Walks High and Low

With friends visiting from Canberra we did a couple of walks on the 22nd.  The first was to Genoa Peak, mainly because its there but with a faint hope of seeing Glossy Black-Cockatoos.  One of those was fulfilled: it wasn't the cockies!

As we set off from the car park I spotted a Pterostylis grandiflora beside the track.

 Glancing across to the other side of the track there was Pterostylis tunstallii.

It doesn't appear too clearly in this image but there had been an impressive lightning strike on this stringybark. A salutary reminder not to do this walk when thunderstorms are possible.

 Indeed, metal ladders on an exposed granite peak would not be good on a storm.  But hopefully showing one's support for the Saints would deflect divine wrath.

The cap seemed to work as we neither saw nor felt any electrical discharges.  In fact the view from the Peak was a little disappointing as it was very hazy.  But still not a bad look at the area.

Later in the day our second walk was though the heathland to the West of town.  The Allocasuarina nana was into flower.

 Quite a few people were walking their pooches on the beach, but the Hooded Plovers were still trotting about near tyhe estuary of the Betka River.

Coming back through the dunes we found some nice examples of Leucopogon parviflorus. According to the Flora of Victoria it is flowering a little earlier than might be expected

This was growing and flowering  on the bank of the Betka River.  Some other strollers identified it as a 'Pinkie'.  This didn't seem to help getting to the Latin.

 A couple of images of reflections in the water of a small lagoon off the river,

The walk up from the River to the heathland is often a tad boring, going through a monoculture of Melaleuca armillaris.  On this visit it was exciting to find a lot (perhaps 50 plants) of Pterostylis nutans.

 And then the first decent example of blossom on Acacia longifolia.