A new project

 Having completed the stage-walk from Bucklands to Seal Creek I have come up with a second walk from home to the Miners Track.  The first stage was from home to the start of Watertrust Rd (or Pipeline Road - what it is called seems to vary between sources). 

The route was somewhat different, going through a residential area.

After scaling the cliff that is Angophora Drive we thought we'd have to clamber through the fallen trees left by the storm of March 23.  To our surprise chainsaws have been wielded - as have industrial strength chippers, judging by the huge heap of mulch on some vacant land nearby.  That cuts about 4km off my trip to the poo pits.

I'm not sure if graders actually get wielded but the track is now in far better condition than it was before the trees fell.

Near the junction with Mirrabooka Rd the first Caladenia catenata of the season have appeared.

On the way back I noticed these very free range chooks!

The second leg of the walk was along Watertrust (... see above) Rd to what the Footmobiles call Bob's track but when we got there now seems to be labelled Sheep Station Creek Track.  Whatever.

We found a single Caladenia catenata here and as we went along, mainly walking in the vegetation rather than the formed road, many specimens of Stackhousia monogyna.

The delusional plant Spiridium parvifolium was also present in large numbers.  I use the adjective as the silver leaves always look like flowers and give the species its common name of Dusty Miller.

This was a nice little pool alongside the road.  It might be a good spot for watching drinking birds when the weather warms up.

A near-buried golf ball, some 3km from the nearest point of the golf course.  I am astonished at how far Ravens will carry balls before either losing their grip or realising it isn't a very hard-shelled egg.

There was only one real hill on the route (a second one starts after the turn point) but it is a doozy!

This is a particularly dense cluster of larvae.  Walking back along the track I did an eyeball assessment and concluded that there were about 40 larvae per square metre and the extent of the maggots on the road went for about 400m on a road about 5m wide.  So 40*500*5 = 100,000: that is not a small number but in the past (January 2015) I have posted about swarms of small flies and concluded that there might have been as many as 60,000,000 flies in a swam.  Even being an order of magnitude out that still gives a lot of flies!

When we got back to the gate into the poo pits we took a bush track - noted in the image above - to give a bit of variety on the way back.  This turned out to be a little longer (~300 m) than sticking to Watertrust Rd but did avoid a dip into a creek!  IMHO, no biggie.

Hakea decurrens.

Acacia ulicifolia - identified by Frances (I thought A. genistifolia but that has much yellower flowers).

Some bracket fungus.