Now they have hatched a brood of goslings, two of which are surviving on their mid-lake island sanctuary.

Compared with cygnets, these goslings are very rotund and deep-bodied.

Their patterned down is very different from that of the plain cygnets, and also different from the striped yellow and dark-brown ducklings of the black duck.

The lake's Cape Barren geese are most likely not truly wild birds; they have probably flown in from a private property near Clunes, where they breed each year, producing youngsters that are free to go wherever they choose.

Magpie geese are breeding on the central dredged islands in Lake Wendouree too. They seem to have little success, with young goslings sighted for a while, but not many of them reaching mature size. This has happened for three or four years.

Their plumage is different again - a surprising tawny-orange head and neck, and mid-brown body, without any striping.

The dredged central islands have their own special range of waterbirds, many of which are not found elsewhere on the lake. Hundreds of white ibises have taken up nesting there in the last two or three years, expanding from the willow-clad islands on the western side of the lake.

A special resident of the centre is a lone wood sandpiper, from central Asia. This bird has now returned for several years to spend spring and summer in Ballarat.

Other waders such as stilts and dotterels sometimes visit too.

READ MORE: Best of Ballarat's Nature Notes 2021 with Roger Thomas

Unfortunately, most of the islands' bird life is not visible from the shore.

Sometimes a Cape Barren goose appears around the lake shore, particularly at Durham Point.

Perhaps we will see a family of four some time in the future. The goslings might swim to shore - as cygnets do - or they might wait until they can fly.

Several species of cuckoos call at night, their persistent whistles often annoying people trying to sleep.

Earlier in spring a Horsfield's bronze-cuckoo called nightly at Talbot, awakening - and keeping awake - the property-owner every night for a couple of weeks.

This small cuckoo gives a series of high-pitched elongated notes, then waits a while and repeats.

One afternoon a collared sparrowhawk was seen to catch a small bird in the garden, and a quick check with binoculars revealed that the hawk had caught a Horsfield's bronze-cuckoo, with its attractive bronze-green back and striped chest visible in the hawk's talons.

That night, and from then on, sleeping was uninterrupted.

What sort is this big spider? Its legs don't look shiny enough for a funnel-web.

R. S. T., Moyston.

Your round-bodied spider is one of the huntsman species.

The large abdomen indicates that it is about to produce a white egg-sac about the size of a five-cent coin.

You are correct in thinking that funnel-web spiders have glossy legs that are stouter and blacker than those pictured. Along with similar large-bodied spiders such as trapdoors and mouse spiders, they also have a blacker thorax and head.

The rather thin, long brown legs point to a huntsman spider rather than to the others mentioned. Some species of huntsmen, however, have clearly-striped legs, sometimes almost resembling football socks.

A typical feature of huntsmen spiders is that the two front pairs of legs are longer than the rear two pairs. This is evident in the photo, although not clearly.