Some fungus

On our dog walk this morning Frances spotted an unusual (for this area) fungus.  I had seen them before at Carwoola and knew it to be the Rooting Shank, Oudmansiella gigaspora (although I'd previously seen it identified as O. radicata).

 On returning to photograph it the neighbour on whose block it was growing pointed out where a much larger fungus was to be found.  Indeed much larger - perhaps 20cm across.  It is clearly a bolete but with the size and apparently dark undersurface I can't put a species to it.

On revisiting the fungus I poked it with a stick (not burnt) and it bruised blue.  This may help identify it.

Mainly waves and sunset

We headed down to Bastion Point about 1500 hrs on the 27th to see if the waves were any better.  Indeed they were.

The immediately interesting observation was that the waves were breaking in a continuous line from the outlet round to the breakwater - about 1 km .  Usually the break is patchy as the surf hits sandbanks or runs through channels.  Something was smoothed the sea bed out!

Second, I noticed that the tidemark was right up to the edge of the bushes, and the sand was quite flat and compressed well above the waterline. I think there had been some big waves washing in over night,  This was close to confirmed by the wet patch evident while we were there.

A few images of the waves nearly all >1m and a fair proportion around 2m.

With a nice break like this I am astonished there wasn't a surfer in sight.  Perhaps they were all watching the Bells competition on TV?

I like the spindrift off the top of breakers.

The outlet was extremely rough with waves and ripples seeming to run in all directions.  You'd need a large serve of hero pills to take a boat through that!

There were a lot (at least 100) of small waders feeding in the wash zone.  These two are Red-necked Stints.

Another Stint and one of 83 Red-capped Plovers

This had me bluffed.  I thought initially it was a octopus then a cuttlefish,  However I have concluded it is a squid, from which the tentacles have been eaten.  It was apparently still alive!  FAKE NEWS!  Following comment on Facebook I now agree that it is a shark or ray egg case.  However I have no real idea which species.

Seas flat, fungus funnelled

There has been quite a bit of sensationalist reporting of monster waves for Victoria.  Looking at the BoM wave height forecast shows this to be an exaggeration.  The monsters were (a) actually off shore and (b) the shore they were off was the South Coast of Tasmania.

This clip shows the forecast for 1300hrs on 26 April.

 By 1600 there looks to be some action around Mallacoota

.. which increases by 1900 to the 5-6 metre mark.

This seemed to be worth a look so we took ourselves off to the cliffs from Fisherman's Point to Quarry Beach.  The wind was high, and a squall or tow was around, generating a rainbow.

There was a steady swell but nowhere close to 3-4 metres.

Confident that it was safe we went on to the beach.  The word that springs to mind is "flat".

Looking through my binoculars some large white caps were visible on the horizon.

Peering closely at the 1600 wave forecast it does appear that the dark green area is a little off shore,  So drat, move along, nothing to see here.  Not quite true: a string of 14 Gannets flew past and 2 Bottlenosed Dolphins cruised by (without a photo op).

On getting back to the clifftop track there was a good crop of fungi  I think these first images are all of Omphalotus nidiformis.

I have no idea of these generic items.

This is a bolete but all species in my references have yellow, rather than red pore surfaces.

Is Autumn finally here?

Around 0630 on 26 April the temperature was 11.2 on my Davis (and a little cooler at the BoM site) with 95% rH,  This gave a picturesque fog over Karbeethong.

 Looking to the East there was a good lot of colour in the sky!

Plants and birds

Yes, I know I said I was going to exclude birds from this, but that is a guideline rather than a rule!

The images that follow come from a couple of bike rides over the last couple of days.

Moon, fungus and Wasp

When I took the small dog out for a toilet break around 0600 on 21/4 the moon was still high in the sky and nearly full.

 In the afternoon Frances spotted these fungal fruiting bodies on a stump opposite Shady Gully.  Due to their growth habit she wondered if they were the bioluminescent Omphalotus nidiformis.  They were a good match for that species in my fungus books.

As she got home, Frances also spotted an attractive insect wandering about on the drive.

I'd welcome suggestions of species- I can do no better than family Vespidae.  It has been suggested sub-family Eumenidae, genus Palastor is a possibility.

I referred the sighting to the Australian Museum for advice;  Here is their excellent reply - it took a while but I guess they are busy!

The insect in question is as you correctly pointed out is related to honey bees, wasp, ants (Order: Hymenoptera). This species in particular is  confusingly known as a Common Wasp-mimic Bee (Hyleoides concinna). They are in the family of bees collectively known as plasterer bees or polyester bees, due to the method of smoothing the walls of their nest cells (Family: Colletidae). Additionally, when a specimen was brought to Europe by Cook’s expedition, the entomologist Fabricius described it in 1775 as a wasp and called it Vespa concinna. It is a mimic of Potter Wasps, so you were very close to the right answer when you described as Paralastor. The important difference is that a Paralastor species can fold its forewing longitudinally, but the bee can’t. The bee does tend to hold up her wings in the v-shape of a wasp, but relies on the colour of the wing to imitate the folding. The front half, but not the rear half is darkened.

One of the links above goes to the Atlas of Living Australia which has records from the Nadgee Nature Reserve (on the far side of the Howe Range) so in the general area  but not very close.  I'll be reporting it to the ALA in due course.

By chance I was thinking of dropping down to the Inlet about 1900 to get some images of the moon rising,  So we swung by the fungus site - which we found easily - but luminescence was not evident.  I shall try to confirm the ID with Fungimap.

The moon was rising nicely.  The first image was from a grassy knoll (with no snipers evident).

 We then moved to the Broome St fishing platform,

 Moving a little along the shore to get out of the street light got some reflection in the water.

Just for fun I have post-edited the image to underexpose it a bit.

Overall I think we proved the concept of going down to the shore to photograph moonrise and will play with the idea more of other nights.

On the night of 23 April I glanced at the moon about 2100 hrs when taking Tammy out for her final toilet break  To my surprise there was quite a good view from our drive.  I hadn't expected to get the reflection in the Inlet so clearly.

The light in the foreground is from a street light: I didn't expect a flash to help the process!