Pebbly Beach towards Shipwreck Beach

Having had reports from a few folk of making this walk recently we decided to have a crack at it today.  It seems to take about 4 hours for the full circuit and we decided to cut it short, and do an out-and-back route, after about an hour.  This is the track recorded on eBird .

Looking at the broader area on Google Earth suggests we got about half the distance.  It was a bit slow going for a while as the track was very hard to spot.

This is the heath we crossed.  The track was quite clear here.

The track was less clear in the forested area.  This was actually a medium obvious section, where it was visible on the ground.  In some place it was really only detected by the ground being compacted rather then soft and puffy.

To make it easier for you I have put in lines for the track.

Close  to our turn point we went down to the the cliff top to look out over the sea.

There was not a mass of flowers (that wouldn't be expected anyway in May)  but there were a few attractive specimens around.  This is Burchardia umbellata (Milkmaids) which according to Flora of Victoria usually flowers July - October.

A few daisies were flowering with several examples of Coronidium scorpioides which is usually September to January.

Another specimen of Coronidium, with bonus moth.  I judge the quality of my moth photos on whether the proboscis is reasonably clear: this one gets a pass mark!

The back of a Wahlenbergia.  Not a great snap but I like the colours of the calyx brought by the sun shining through.

Stylidium graminifolium a Grass Triggerplant.  I always find it hard to get a clear photo of this species.  The petals seem to reflect a lot of light.  The flowering season is given as "Mostly Aug to Nov".

Schelhammera undulata was quite common in the woodland.  September to November.

Out in the heath it was apparent that many of the incinerated shrubs were sprouting from the base of the trunk.  This is (I think) a Leptospermum sp. (Tea tree.)

This species was not very cooperative but looking closely shows the sprouts of Allocasuarina paludosa coming through the grass.  That was the dominant species in the heath prior to the fire.

I am reasonably sure this is Callistemon citrinus.  The authors of Flora of Victoria explain why they haven't followed the fad of including Callistemon within Melaleuca: if only a few other authorities did the same!

There were some nice fungi around also.  The first two species were in a shallow watercourse heading down to the cliffs.  

This is Peziza tenacella, an ascomycete cup fungus.

The next two are basidiomycetes.  A jelly fungus Tremella mesenterica.  Just about every word in that was wrong!  The experts at Fungimap have suggested it is another Ascomycete  - possibly Anthracobia muelleri, but I can't pick up the diagnostic brown hairs in the image.

Somewhere in the woodland heading back we met this Basidiomycete leather fungus Podoscypha petalodes.  I have a memory of having found a specimen of this last time we were down this way.  It grows on dead buried wood.

The next photo is largely included as a reminder to me to comment on the amount of insect damage to the epicormic shoots on the eucalypts in the forest.  Presumably these soft young leaves are easy targets for caterpillars.

Birds were not greatly evident.  I did hear the first Crescent Honeyeater of the season in the woodland near our turn point, and some Yellow-faced and White-naped Honeyeaters flew over (giving the "chip-chip" and "mew" calls respectively.  In total I recorded 10 species of which 4 were on, or over Pebbly Beach.   A Great Cormorant earnt a photo by posing nicely (it has a small crest so in Europe this would be a photo of a Shag on a rock).

One of the 5 Pied Oystercatchers was flagged.  Unfortunately it seemed to have something else on its mind so I couldn't get a read of the number.

It was a very pleasant walk.  While the difficulty of spotting the track meant we worked a little harder that is not a problem.  It is slightly (OK, very) annoying to note that the contractors - under direction from ESGC and/or Vic Parks) are still devoting effort to pruning trivially burnt vegetation on the roadside near Betka Beach rather than opening up the walking trails.