Pelican Workshop - with Australian Seabird Rescue

The good people of the South Coast Branch of Australian Seabird Rescue organised a workshop on Saturday.

I went along at the suggestion of my friend, Kirsten, who knows I grew up handling small birds (under my father's Bird Banding permit). I have not had any dealings with big sea birds, like Pelicans. Time I learnt something about them, including the fact that Pelicans smell nice and clean (which I thought unlikely, but which I now agree with). 

To me they seem to smell like "Ocean Breeze" air freshener (salty with a hint of dried sea weed).

Julie ran the Workshop - in fact she did a huge presentation - all day long, really, apart from a couple of breaks and a bit in the middle when the Pelicans took over, with a little help from some Sea Gulls.

Pelicans and Silver Gulls awaiting their invitation to take part.

The first Pelican to try her part.

Julie with a female Pelican

This is how they are held safely. Beak and Pouch displayed

Rhonda gives a hand

Pelican - with a healthy eye.

And there she goes, safely returning to the gang.

And the Silver Gulls start the clean-up process.

Underwing of a Fairy (Little) Penguin specimen.

Head and beak of an Australasian Gannet.

Beak of a Fairy Prion -a relative of the Petrels and Muttonbirds

Fairy Prion showing how elegant and dainty this Seabird is.

It was an interesting and instructive day. Thanks to all the other ASR Volunteers as well, who helped make it an interesting day.

More "Finger Orchids" (Caladenias)

These plants were so popular when known as Caladenias. The name Petalochilus lacks the benefits of familiarity and simplicity.

But they are the same gorgeous things which they ever were.

Here are some members of this genus, all found at Nowra and Jervis Bay last weekend.

Petalochilus alatus -  a sweet little flower.

The two side petals are typically held out in a cross-shaped pattern.

Petalochilus alatus - front view.

Pale pink with bright sides of the labellum, and a yellow tip.

Petalochilus alatus - from the side.

From the rear, one sees pale pink stripes. 

It is not as dark and hairy as Pet fuscatus.

Petalochilus alatus - rear view

Here is Petalochilus fuscatus. 

Even I would have to acknowledge that this is a 

particularly dark and handsome specimen 

of what is normally regarded as  a fairly drab species. 

This plant earns is name of "fuscatus" meaning "dusky".

A particularly colourful specimen of Petalochilus fuscatus

Petalochilus fuscatus

 A front and rear view together of this species.

2 plants of Petalochilus fuscatus

 Here is Petalochilus carneus 

Note the strong crimson banding on the Labellum

In Kangaloon and a Fitzroy Falls (on top of the Illawarra Plateau)

this is our most common "Caladenia".

These plants were seen at Nowra and Jervis Bay last weekend.

This is typically what one sees when walking through the bush.

By that I mean, this is how one sees it, when walking past the plant.

Petalochilus carneus - as seem when standing up over the flower

To get a better view one needs to "get down and dirty".

Petalochilus carneus - as seen in a close-up image

 Here is the closely related 

(and more spectacular) 

Petalochilus hillmanii

Petalochilus hillmanii

Here it is seen close-up.

Petalochilus hillmanii - close-up of labellum

I would have to confess that I have chosen relatively strongly marked individuals of these very variable species (from the hundreds of photos I took).

In truth, it is often confusing for me, to work out whether I have a pale form of  a "carneus" or a "fuscatus". 

And even the "hillmanii" and "carneus" can be a bit confusing when one finds less strongly marked plants. One thing helps, Petalochilus hillmanii is ***not found up on the Escarpment, and I have not seen Petalochilus alatus up here, either - not yet, anyway.

*** see my report (23 September 2011) of this species on Cambewarra Mountain at 600 metres above sea level - a new height record for this species.

Blue and Purple Orchid flowers

These Orchids were all flowering together, under a very wide powerline easement, south-west from Nowra, last weekend. It was a wonderful display.

For me, the thrill was to get nice specimens of Cyanicula caerulea I have only seen one specimen of this plant before.  

Cyanicula caerulea

The name is meant to refer to the flower being "sky blue", which is a bit off the mark, to my eyes. But it is still a lovely flower. It was originally classed as a "Caladenia" which is entirely understandable.

Labellum and column of Cyanicula caerulea.

This lovely flower is a slightly mutant form of Glossodia major also known as the Waxlip Orchid. This species is very variable in colour, with many specimens being spotted, as this one is. Alan Stephenson has photographed pure white specimens, but I have never seen such a form. The prominent V-shaped labellum is diagnostic.

A spotted form of Glossodia minor

Normally Glossodia minor is a very small flower, on a stem about100mm tall. The preceding species is twice as high. However, this plant was about 150 mm high and nearly as wide in flower as the larger species. Was it a hybrid between the two?

Glossodia minor - a large specimen, possibly a hybrid.

This plant always has two strange little glands jutting out in front of the column. Click to enlarge the image above, to see that detail.

Spring Tiny Greenhood starts to flower.

On this plant you can pick your own name to use: 

• Spring Tiny Greenhood
• Speculantha vernalis (the "new name")
• Pterostylis vernalis (the old form of name for a new species, if you follow me).
• Pterostylis sp. Flat Rock Creek (the name under which it is "listed")

Speculantha vernalis

What you do need to know is that it is listed as critically endangered under both the Federal EPBC Act and the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act.

For that we can thank David Jones (who originally nominated it under the EPBC Act in 2006) and Alan Stephenson, the ANOS Conservation Officer, resident of Nowra, and my guide on Sunday who nominated the plant for NSW TSCA listing. 

On Sunday, Alan Stephenson and I went out to see if these plants were yet in flower. They had just started to flower, much to my satisfaction.

Neither of those formal websites shows any details of the plant, as both listings are quite recent, and the necessary public information has not yet been produced. But it has been "listed" formally on both sets of legislation. It is reported by Alan, in this ANOS publication as having been listed.

EPBC Act listing advice 9 February 2010.

.

It is in the group known as Tiny Greenhoods. They were formerly grouped within the name of Pterostylis parviflora.

It differs from the other named species in that group by flowering in springtime and also by forming its leaf rosettes prior to flowering, whereas the other species in this group flower straight out of the ground with no leaves. In those species, the rosettes form when or after the flowers mature. Not so for Speculantha vernalis, as you can see here.

Leaf rosette of  Speculantha vernalis plus flower stem base visible

 Here is the flower seen from the rear.

rear view of  Speculantha vernalis

 Leaf rosettes of this Spring Tiny Greenhood.

This plant has a preference for growing 

on moss beds, 

sometimes on sandy soil under low shrubs, 

or otherwise on sandstone rock shelves.

Spring Tiny Greenhood in situ

  Multiple plants (leaf rosettes and some flowering)

Click to enlarge image

Speculantha vernalis in situ - multiple plants

Echidna and Possum babies in Shoalhaven region

Today I was driving along Culburra Road, south from Nowra, when a car coming the other way, suddenly stopped, flashing its lights. A man got out of the car, and stood on the road in front of the car. It looked puzzling, till we drew up opposite them and realised there was an Echidna on the road, and the guy was trying to stop it from walking across the  road, where it would have been at great risk from passing cars.

The lady then got out and grabbed some "welding gloves" from the boot. Turns out they were Wildlife Rescuers who had received a call to go and collect a baby Brush-tailed Possum the mother of which had been killed by someone's "pet" dog.

Here is the baby Possum

baby Brush-tailed Possum

 I was surprised how much it looked like a Kangaroo, with its short fur, and lack of the normal markings. But the "hands" on the front legs were very obviously equipped for climbing, with sharp claws and a thick pad on the "thumb".

While going to answer that call, they had seen the same Echidna, and had moved it off the road.

Having collected the Possum, they were returning home, on the same road, and found the same Echidna trying again to cross the same road. They are notoriously persistent.

Echidna being held by the rescuer who stopped it from getting run over

That's where they were up to in this story, when we arrived.

I sought permission to take a few images, and they agreed.

This Echidna was merely half-grown.

Echidna - close up shot. It kept wriggling and hiding its face.

Echidna's snout which includes its nose, and the very long tongue

They moved the Echidna for the second time - this time to the far side of the road, where it apparently wanted to go.

For overseas guests to this Blog, an Echidna is an ant-eating marsupial animal (in fact they have preference for breaking into termite mounds to get the larvae). It and the Platypus are proto-marsupials*** which lay eggs, yet suckle their young. *** I have been corrected on the use of that term. I should have stuck with just calling them "monotremes" but thought that was going to be too confusing. My instinct on that was right. Check out this article on Monotreme taxonomy. 

Echidnas are notoriously stubborn about crossing roads, and they are frequently killed in the process. I have written about one I found freshly killed when crossing another road.

There is an interesting article about the biology of Echidnas, and their rescuing, at Fourth Crossing Wildlife

Spring Is coming in a rush, in the "bush".

This post will primarily be about Orchids, but let me just say that the "bush" is coming alive in the Illawarra and Southern Highlands. And it looks great!

Wattles are in flower everywhere, lining the roads and tracks, and the Pea flowers are climbing, scrambling or in the case of the shrubby ones, just standing up and flowering their little heads off.

But amongst these shrubs, the spring-flowering Orchids are just coming into flower too.

Just down my local hill, below Macquarie Pass, at Albion Park, the rare and endangered Illawarra Greenhood - better known simply as "gibbosas", have started to flower. 

The name Oligochaetochilus gibbosus amounts to the unpronounceable in search of the "bent over". 

Gibbous means humpbacked. The other part of the name, refers to its few spiky hairs on the labellum.

It is listed under the EPBC Act as Endangered, because of its limited distribution.

Here is the flower seen from the side
It is demonstrating its "gibbous" posture.

Oligochaetochilus gibbosus

And from the front, with the labellum "set"

Oligochaetochilus gibbosus

The EPBC Act recovery plan for this species includes this Pterostylis gibbosa drawing by A. W. Dockrill (reproduced from The Orchardian Volume 12, Number 3, March 1997 with the permission of the Editor)

">Botanical drawing of this species by AW Dockrill

In the same area, is found a cousin of that first species, Hymenochilus bicolor

It is a Midget Greenhood which has been renamed. In common parlance it is called the Black-tip Greenhood, in reference to its labellum. 

Black-tip Greenhood Hymenochilus bicolor

***************

In the same area I found the first of the regular spring "Caladenias"

This is Petalochilus carneus, best known as "Pink Fingers"

Petalochilus carneus

 There is often considerable variation between different flowers.

Pink Fingers Orchid  Petalochilus carneus

There will be many more of these "Spring Orchids" over the next few days. 

Time and space are running out on me.

Daffodil Day - for all persons experienced with cancer.

Today (well yesterday as I write, but I will back-date the publication date to fit) is Daffodil Day. It is a major fun-raising event for the Cancer Council.

Unlike last year, there is not a large display of Daffodls in flower, in front of the Big Potato, in Robbo, this year, for Daffodil day. There are just two patches of flowering Daffs, and lots of leaves. 

The story is that large numbers of the Daffodils planted in front of the Big Spud were pinched last summer, as they died down (clearly by someone intending to replant them themselves). As a result, the bulbs which were planted to replace the stolen ones are in leaf, but not yet in flower. They may flower this year, but if they do they will have missed the timing to make massed display in front of the Big Spud. Lets hope they all make a massed flowering display next year.

I will at least post photos of individual plants of Daffodils and Jonquils (all related Narcissus plants) which are flowering in my yard today.

Happy Daffodil Day to everybody who has been involved with cancer - whether you yourself, or a close friend or partner, or family member. And that's just about everybody, when you think about it.

Yellow and orange Jonquils "soliel d'or"

A lovely single Daffodil J.T. Bennett Poe - just opening

A bright small cupped orange and gold daffodil

A lovely bunch of tiny Daffodils, "Tete-a-tete"

A large orange and gold Daffodil with wide, frilled cup.

A sweetly perfumed Jonquil. Narcissus tazetta

Sweetly perfumed white double Jonquil "Earlicheer"