Records of local sightings were kept in 2022, following a noticeable local increase in 2021.

Most local reports were from the north-western quarter of the Ballarat region. Localities noted in this area during 2022 were Clunes, Campbelltown, Glendonald, Glendaruel, Creswick North, Broomfield, Allendale, Ascot, Mt Rowan, Ullina, Miners Rest, Learmonth, Tourello, Blowhard, Sulky, Evansford and Smeaton.

Other localities within 40 kilometres of Ballarat included Meredith, Elaine, Ballan, Cardigan, Invermay, Rokewood Junction, Ross Creek and Smythes Creek.

The majority of these reports were from open farmland, with no obvious association with buildings.

Suburban Ballarat has so far not been attractive to mynas, with the only suburban sightings noted during 2022 being Winter Valley and Lake Wendouree.

The common myna is clearly increasing in the Ballarat region. At the moment, there may be only one locality at which the common myna can be reliably found - this is a property at Broomfield, near Creswick. At other localities the bird seems to be a visitor, rather than a resident.

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The Ballan sighting was a freeway one, rather than in the town. Mynas are common in Bacchus Marsh, but their expansion along the freeway to Ballan has been slow. They often seem to travel via roadsides.

The common myna was once known as the Indian Myna (or mynah). That name was discarded on the grounds that the bird occurs in not just India, but from Iran and Afghanistan through southern Asia, to mainland south-east Asia.

The term "common" in the bird's name is not useful, especially in Australia, because the native noisy miner is common to the point of being a nuisance in many places. Both species can be common, both are scarce in some places, and both are noisy.

Birds are continuing to nest this year, a little later than average.

At Lake Wendouree, there are recent reports of newly-hatched swans, wood ducks, dusky moorhens, white ibises and masked lapwings (spur-winged plovers).

Australian waterbirds often breed according to water-levels, rather than seasons. Water levels at the lake and elsewhere have remained higher than usual for this time of year, and the birds continue to breed, but now in small numbers. We can expect just a few broods into autumn.

Also reported recently have been a blackbird's nest with eggs, and a recently-fledged crested pigeon chick.

Pigeons are often late nesters, possibly because their main food is seeds, which appear mostly in summer, rather than in spring.

I saw this fly on eucalyptus regrowth. I was thinking maybe some kind of hover fly with those swept back wings. R.A., Napoleons.

This is a good photo of a green soldier fly, a native insect. The metallic green body and brown eyes are prominent, with the abdomen being paler. It is about 10 mm long. The sexes can be separated by their eyes, with eyes of males touching, and eyes of females separated. Your specimen is a male.

This type of soldier fly feeds on nectar. Like most others in the genus (Odontamyia), the larvae are aquatic, feeding mostly on decaying aquatic vegetation in shallow waters.

Our more common local soldier flies are black, without any glossy green. Other, scarcer species are striped green on black. We can expect a variety of native insects such as soldier-flies, beetles and wasps on any tea- trees flowering this month.

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