A plant walk to a couple of spots

Somehow or another - and I am inclined to point at a Dodge Ram parked by the tennis courts - we failed to make contact with another member (sorry, Wayne) who turned up.  So at 1005 we headed off to Davis Creek Heath to see what was around.  Not as floriferous as I have known it, but I got a few phone snaps, nearly all of which have been endorsed by at least one reviewer on iNaturalist.

The flower is Leptospermum resinosa and the insect is I suspect a Soldier Beetle (family Cantharidae).

Melaleuca armillaris is beginning to hit its straps.

Pimelea humilis

Comespermum ericinum was very much evident.

Dianella revoluta

Wahlenbergia sp.

Coronidium scorpioides

A small Fringe Lily with a twiny stem makes it Thysanotus patersonii.

These much larger Fringe Lilies are T. tuberosus.

We did see a few Sun Orchid buds but none in flower.  So we took ourselves off to the powerlines opposite the Information Board on Genoa Rd.  Not an Orchid in sight (although later in the day we were told of Beard Orchids and Flying Ducks nearby).

It is always nice to see the large 'pea' Gompholobium hugellii.

And small 'peas' Aotus ericoides!

Several grass trees Xanthorrhorea resinosa had well developed spikes.

Following a tip on Orchids

 The Grand Final of the AFL was boring in the extreme so we went to check on a sighting of Beard Orchids reported by a friend.  That was at point 1 in the map.

We found beard orchids very quickly.  According to iNaturalist these tow images are Calochilus paludosus.

This one seemed 'different'.  Possibly just aged but I have called it C. campestris, Copper Beard Orchid.

We then explored the track into the Water Treatment Plant (WTP).  Area 2 on the map. Few Beard Orchids but many buds of Thelymitra sp. (Sun Orchids).  The weather was not propitious for the flowers to open, being about 15C and very windy.

One small Onion Orchid (Microtis sp.)

We moved up to the track under the power lines (3 on the map).  

Despite the weather referred to above this one has a bud open.  I feel safe calling it Thelymitra ixioides - the default Sun Orchid in this District.

On the verge of the main road, heading towards point 2,there were many Glossodia major (or whatever the DNA freaks are calling Waxlip Orchids this week).

A few other images.  I think this (from area 1) is Thelionema caespitosum in a white, rather than blue, form.

Mitrasacme polyforma from Area 3.

When we got home Channel 7 was still showing proceedings from the G.  I hesitate to call it football as the Lions were around 80 points in front.  The Swans had given up and the Lions were playing a style of football I remember from playing in Torrens St, Mitcham with my mates: dobbing the ball from end to end with no real purpose.  Glad we went out for a nice walk!

Observations on 6 September

 The good stuff began early with a sighting on our morning walk of 5 Australian Figbirds (1 male and 4 females) near Broome St.  When we first came to Mallacoota as visitors (2013-14) a Figbird sighting would get people driving from Melbourne to add them to their Victorian list!  Then as we walked - probably giving our rate of progress somewhat the best of it - up the mountain that is Angophora Drive a small flock of 5 Little Lorikeets went over and scored Bird of the Day.

I swung by Cap'n Steve's Point later where the highlight was 10 Caspian Terns.  Here are some of them, mixed in with a few of the 500 Crested Terns on the sandbars:

There were 37 Bar-tailed Godwits on the edge of the sandbars.

In the afternoon we went for a walk up the Narrows, mainly looking for flowers.  Many of the orchids we had seen on previous visits had gone over but there were still a few good plants around.

Indigofera australis is beginning to hit its straps.

As is Pultenaea daphnoides.

Daviesia latifolia was an addition to the Sptember list for the District.  A classic 'egg and bacon' flower.

Glycine clandestina was evident rather than being clandestine!  (NB the big leaves are Hardenbergia, the sets of 3 are Glycine.

Viola hederacea

Another addition to the September list: Prostanthera rotundiflora.

Finishing off a good day, as we drove along Lakeside Drive about 6:30 a Southern Boobook flew in the bushes on Stingray Point.  We are likely to hear one later, so it didn't beat the Lorikeet for Bird of the Day.

U3A plant walk: September 2024

 As there seem t be flowers around we started up our plant walks again.  After meeting at the tennis courts we went to the powerlines opposite Karbeethong Rd.  I wrote down 21 species of plants listed in the page "Seen on walk" in this Google Sheet.  Here are a few flower images.

Aotus ericoides

Comesperma ericinum

Thelionema umbellatum

Xanthorrhoea resinosa: this is the local species without a trunk visible above ground.  

Some interesting patterns of grass in one of the remaining puddles.

Walks are getting interesting!

We went for a walk up the Narrows yesterday afternoon, with objectives of:

1. relaxing; and
2. checking on the state of florification, especially WRT Indigofera.

I am pretty confident that objective 1 was achieved.  Obective 2 was also satisfied since we did see an example of Indigofera with a flower.  I example and 1 flower but ....

Somewhat to our surprise as orchid flowering has not been good recently we found a few flowers from that family.  The first sample was Caladenia catenata.

We found a colony - perhaps 6 plants of Pterostylis melogramma.  A small greenhood, which is included as a "Tall Greenhood" which as the plant was about 10cm high seemed a bit of a misnomer!

Next up was P. curta, recognised by the twisty labellum.

An interesting shelf fungus which may be Phellinus wahlbergii.

On the Narrows walk we met another resident who commented that she had seen some Nodding Greenhoods on the Betka River loop. So on 31 July we took ourselves off there. First good sighting was a Split-gill fungus Schizophyllum commune.
.

Then another strange specimen.  

The most distinctive element was the shape of the gills.  Unfortunately my phone managed to find a way to focus on the trees not the gills but hopefully this shows the odd shapes on the underside.  This makes it, in my view a very good match for Inocybe australiensis as shown in "A field guide to Australian Fungi" by Bruce Fuhrer.  (An identifier on iNaturalist disagrees with this, but I shall continue the debate.)

There seem to be a lot of Coral Fungus around this year.  This is Ramariopsis crocea.

I have been hoping to see one of these for years!  Ileodictyon gracile Smooth Cage Fungus.  Somewhat surprisingly it is grouped with Stinkhorns. (It looked very like a bit of discarded plastic packaging!)

We finally found the target: Pterostylis nutans!

Unlike many of the local greenhoods this one has a rosette of leaves,