An outing to Cann River

 As Janine and Roger had come East for a few days we arranged to meet them in Cann River for coffee and then head off to explore a few spots.  We were joined at Wild Rye by Joe Stephens who shared his local knowledge with us.  This enabled a PLAN to be developed (quoting the late Sir Terry Pratchett via the Wee Nac Mac Feegles "Now we have a plan, all we need is towork out what we're going to do.")

Step 1 of the PLAN was to go to the Beehive Falls on WB Line Rd, about 20 km up the Monaro Highway which was an existing eBird Hotspot.  According to the altimeter in the Pajero the Falls are 450m AMSL.

Here is a slightly better map of the area from iNaturalist.  The x is - I think - the location of the falls.

We started a bird list where we turned off the highway 

...  and added to it as we drove up about 3 km to the Falls and added quite a few more species at the end circle (in the middle of the blue line) where we stopped for a snuffle. 

These are a couple of images of the Falls, which didn't have a great flow.

A close up of the Falls, trying to get the milky effect that good photographers get with flowing water.

As we drove along we spotted a few Dipodium rosea (Rosy Hyacinth Orchid).

At the last stop there were a few, somewhat used, Caleana major (Large Flying Duck Orchids.

A large Persoonia sp (Geebung) - I think at the high point.

Lobelia gibbosa: this species is having an excellent year from the coast upwards.  I presume the fire has removed much of the competition.

Lomatia ilicifolia: also flowering much more this year that I have ever seen before.  I have made the image large because (a) its spiffy and (b) that shows the visiting ants better!

A Chrysocephalum, probably C. baxteri.

A mystery plant.  I have called this Wedding Bush in the past.  Frances was dubious about that ID, as was Janine today, so I shall lob it into iNaturalist.  Advice there is definitely genus Olearia with a suggestion of O. myrsinoides with O. erubescens as another possibility.  Looking at those two species in Vic Flora suggests that there is no clear distinction between the two species: the leaves are the best marker but even they seem to have a fair overlap in shape.  Lump them!

This is a species of Senecio (groundsel) which was rather tall with a purple stem.  Flora of Victoria lists 45 species possible in East Gippsland so I settle at genus level.

This is a leaf beetle Paropsis atomaria which seemed quite happy walking around on Rogers hand.

The iNaturalist app reckons this next one is Ecnolagria grandis the Honeybrown Beetle.  However a  guru on iNaturalist reckons it is only identifiable to subTribe Lagriina (within which the Honeybrown Beetle, along with 5 other genera, is classified).

This was a cicada.

A couple of the termite mounds had taken some serious damage during the fire.  As a naturalist friend commented there is a lot of organic material in such mounds.

There was much discussion about just what this was, ptions included scat; a coughed up pellet and a nest under construction.  It was being well visited by ants but some of the components looked a bit large for ants to schlep around.

We were the second group to visit this area, recording 16 species, bringing the area total to 20 taxa.  While none of the species were rare, I think it is worth revisiting as the vegetation continues to regenerate.

We then drove up Buldah Rd to check the vegetation in the bed of Chandlers Creek.  Basically all burnt out.  I wouldn't say the area looked regressive, but I would have panicked if someone had turned up with a banjo (even more than I usually get alarmed if a banjo appears).

On the way up to WB Line Rd, Janine had heard the distinctive call of a Rufous Songlark so we had to stop to see if we could relocate it.  It turned out the spot was the junction of West Cann Rd and the Monaro Highway a little North of Noorinbee.  

When we arrived the weather greeted us by changing from 'average' to 'ordinary' so scoffing the lunch we had purchased from Wild Rye was in order.  I had a steak and kidney pie which on the official pie rating scale scored a pure 7.  That is not a bad rating - the cellophane wrapped jobbie at Chillagoe scored 0, and probably only got that high because I was damn hungry.  However today's sample lost 3 points because it was barely warm: not surprising since it had been sitting in the car for about 2 hours!  So the honest rating should be 10, as is typical for a Wild Rye pie.

We had some discussion about a call we heard with a choice between Mistletoebird and Jacky Winter.  As we saw a heap of Jacky Winters but no parasitic plants - let alone the birds named after them -  the conclusion was the Robins won.  Here is a photo of one of them.

We did eventually work out where the Songlark was calling from (in fact there were two of them) and it then proceeded to fly round us as we stood at our turn point.  Every time I tried to photograph it on auto mode my camera focused on veg nearer than the bird.   Every time I switched to manual mode the bird flew away just as I zoomed in on it.  This is the best I got - I leave it to you to imagine what the bad shots look like.

We recorded against a new personal Location, which should appear, once moderated as "Monaro Hwy at West Cann Rd South". Our list of 27 species is here.  (Later in the day Joe rang to say a Channel-billed Cuckoo had been reported from what sounded exactly like this spot!)

Our final call was to the Cann River Rainforest Walk which starts in the caravan park beside the highway.

Here is a particularly rainforesty area.

This weir on the Cann River produced an Australasian Reed-Warbler and looked to have potential for lots of other stuff.

Throughout the area were many fruited plants.  These attractive small red berries were Coprosma quadrifida (Prickly currant bush - and they did look rather like Red Currants) 

Lower in the profile were some Dianella - I think D. caerulea.

Definitely a Clematis and I will go for the default C. aristata.

I hope someone will get to this with a set of secateurs and some Round-up (or Agent Orange - I'm not fussy).   Honeysuckle is not what is needed in this lovely area.

There were many Muttonwood trees around, most with a lot of developing fruit.  It should be Pigeon heaven in a little while.  In the meantime it seems to have have attracted a far less desirable species, Taxonomist vulgaris: in some places it is called Myrsine howittiana and in others Rapeana howittiana.  Flora of Victoria doesn't register Muttonwood at all!

While Janine and I were looking at the weir we heard a loud squeak which we recognised as the alarm call of Frances.  She had come across a 1.6 m Red-bellied Black Snake try to absorb a few rays (although there were few rays available. at the time).  It didn't hang around for a photo but disappeared down its hole- possibly 5cm diameter.

 Common Brown Butterflies were quite common.

So were Yellow-faced Honeyeaters.

This young (by streaks) Brown Goshawk was quite chatty and very cooperative.

A Red Wattlebird was enjoying a Coprosma.

Our list for this site - proposed as a hotspot "Cann River Rainforest Walk" to distinguish it from the generic "Cann River"  hotspot"- contains 39 species (of which I saw 33)

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After this Frances and I were feeling our years and headed for home.  The birdlist for the outing was 58 species of which I observed 56.