As well as being small-headed, they are small-bodied; only a few millimetres long.

The largest one in the accompanying photo is a female laying eggs, and measures 7-8mm.

The smaller flies are males.

The eyes of small-headed flies make up almost the whole of the head, with little or nothing else of the head visible.

Some species have short antennae protruding from between the eyes.

Another name for the group is hunch-backed flies, with their small heads accentuating the hunched shape.

Surprisingly, small-headed flies often lay their hundreds or even thousands of eggs on wire on fences, clotheslines and so on.

Today's photo shows the dense matted cluster of tiny black eggs partly-covering a copper wire. It was taken at Brown Hill a few weeks ago.

The flies showed no inclination to depart when closely approached, even allowing gentle touching without flying off.

Natural egg-laying sites include fine dead twigs. The masses of eggs sometimes resemble small patches of black soot.

There are small-headed flies found worldwide.

Surprisingly, they parasitise a range of spiders, which are found by the very tiny larvae after hatching from the eggs.

The large number of eggs presumably allows for a high wastage, with a lot of the grubs probably never finding a spider to burrow into.

In a bizarre twist, the growing fly larvae are sometimes carried with their host spider to a wasp's nest, with the spider being paralysed by the wasp and the fly grubs then entombed in the wasp's nest.

Both the wasp grub and the fly grub then gradually consume the paralysed spider.

At least some species of these flies - and possibly the one pictured - are very short-lived in the adult (fly) stage, with no functional mouthparts. They might live only a few days.

Recent observations of a pair of bronzewing pigeons on a busy Lake Wendouree footpath might indicate a new feature of the lake's birdlife.

Once a shy and uncommon species at Lake Wendouree, a pair of these birds has recently been searching for food on the main footpath, merely running out of the way as the numerous pedestrians approach.

They then run back onto the path whenever people leave a gap for a few seconds of uninterrupted foraging.

The lack of fear by these native pigeons is a very recent and unexpected occurrence at Lake Wendouree.

The species remains a temporary visitor there, rather than a permanent resident.

A brown butterfly with a yellow spot on its wings was flying around nettles. What sort would it be?

L.H., Bungaree.

This is the yellow admiral, sometimes known as the Australian admiral. The large yellow mark on its front wings is its main feature.

Its caterpillars feed mostly on nettles, both the common introduced stinging nettle, and the native scrub nettle.

Your butterfly was probably looking for a site for egg-laying before the cooler months.

The yellow admiral is one of the first butterflies to appear at the end of winter, usually on the first sunny days after mid-August.

It can then be found until about mid-May, but usually only in small numbers. The yellow admiral is slightly smaller than a male common brown butterfly.