Its "four-leaved clover" appearance makes it easy to identify. There are four species of nardoo in Victoria, with our local one known as common nardoo.

Despite that name, it is not common here, being found in only a few spots - including Clunes and Lal Lal. Not being a conspicuous plant - it grows to only 15 or 20 cm tall - it possibly grows unnoticed in other places as well. It is common across much of periodically-flooded inland Australia.

Rather than being a plant of perennially damp or wet places, this fast-growing plant is adapted to inland Australia's "boom or bust" cycles of droughts and irregular and infrequent floods.

The photo was taken recently in a swamp near Clunes that was flooded last year. In another part of the swamp - where the water had receded to leave the plants on dry ground - the leaves were not notched on the edges, unlike those in the photo. The leaves are held up on erect stems when they are out of the water. These flexible stems allow the plant to take advantage of changing water levels.

Local occurrences of nardoo are often in dense masses a metre or more across. Single plants are seldom seen. The plant is regarded as a perennial.

IN THE NEWS

Surprisingly, nardoo is classified as a fern, despite its appearance and habitat. Like ferns, it does not produce flowers or seeds. It reproduces by spores.

Nardoo is clearly a good survivor, given its continued existence in and around this swamp, which has been well-grazed by kangaroos, sheep and rabbits.

Indigenous people of inland Australia knew how to make flour from nardoo "sporocarps" (resembling small dry pods) to make a dough they baked.

Wild birds are busy using birdbaths or any other sources of water they can find.

Comments from a Creswick reader show that many birds have preferences for either bathing or drinking. Some do both. Sparrows and magpies only drink, but blackbirds bathe vigorously.

While thornbills at Creswick come only for a drink, at other places they frequently bathe. Perhaps it depends on whether they can safely stand in shallow water to splash.

Our correspondent reports that rosellas drink only, but they splash and bathe enthusiastically in other local birdbaths.

New Holland honeyeaters at Creswick bathe frequently. Unlike most other birds, bronzewing pigeons suck the water, instead of filling the beak, tilting the head back, and swallowing.

This wasp sat for a while on our car windscreen. It has an awful-looking stinger. A.L., Ross Creek.

This is a cream-spotted ichneumon, a common member of the wasp family. The name is pronounced "ick-newmon". The "stinger" is actually an egg-placer, used by the females to lay eggs in grubs and caterpillars. These ichneumon wasps do not sting. Only the females have the long egg-placer.

There are several other similar species, mostly reddish in colour. Not all of them are spotted. They have long antennae, and they feed on nectar from flowers.

One species - possibly this one - is known as the orchid dupe, because the males are attracted to the smell of certain orchids (particularly the large tongue-orchid, uncommon in the Ballarat district). They are "duped" by the smell, try to mate with the flowers, and in doing so, fertilise the orchid flower.

Have you signed up to The Courier's variety of news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in Ballarat.