Sundry explorations

This post will cover all sorts of things done and seen in the period 23-24 February!

Having noticed a post to Mallacoota Birds with an excellent picture of a Powerful Owl in the rainforest Reserve at Cann River we decided to visit the village on 23 February and go for a walk.   This is the route we followed.  The sandy strip is the river: obviously the image was captured in a drier period.

Cutting to the chase you might notice a 'tick' in the track where it first approaches the river.  This was where we searched for the Powl.  The directions included the words rainforest, wooden steps, whitewash and Powerful Owl.  We found the rainforest and the wooden steps!

There were a lot of berries in the area.  

These have been identified on iNaturalist as Solanum pseudocapsicum Madeira Winter Cherry.  It is an escapee from gardens (aka "weed").

Solanum aviculare is definitely a native, "Kangaroo Apple".  The species has appeared dramatically since the fires, but last year much of the fruit dropped while still green.  This year it all seems t have ripened to the yellow/orange stage.

In the field this material looked most like Spanish Moss, but when seen close up it is definitely Old Man's Beard (Clematis sp.).

This fungus was pretty spectacular but I am not game to put a name to it yet.  The species suggested by my books all seem much smaller than this specimen.  After posting to iNaturalist it is clear it is Piptoporus australiensis (Curry punk)

This bridge needs a little work to become wheelchair accessible!  

There is a good flow in the River, and it is about to become stronger!

On the way home we called in at the Drummer Walk beside the Highway.  It has been fully repaired and well worth the hour(ish)we spent there.

Always good to look up through a tree fern.

A couple of snaps along the Thurra River.

Frances pointed out a Rufous Fantail along the way.  I was able to get a half-way adequate snap thereof!

On the 24th of February I went toMullet Creek to check the bats (Grey-headed Flying Foxes) .  They went retaking the area near the road, from which mowing appeared to have driven them out.  A 1.5m long Goanna was prowling the bush on the edge of the camp.

Later on that day a fairly spiffy thunderstorm came over home, dropping 4.2 mm of rain at a peak rate of 61mm/hr.  This clip from Blitzortung.org shows 21 lightning strikes in the preceding hour.

The storm dropped 5 mm on Gabo but totally missed the Airport BoM station.

The rain caused the Galahs to go even more crazy than usual.

A lot (my guess was at least 50) of Rainbow Lorikeets were also up in the Angophoras.  They tended to be within the foliage so their antics were not so obvious: but they were VERY noisy.

This one looks as though the rain had made the colours run!

The storm ceased at home after a short while.  Another snip, an hour later, shows a much higher number of lightning strikes as it wandered off out to sea.