Jacaranda season

Brisbane is famous for it's beautiful Jacaranda trees, that come into bloom at this time of year.  The Jacaranda (Jacaranda mimosifolia) is actually a Brazilian tree, not native to Australia!  One of the best places to see some lovely trees is down by the riverside in West End, where I happened to be today for the Great Brisbane Duck race!

Not sure where my ducky family placed, but we didn't win.  Totally crazy, but its not every day you see several thousand rubber ducks going hell for leather down the Brisbane river.

The riverside entertainment was a bit 'quackers' too...

A few little ducks made a break for freedom after the race. Swim duckies, swim!!

Mystery Moth

I was inspired to try and identify a lovely Moth I found on our bedroom window back in July after I saw the lengths fellow blogger Denis Wilson went to in order to identify a pretty mystery moth of his own (Scoliacma bicolora)

Denis went straight to the top and asked some of my CSIRO colleagues in the Australian National Insect Collection for advice.  I took a look at the reference Denis gave to Australian Moths On-line, and the diversity of Australian Moths is bewildering!  So, it looks like I will need to find a friendly expert too - maybe there is one out there in blog-land?! 

Post update - see the comments below for an i.d. (Nyctemera secundiana) and some useful info, thanks to fellow bloggers Martin and Denis!  The genus is commonly referred to in Australasia as the 'Magpie moth'.  

Go quackers on Sunday!

The Great Brisbane Duck Race will be held on the Brisbane river on Sunday at West End!  Looking forward to cheering on my little duck family... you can enter a duck or few too, just click on the website, its for a very worthy cause.