Some orchids at Shipwreck Creek

 On 28 November I, with some visitors from Melbourne, visited the Western Heath at Shipwreck Creek in a hunt for Ground Parrot.  That was unsuccessful, but we did get some good birds:

• A Stubble Quail flew across Betka Rd as we went past the Airport on the way down;
• 3 White-throated Needletails did a zoom past while we were in the Heath; and 
• A Spotted Harrier was seen quartering the airfield on the way home.

After balancing (or in my case overbalancing) across some nicely placed and slippery rocks we walked across the beach, finding many Hooded Plover tracks , but not the makers thereof.  The first part of the heath was well endowed with flowering Leptospermum sp.

It was pleasing to see some cones on the recovering Allocasuarina paludosa.

The most surprising sightings were orchids. We found these specimens close to the point at which the track through the heath re-enters the forest.  The first two images are of separate plants, Prasophyllum sp. possibly P. brevilabre.

We found two plants of tongue orchid, Cryptostylis subulata.