A phew interesting fotos

There have been a few interesting sightings recently on days that haven't deserved a full blogpost.  They have been put on Facebook, but I realise people may not wish to further enrich Mark Zuckerberg or have other objections to that platform.

I'll begin on our morning walk.  That goes on a boardwalk adjacent to Bottom Lake.  On a few recent occasions we have seen a Sea Hare.  I am calling it Aplysia sydneyensis but am not very confident of that.  The first image is a generic "grazing" shot.

This one is included as it shows the shallowness of the water, with the animal's back breaking the surface.

In the afternoon we went to the Waste Water Treatment Plant looking for any Terns that may have decided to visit.  None had, but there were ducklings.  These baby Shelduck were the first brood to be reported to eBird in Mallacoota.  There are only 3 other broods in eBird for the whole of East Gippsland.

 The image of Pacific Black Ducklings was less successful

 Moving on to the cliff tops we have looked at some bushes with velvety leaves for months wondering what they were.  The flowers have now emerged and identification as Lasiopetalum macrophyllum seem more assured.

Down at ground level the cliff top walk is the area for Spider Orchids (which I think are sensibly regarded as a good genus Arachnorchis.  Putting these in the same genus as the finger orchids of Caladenia suggests that some DNA-sequencing taxonomists need their dosage adjusted.

The first ones we had found seemed to be quite large and I had called them A(C). tentaculata.  I then heard that a local guru called them A(C) parva.   The differences seem to be 2:

1. Size of plant;
2. Whether the flower is upright or tilted back 

They seem to be rather 'nice' distinctions, especially given the lumping to genus.  In this case the first clump we found were really low to the ground: stems perhaps 10 cm.  The flowers looked vertical to me.  So I give these a tick as Caladenia parva.

 A little distance away were some much taller plants - stems 20 cm - and the flower looked to be tilted back (see second image below).  So I give Caladenia tentaculata a tick also.

For the past several weeks I have been intrigued by some growths in our lawn (and several others in our street).

I had thought they looked like Microtis leaves, but couldn't envisage such a forest of orchids.  Lawn mowers had intervened to stop flowers emerging.  Emergence as finally (20 October) happened.  They are Microtis sp.

On my way to the Bunker on the 20th I stopped, as always, to check the cormorants near the Betka bridge.  Nothing exciting in the cormorants but a Whiskered Tern was perched nearby.  I was able to get a better photo than the previous bird of this species (about 5 times the distance in the main Inlet).

We went to Bastion Point close to low tide on 27 October.  The water level seemed higher than we expected from the tide forecast but this wormcast/barnacle infested shell was interesting amongst the green seaweed and cunjevoi.

On 28 October I went for a walk with Birdlife East Gippsland to the Waste Water Treatment Plant.  A very good outing with 41 species recorded - including huge numbers of Grey Teal (1300) and Hardhead (640).  On the way out an arboreal marsupial was observed.

 Later that day driving along Lakeside Dr a family of Australian Wood Ducks were seen.

Later in the month we went to Bastion Point and found a few interesting things.