Orchids get lively

 Our afternoon exercise walk today was the Betka loop.  I am completely bewildered why Parks (or EGSC - who knows who is responsible for this track) still have the track signed as closed.  It is in far better condition now than it was before the fire (or the more recent flood).  Judging by the amount of stagnant water beside the track, left by the flood, the big risk once the weather  warms up will be mosquitoes!

The spot where the track first gets close to the River has been a good orchid site in the past but I suspect today it was still too damp.  Our first orchid was a single Caladenia catenata a little higher up.

Then our (OK, Frances') eye was caught by some Hardenbergia and on looking that a colony of at least 40 Pterostylis nutans came into focus.

I suppose this is the reverse: pea in focus, orchid nor!

The greenhoods have not mutated: I put red dots in my image of this section of the colony to count them.  There are 17 here, covering a bit under half the colony.

At the top of the hill we found a small colony of P. concinna, in the same place that we did last year.  Note the notched labellum.

Again as last year a small colony of P. pedunculata was nearby.

Finally, as we approached the road a solitary P. grandiflora was encountered.  That used to be the commonest species in the earlier flooded site.

More burnt wood art!  In this example contrasting with a bed of green moss.

Looking down into the River an Australian Darter was spotted alongside a Little Pied Cormorant.  We disturbed a fair number of Cormorants as we walked along: they seem to have moved from the traditional tree in the estuary (with very little depth of water) upstream.

More Heath, Beach and mud

Our main walk today was an exercise waddle along the Heathland Walk.  This also includes a loop along Davis Beach and back along the Betka estuary.  (The photos which follow also include a couple of ring-ins from other walks that hopefully add to the narrative.)

This is a tad out of sequence but the the weather was pretty good and applied to the whole walk.  I actually overdressed for 17C!

The first orchids appeared soon after we started on the walk.  This is Pterostylis nutans.

Another specimen which had been munched.

There were many specimens of Hardenbergia violaceae around, but that got ts day in the blog yesterday.  Today's "new" purple bean was Glycine clandestina.

This is included to illustrate how the bare black earth following the fire is now, 7 months later, the green. green grass of home!

It is not only grass.  The Banksia, Hakea and Allocasuarina shrubs are also growing, either from seed or sprouting from the burnt stems.

Burchardia umbellata

The regrowth of Solanum aviculare at the Davis Beach carpark has become a poster site for the species.

The flowers are beginning to hit their straps.

A sand cliff had to be negotiated to get down to thebeach.

A few surfers had got down and were enjoying the break.  They must have been picky, as we didn't see anyone actually take a wave: they just sat there waiting!

A pair of Hooded Plovers have reassumed the position at Betka.

A small flock of Silver Gulls were feeding on the beach.  Most of them seemed to be eating insects.  This one had a go at a small fish.  It seemed to be pulverising it by crushing the body with ots beak.

The fish was dropped and picked up again several times before sliding down head first.

This is an image from the previous day showing a tiny crab getting some action.  The tiny crab was one of 4 which emerged from a washed up sponge when I kicked it.  (The other 3 also contributed to the gull's energy balance).

These days t here are a lot of sculptors doing things with burnt wood.  The author of these two examples was Mr B. Ush-Fire.

I finally managed to get a keepable image of Leucopogon parviflorus.  The problem is that the flowers are tiny and when zooming in the stupid camera always seems to ficus on something other than the blossom!

Coming back along the Chip Track (talking of Seagull diet) we found quite a few specimens of Pterostylis curta.  The key feature of this species is the twisted labellum.

A Great Egret and a pair of Black Swans were using the water in the estuary.  You know its shallow when it isn't up to a swan's belly!

I have no idea what this is ....

.. other than a monocotyledon!  Hopefully iNaturalist will deliver.  A couple of contributors to iNaturalists did deliver with Romulea rosea (Onion Grass - a weed)

A Lomandra sp. is about to flower!

That finishes that walk!  On getting home I found that a fair amount of interest has been shown on the Mallacoota Birds Facebook group in a post about  nesting Pelicans.  That led me to take my telescope to look at the birds on a small island opposite the wharf.  I reckon the centre bird (and posibly the one on the left are sitting on a nest.

A few Australian White Ibis (aka Bin Chook) and Royal Spoonbills were also present The Spoonbill seemed to be having a Bad Hair Day.

 

The heathland gets going

 I decided that an exercise walk  would do me some good. and the birds had been interesting when I last went to the Gun Club track.  So a walk round there seemed indicated.  Here is my route.

The weather was average, getting close to ordinary on occasions.  As a result birds were not available: I heard two noisy Lapwings and one Grey Shrikethrush!

However the flowers were pretty good.  Most of them even stopped threshing in the gale long enough to get a photo.  The first was Hardenbergia violaceae.

A second, larger patch.

All colours of Epacris impressa were available

Although it is 3 weeks to Wattle Day I managed to identify 3 species of Acacia today.  First is A. myrtifolia.

Then A. suavolens.

And A. longifolia (not every plant cooperated photographically).

I had trouble pulling the name Dillwynia sericea out of the vault, but it came eventually.

Billardiera scandens

It is always nice to find some blossom on Spiridium cinerum: in other circumstances the grey powdery leaves look very like flowers and deceive us!

Euphrasia collina - I think: a rather blue form.

Leptospermum sp.

I only found one specimen of Caladenia catenata but comments on another post has said there are lots in this area.

Back in the woodland there were a few Solanum aviculare (Kangaroo apple).  This was a rather small specimen but it did oblige with a flower.  I think I mentioned the weather was unflashy.