A Betka stroll

 On 10 February we did a loop starting at the top of the Heathland walk.  There were a few interesting sightings along the way, many of which have bee referred to iNaturalist for an opinion.

A medium sized black spider.

This large beetle was not looking well, on the beach.  The iNaturalist AI reckons it is a chafer which seems reasonable.  There are 1400 known species in this subfamily in Australia 

I counted 180 Silver Gulls and 3 Crested Terns near the mouth of the Betka.  The tern on the left was clearly still a juvenile and kept trying to bum a meal off its older colleague - with no success that we saw.

We found 4 Hooded Plovers sheltering from the wind on the water's edge in the lee of the dunes.  Moving along, as we got close to the point where the Chip Track enters the dunes 2 herons flushed.  They turned out to be Eastern Reef Egrets rather than White-faced Herons.  It was very unusual to see a Reef Egret high in a tree.

I took a photo of a grasshopper (I suspect a juvenile instar of something) and then noticed it had a small friend!

I suspect it is some form of wasp.  From looking at Brisbane Insects I suspect it is an Icheumenon Wasp  Gotra sp.

Getting back towards the Davis Beach car park the vegetation under the burnt Melaleuca was rampant.  In this image Kennedia is battling it out with Solanum aviculare.  It is notable that none of the Solanum in this area have developed yellow or orange fruit.
Elsewhere in the general area it appears that a further battle is developing between Acacia longfolia (seed germinated by the heat of the fire) and the Melaleuca armillaris regrowing from lignotubers.   The Acacia is marked with blue arrows and the much less prolific Melaleuca with red.

A leaf-rolling spider hadn't quite got the idea of hiding in the leaf!

A small Jacky Lizard posed well.

This leaf beetle has been identified on iNaturalist as Paropsis maculata.  I am advised that there are few records of this species in Victoria.