ago.

Young musk ducks have appeared in recent weeks, as have young dusky moorhens.

A white (leucistic) swamphen has recently been sighted at Ballarat's North Gardens Wetlands, close to Lake Wendouree.

Look for a photo on next week's Nature Notes page.

At Lake Learmonth, four brolgas have been seen this week. This lake is currently hosting a number of wading birds, including stilts and snipe.

Musk lorikeets have returned to flowering eucalypts in Ballarat's streets and gardens.

Please, what have we here? They landed last night.

P.B., Wendouree

This is the wattle goat moth, one of our largest local moths.

Your photos show both males and females, judging from both the fine and the feathery antennae.

Females are larger than males, with a wingspan of about 150mm, the size of a small bird.

Males are closer to 120mm.

Unlike some of our other large moths, these are found mostly in summer, rather than in autumn.

The adult moths live only a week or less, and are said not to feed during that time.

They concentrate on finding mates instead.

Before that, they spend a few years as grubs, boring into wattle trees.

They are white and fleshy, like witchetty grubs in appearance, and sometimes measuring 100mm.