Swift Moths arrive

As with many things this season, in Robertson, the Swift Moths have emerged early. No doubt in my mind it is the recent cold snap which has triggered them to emerge.

These two individuals are less clearly marked than many of the others I have seen and photographed previously. However, I have no clear basis on which to declare them to be anything other than the species previously identified as occurring in Robertson.Oxycanus dirempta 

Oxycanus dirempta

This one snuck in past the insect screen
Oxycanus dirempta

Eyes and antennae of
Oxycanus dirempta

Hind wings and abdomen of
Oxycanus dirempta

No doubt this is just an early showing for these moths which frequently beat themselves against my winds, especially on cold wet nights. Tonight has been dry, not wet.

It has forgotten how to rain in Robertson.

Five mm of rain fell on 1 April, prior to that we have to go back to 17 March for the previous decent rain (64mm).
The country is starting to dry out.

And now the cold has set in.

Winter is coming.

After missing out on summer, I feel cheated.

We had two pleasant weeks of "summer" in Autumn.

Is that it?

Bungonia and Long Point, and Badgery's Lookout

These three areas are closely located - but contain noticeably different habitats.

They all are overlooking the Upper Shoalhaven River.

Bungonia is (famously) located on a Limestone reef, which has eroded severely (such is the nature of Limestone). The surrounding geology is mostly sandstone (which has not eroded as much). But even my untrained eye can detect variations in the soil and stone colour and consistency as one moves from area to area within the Bungonia State Conservation Area. The famous gorge is between the "Lookdown" and the Bungonia Mine pit.

Long Point is next, and I must stress that I am not a geologist, so I will simply state that to my untutored eyes, the rocks there appear to be more shale-like. But it has higher moisture retention characteristics, seemingly, judging by the plant growth in the area.

Badgery's Lookout is the next accessible point along the Upper Shoalhaven River. It has a different geology too. I recognise that, mostly because of the different trees and specifically, by the different Orchids which grow there.

But here, at least I can quote from the experts who contributed to the Mulwaree Shire Community Heritage Study, 2002 - 2004

• "The sandstone cliff of the marine Snapper Point Formation [a body of rock] is adjacent to the lookout, while further east, a cliff with three distinct levels can be seen, a lower sandstone cliff [Snapper Point Formation], a plateau in the middle [Wandrawandrian Siltstone] and an upper sandstone cliff [Nowra Sandstone]. A peneplained surface [a nearly featureless, gently undulating land surface of considerable area] is broken by large rock formations [phyllites and graptolitic shales] which form the base of the sedimentary sequence described above. The headland itself is capped with basalt [a volcanic rock] and petrified ancient soil."

In the most simplistic terms, although these three lookout points are all similarly high over the Shoalhaven River, and give superficially similar views of the River Gorge, and are little more than 6 kilometres apart (directly) in fact they reveal the immensely complicated geology of the entire region.

At Long Point Lookout there is an old stone toilet block hidden away, nearly out of sight in a patch of dense trees and shrubbery. Around that area one finds masses of leaves of Acianthus and Chiloglottis.

As often happens with both those species, there are relatively few flowers to be seen.

Acianthus exsertus

Chiloglottis seminuda

 On the Lookout edge of Long Point, we found this nearly finished flower of a Diplodium. From the extremely fine tip of the "galea" (hood) and the position of the points, I believe this is likely to be Diplodium revolutum which we had found an hour before on the dry rocky track at Bungonia.

Possibly Diplodium revolutum

Sinus and Labellum of that possible Diplodium revolutum

This plant of Diplodium obtusum was the only flower of this species which we found at Long Point. We had seen many of these plants on a previous visit there, on February 24 It is interesting to see the same species still flowering in the same group of plants, some six weeks later.

Diplodium obtusum

 At Badgery's Lookout, we found Diplodium reflexum

Rear view of Diplodium reflexum

Front-on view of Diplodium reflexum
its hows a much blunter tip than the
related Diplodium revolutum.

And what is this?

This plant is obviously a Pterostylis Greenhood,
It has no stem leaves, nor did it have basal rosettes.
Also the plant appeared to have been nibbled by something.
But what? The area is so dry and stony 

it is hardly likely to be snail damage.
And Wallabies and Wombats normally chew off the entire flower.
The points, the tip of the hood and even the labellum
had all been "shaved back".
Thus nearly all the diagnostic characteristics had disappeared.

We end with a puzzle.
Is it Pterostylis curta?
That seems unlikely given the dry location
and the lack of basal rosette of leaves.

Orchids of Bungonia State Conservation Area.

I had been wanting to visit Bungonia State Conservation Area for some time, this season. But various plans to visit there with Martin had to be abandoned, because of flooding rains around Bungendore and Goulburn and Marulan in both February and early March. The problems were with water-over-road issues when coming from the south, not with these areas themselves being flooded, because the gorges are so deep.

Anyway, Alan and I both ended up being available on Thursday to make the trip. Martin was unfortunately not available to join us.

My favourite Greenhood (and yes I do have such a thing - hard though that might be to justify) is Diplodium laxum. I love the way its  lateral sepal tips ("Ears" or "Points") are so severely swept-back. Somehow they seem to balance the long fine tip of the hood. These swept-back points justify the name "Antelope Greenhood".

Few Greenhoods can claim to be as elegant as this one
Diplodium laxum

These plants were common along the edge of the road leading towards the "Lookdown". 

Incidentally, I love that quaint name "Lookdown", because when you stand there - the best view is indeed below one's feet - rocky cliff edges, the Gorge, the Shoalhaven River far below, and the steep-sided hills on the far side of the Shoalhaven.

Except for this monstrous intrusion over to the left.

Bungonia Quarry from the "Lookdown"

Anyway, fortunately, the Quarry does not appear to impact much on the Bungonia State Conservation Area (at present). It is accessed by a completely separate road. There is some noise evident, and some dust drifts towards the reserve.

A potentially greater threat to the Bungonia reserve is possible if this helicopter turns out to be doing geological surveys for the Bauxite miners who have a lease adjacent to the Reserve.

Helicopter had been dragging a "drone"
possibly a remote sensing device
for mineral exploration purposes.

Anyway, back to happier topics.

Here is the "Blunt Greenhood" (Diplodium obtusum) which we found growing amongst the shrubby Cassinia bushes which like to grow where the protruding veins of limestone rock are to be found.

Diplodium obtusum

We found many specimens of the Little Dumpies (Diplodium truncatum) (they seem to be "flavour of the month" at present).
 

This group was probably the best colony we found at Bungonia. They were growing away from low shrubbery and were coloured quite bright brown, making their stripes very evident. They are still typically short-flowered plants.

"Little Dumpies" Diplodium truncatum

After a bite of lunch at the Picnic Area on the main road, opposite the road to Adams Lookout, Alan and I set off along the Orange Track, then after only about 150 metres, we turned left along the Green Track (according to the map in the Plan of Management, there is another track with the same name, but that runs from Adams Lookout to behind the Visitors Centre - That is not the track to which I am referring). The track I am talking about takes a circuitous route heading roughly south-east and then meets another track which goes to the other main picnic ground, close to the Lookdown.

Alan and I set out along this Green Track, in search of some other Greenhoods which we both remembered having seen in an area of dry rocky hillside. We followed the Green Track for about 800 metres till it started to head south and up a steep hill with virtually no ground cover or shrubbery. There were still some trees, but not nearly as dense cover as previously.

We did find some of the Greenhoods we were after. Not many, but enough to be of interest to us, as there were some very fine specimens of Diplodium revolutum.

Diplodium revolutum

That such a lovely flower should live

 in such harsh, stony surrounds 

seems quite incongruous.

We also saw many more Orchids and Fungi and lots of migrating Yellow-faced Honeyeaters and a few White-naped Honeyeaters. 

But we moved on to check out the two similar lookouts overlooking the Upper Shoalhaven, at Long Point Lookout and Badgery's Lookout. But at this stage of the night I must leave those adventures for another Blog Posting.

Orchids and Birds at Bullio

Glossy Black-Cockatoos are listed as Vulnerable in NSW.

They love Casuarina seed cones (of which they eat both the small seeds and the woody cone itself). We were tipped off by the owner of the property we were on that "Glossies like to hang out here".

Female Glossy Black-Cockatoo
which is listed as Vulnerable under the
NSW Threatened Species Act

Sure enough within a few minutes we heard their relatively quiet squawks and creaking sounds (much quieter than the Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos I am familiar with).

They were sitting quietly in the Casuarina trees, and allowed us to approach fairly close, before dropping out of the Casuarinas and flying to a nearby Eucalypt tree.

The photo above is pretty awful, but it shows the orange red colour of te tail and, if you click to enlarge it, you can just make out a few yellow feathers on the neck.

I will always defend publishing an image of low quality if it shows the relevant diagnostic features.

Sandstone escarpment on the Wombeyan Caves Road
near the Wollondilly Lookout
which is almost directly over this property.
This is just close to the "tunnel" archway
on that road.

We watched a "Wedgie" circle below the cliff-line until it managed to gain enough height to then set off in along steady glide, to cross the Wollondilly Valley. It is lovely to watch these birds behaving so masterfully - in full control of the elements.

Young Wedge-tailed Eagles are mid brown in colour with reddish-brown heads and wings. They become progressively blacker for at least the first ten years of their lives; adults are mostly dark blackish-brown.

Circling below the cliff lines was a young
(note the light colour patches)
Wedge-tailed Eagle

In our guests' backyard they had many garden flowers which attracted the Monarch Butterflies (Danaus plexippus) This is a nice grey-leaved Salvia with blue flowers. These Butterflies are greedy nectar-feeders. They rely upon the Mild Weeds and native vines (and sometimes Figs) as host plants, though for their food for their Caterpillars. The Milk Weed was very common, growing beside the track down the hill to this house. I did not see any on their property, but Monarch Butterflies earn their name Wanderer Butterfly, so a few minutes flying time is no problem for them.

Monarch Butterfly on Salvia flowers.

The reason we were at this property was because Ken, our host, had rung me on Friday, in fulfillment of  a two year old promise to "ring me when the Little Dumpies come into flower".

When he rang me he said he had "hundreds of Little Dumpies" A small group of us came to the property on Sunday to see what Ken had to show us. 
This is what he meant. 
He was not kidding, nor was he exaggerating.

"Little Dumpies" is the popular name for Diplodium truncatum.

A colony of "Little Dumpies"

This is how they get their popular name.

Little Dumpy (Diplodium truncatum)
You can see the mown lawn grass in the background
so you can see how short the flower stem is.

"Parsons Bands Orchid" Eriochilus cucullatus

We also saw a few other Orchid species while walking around this wonderful property.

This charming little Acianthus pusillus was a total surprise for most of us, except for Bruce and Alison (from the Central Coast) who happened to have seen this species in flower when travelling through Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park on their way down here.

These tiny Acianthus flowers were barely the height of a finger. Much smaller than the related Acianthus exsertus we had seen on Saturday. 

But there were more subtle differences in flower shape which Bruce and I worked through by comparing our various photos.

1. The protruding tips of the lateral sepals (underneath the labellum) are more prominent than in Acianthus exsertus
2. The dorsal sepal has this wide section over the column, which then suddenly tapers to a tip.
   Acianthus exsertus is more or less straight the full length of the dorsal sepal.
3. Bruce also pointed out that the bract underneath the flower is at least half the length of the ovary, whereas Acianthus exsertus is a much larger flower and yet the bract is roughly the same size, so proportionately, this one's bract covers more of the ovary.

Acianthus pusillus

Acianthus pusillus

This is a Blunt Greenhood (Diplodium obtusum)

These plants were growing in an open grassed area.

(Diplodium obtusum)

And now for a fungus which I had never seen before.

I kid you not - this fungus is called
"Phallus rubicundus"

This specimen had collapsed already.
My Blogging colleague Martin has posted about 

this fungus quite recently, 

after the rains around Bungendore and Canberra.

Phallus rubicundus

An Orchid Weekend - Saturday - part two

Further to yesterday's post, having left Mt Gibraltar (a.k.a."The Gib"), the abrupt mountain above Bowral we lunched at Lake Alexandra, Mittagong. Then we went walking, led by Christine, a Mittagong local and ANOS Illawarra member. She knows this area well.

We walked along a series of trails at the base of Mt. Alexandra Reserve. We stayed low down, near the creek, and did not attempt to go high on the Mountain (in my case, for reasons of energy conservation) and because there was plenty for us to see at low levels of the Reserve.

Acianthus exsertus - a pale (greenish) form
A much paler form than the ones seen on The Gib

An interesting Beetle with a purplish tinge
Possibly related to this Brown Leaf-rolling Weevil

An orange capped gilled fungus.(name unknown to me)
Peter, from Germany, tells me
" this is a fungus of the genus Russula.
The species identification is not easy.
The most important feature is the color of spore dust."

 

Orange capped fungus (above)
turned over to show gills

Chiloglottis seminuda - typical two leaves of this genus.
This species has the glands (pseudo-insect)
on the upper half of the labellum only.

Pterostylis hispidula

Pterostylis acuminata

A cluster of Fungi

The same Fungi turned over to reveal the brownish gills

A Bullant which fancied "taking me on".
I backed off.

A largish silvery Fungus with brownish gills
I would normally regard this as a likely "edible mushroom"
except that the habitat is not where one would expect it.
As usual, if in doubt, do not eat it.
We made no attempt to collect this specimen.

A Dusky Moorhen in Lake Alexandra

Eurasian Coot standing near the edge of Lake Alexandra.

An Orchid Weekend - Saturday - part one

The Illawarra Branch of the Australasian Native Orchid Society had scheduled a trip to the Southern Highlands on Saturday, which troubled me, somewhat, as some of the local Orchids had been underwater, literally, for two weeks, and had no flowers left to see. Many other "autumn Orchids" had come and gone in February. What to show them?

We stuck with the plan and went to Budderoo to see the Mecopodum striatum plants out there. I had been able to show those plants to the Canberra Native Plant Society people the week before. This time, however, after three warm days in the middle of the week, most of those Orchids had finished too. We did see a few, however.

Mecopodum striatum

Then we set off for The Gib, where I was confident we would find some of the Scarlet Greenhoods (Diplodium coccinum) which grow there in dense ferns and long grass (under Eucalypt forest cover). It is always relatively hard work finding these plants, despite their relatively bright colour, because their flower heads are often buried amongst the grasses and ferns (or barely protruding),

Diplodium coccinum
growing amongst Maidenhair Ferns

Diplodium coccinum
A beautifully formed flower
These flowers grow progressively more reddish as they age.

From the front you can see the fine "tip" and
the points or "ears"
held out at a shallow angle on this
Diplodium coccinum

Acianthus exsertus
also growing on The Gib, with the
Diplodium coccinum plants

We then adjourned to Mittagong, for a pleasant lunch beside Lake Alexandra before going for a stroll around the tracks, at the base of Mt Alexandra where we found many more Orchids and other interesting things. More tomorrow.