Ironbark Orchid from the Shoalhaven.

This is another of what I think of as "Alan's Orchids" - one which I only ever see if shown by Alan Stephenson. Alan is the Conservation Officer with the Australasian Native Orchid Society. He happens to live in the Shoalhaven region, and this plant and yesterday's related plant live in this region. He knows the area really well.

This plant is called the Ironbark Orchid (Tropilis aemula or Dendrobium aemulum) because it appears to have an obligate relationship*** with Ironbark Trees (Eucalyptus paniculata or Eucalyptus fibrosa). These trees are large Eucalypts with persistent, coarse fibrous bark.

Note the bud shape, thick stems and flat leaves.

In the Shoalhaven region, these Ironbark trees are relatively uncommon, and we only saw them in two locations some 40 Kms apart - interspersed with millions of other Eucalypts. When we found the second group of the Ironbarks, we got out and studied the trees for Ironbark Orchids, and there they were! Effectively this colony of Ironbark Orchids is an "island" within 160 Sq Kms of unsuitable host trees. How does that happen?
This plant has swollen base of the stems, as is clearly visible in this image.
It also has flattened leaves, which are roughly oval in shape, and are smooth and leathery. It is very different from yesterday's "Rat's tail Orchid" in both regards. That is part of the explanation of why this plant is now regarded by Jones and Clements as a different genus from the Dendrobiums. However, there is great similarity in flower shape.

Unfortunately, when I was there, none of the flowering plants were at low levels. In fact this Orchid is fond of growing quite high up, but there were some near ground level, just they were not in flower. This is as close as I could get. I need to go back again, now the lower plants should be open! One can discern the basic similarity to yesterday's flowers. The dorsal sepal is not as severely reflexed as yesterday's flower. The buds of both were quite similar (see top image, above).Here is a nice display of flowers growing on an Ironbark on a steep, rocky hillside. They were about 4 metres high.*** Obligate relationship: Symbiotic relationships - "obligate - i.e., necessary for the survival of at least one of the organisms involved".

Rat's-tail Orchid - Jervis Bay area

This is a study of a series of Rat's-tail Orchids which I was shown by Alan Stephenson, near Jervis Bay (south-east from Nowra). These were flowering on 27 July 2009. Despite the name the plants are lovely, and were conveniently, flowering at head height, as epiphytic plants, growing on coastal sheoaks, themselves growing close to a tidal stream.

Flowers being photographed by Alan Stephenson, at head height.

The terrible-sounding name is quite descriptive of the leaves, which are very long and rounded in cross-section (terete). The leaf shape is the reason for its scientific name Dockrillia teretifolia (formerly Dendrobium teretifolium).

Click to see the leaves in detail.
The tidal creek is visible in the background, below the flowers.

I shall shall show a series of studies of the flower shape, as the flowers develop.

Here is a bud - tight, and unopened.

Here is a half-opened flower.
The labellum is starting to curve back.
Here is a fully matured flower - viewed from the side.
Mature flower - front view.

Mature flower - viewed from a low angle to see inside the flower.
(Click to enlarge).
The column and the flap which covers the pollinia is clearly visible.
This group of Orchids hold their flowers "upside down"
meaning that the labellum is above the column.
In Botanical terms, these flowers are "Non resupinate".

Here one can see the roots of the orchid growing underneath the thick grey-green lichen which is growing on the bark of the Casuarina trees.
These roots travel a considerable distance on and under the bark of the trees. I have seen Orchid roots (of this species) growing nearly 2 metres down the length of a Casuarina, even under the dead bark on an old tree, which was still standing, but dead. In that case, without there being any shade, and the bark being dead, it had lifted free from the wood of the tree trunk, and the Orchid roots were thriving underneath the cracked and lifting bark.

This plant is a close relative of the much smaller "Streaked Rock-Orchid", Dockrillia striolata (or Dendrobium striolatum , if you prefer), which I have photographed growing on the rocks above Macquarie Pass. Although much smaller in size, the flower and leaf shape is very much the same - revealing the close relationship between the two plants - even though one grows on rocks and the other on trees.

UPDATE:
Since I posted this Allen, from "Green Bites - News from Wild Wings and Swampy Things" has posted a matching blog entry of the tropical relative of this plant. His is Dockrillia calamiformis, but it was originally classed as a sub-species of Dendrobium teretifolium (same as today's plant) until both species were reclassified as different Dockrillia species. There are marked similarities, especially in the leaf form. Allen's plants are extremely floriferous.

Satin Bowerbird likes apples

Well, that will hardly surprise anyone who knows these birds.

Today there were many Satin Bowerbirds (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus) hanging around, so I put out 3 small apples on the feed tables. I have fitted screws through the bottom of the wooden feeder table (from below) thus giving me a threaded point sticking upwards. That means I can screw the apple onto the point (or just push it on if the apple is soft).

A male "Blue Bird", a Satin Bowerbird tests out the feed table.
These birds are so dark blue that they appear black,
unless the light is reflected off the highly shiny feathers,
at which point the feathers have a purplish sheen.

The system of screws as spikes to hold the fruit in place has the advantage that the birds have to peck the fruit to bits. The apple cannot just blow off or roll off the feed table.

The table is made of heavy plywood (7 Ply)
The screws are about 3 inches long, and are drilled up from below.

Up until now I have resisted the temptation to provide food for wild birds. I do not want to attract too many parrots and especially not any introduced birds. So I will not put out grain. That's why I have built a flat table, and not a tray. Also, in view of our high rainfall, it avoids any problem of soggy grain or bits of bread, which can attract vermin. But I figure that some fresh fruit will be OK. So do the Satin Bowerbirds, obviously.

Click on the image to enlarge it, to see the bird's violet eye.

Normally these birds are very shy, and also observant, so whenever I bring out a camera, they disappear. This bird was clearly nervous, and suspicious of my intentions. But it did decide it could get a few useful pecks of the apples because I was sitting at the far end of the deck, 15 metres away.

Here are some images from my friend George, of a female Bowerbird, at his place, and head shots of a female, an immature male and an adult male, for comparison purposes. The number of "green birds" always far exceeds the number of "blue birds" because young males keep the green plumage until they mature fully, which might be as long as 7 years of age.

Head images - for beak colour comparisons.
A - female or juvenile male, with dark beak.
B - immature male, with bone-coloured beak.
C - Mature male - the so-called "Blue Bird"

A rare glimpse of a Mangrove Heron

OK, I know that "Mangrove Heron" is the old name for this bird, but I find it hard to call this bird a "Striated Heron" - for this form shows only a thin white patch on its rufous chest - hardly my idea of "stripes". I prefer the old name of Mangrove Heron. (Butorides striatus) As usual, the "scientific name" is shown, to avoid complete confusion.At the risk of boring everybody, this is the problem with international rules of nomenclature for birds. Birds which have a wide distribution, as happens with many sea birds, and "waders", as well as some migrant Australian birds which travel into Asia, are meant to carry the name first ascribed to them. So names which were popularised in Australia, in the old-fashioned Bird Books (in this case "Mangrove Bittern") have been forced to give way to the international names. This bird was described by Linnaeus as Butorides striatus. That name was given to this bird by Linnaeus, in 1758, so clearly it was not from an Australian specimen (prior to European settlement of Australia). This bird is recorded from Africa, North and South America, Asia and the Pacific, as well as Australia, down to Mallacoota in far-eastern Victoria. It is uncommon south from Sydney. So this is an interesting record for Bermagui, NSW (Baragoot Lake) on Friday 31 July 2009, at 2:30pm.

I will report this "sighting" to the Canberra Ornithologists Group, as someone there will be able to tell me how to officially record this sighting (other than on my Blog and David's Blog).*** See update, below.

I should acknowledge that when I first saw this bird I thought it was a "Reef Heron", but when I developed the images, several days later, I realised how much rufous this bird has, thus ruling out that original ID. The "Reef Heron" is slaty grey (or white). It is now officially classed as an Egret. (Pacific, or Eastern, Reef-Egret).

My clearest photo of the Striated (or Mangrove) Heron.
It shows the hunched posture adopted by this bird.
It also shows the light green patch of skin in front of the eye,
which is typical of this species.
Click to enlarge the image.

In further "old-fashioned" bird language, this pose is typical of many "Bitterns". Wikipedia explains what I mean: "Bitterns are a classification of wading birds in the heron family Ardeidae. Species named bitterns tend to be the shorter-necked, often more secretive members of this family." Many Bitterns adopt this hunch-backed pose, when "skulking around" looking for food. But this bird was out in the open. But the hunch-back appearance is normal for this species.

My Blogging colleague David Young has reported on this sighting, with a very nice photo. So, this report serves as confirmation of David's record. David was standing closer than I was, and his image is nice and clear, and shows the rufous colour very well.

It seems that juvenile birds are prominently striped. Also, as with many birds which have a wide range, there are local variations in colour. There are apparently 22 sub-species recorded, of which two are recorded in Australia. There is a full page of Australian images of this species showing the variability of this species.

This bird appears to fall into the group described as a "rufous morph" (colour variant). This image shows the rufous colour better than my others.Here is a photo of this bird in flight, showing its habit of flying with the neck bent (tucked in).By contrast, here is a White-fronted Heron in flight (calling as it flies). This image was taken at the same coastal inlet, a mere minute or two before the Mangrove Heron flew in, and then flew out again.
This is my "art photo" for the day. I love the shadow on the sand as the bird flies away.If you click to enlarge the image, you can clearly see the shadow of the beak, and even of the feet and the separate shadow of the hind toes. How sweet is that?

The bird's shadow looks like a delta-wing plane - revealing the inherent efficiency of its flight, created by adopting what looks to us as a slightly awkward pose. Nothing off the sort - it is aerodynamically efficient!

*** Update:
This record has now been reported on Birds Australia's "Birdline NSW"
See this link.
My report is registered on Friday 31 July - the date of the sighting.
Anyone can join. The posts are "moderated" and it might take 24 hours to get your name "registered" and your record published. They will send you a log-in once you have joined, but my report was accepted on the basis of what I sent in, just by applying for registration. In other words, prior registration is not required.
So, as I said, anyone can report an unusual sighting.
Obviously, a clearly recognisable image and a decent locational report, etc helps to maintain the standards which one would expect of Birds Australia.

Bermagui dreaming ...

Last week I made a break from my routine in Robertson, and escaped to Bermagui for just a few days. Bermagui is on the far South Coast of NSW, south of Narooma and north from Bega.

Camel Rock, near Bermagui, NSW.

Regular readers might be aware that my fellow blogger, David lives down that way. He also wrote about our walk along this beach.David and I went beach walking, which we both enjoy. However, I would have to say that this morning's excursion was the hardest bit of beach walking I have ever done.

Natural Arch.

That is because of the geology of the particular area known as "Camel Rock", north of Bermagui (the pointy rocks in the first image, at the top). As with this natural archway, most of the rocks look to have been, originally, a relatively soft sedimentary rock, (generally known as "mudstone"), which has then been "cooked" and fractured by heat and pressure. The finished product is a hard, brittle rock, with sharp uplifted edges, a long way from those familiar flat patches of soft "mudstone" one often sees beside NSW beaches.

Ocean waves seen through the archway.

That transformation is because this small area has been subject to violent volcanic activity. Many of the rocks have been twisted under great heat and pressure. Many of the rocks in this area have had threads of quartz rock injected through them. That can only happen under intense volcanic heat and pressure.

Single, freestanding rock
cracked and heated and uplifted by volcanic activity.

In some areas, the rocks have been left exposed and it is exceedingly difficult to walk through these rocks without twisting an ankle, or worse. But it is well worth the effort. The views along this coast are spectacular.

A narrow passage between the ocean cliff to my left
and a rocky outcrop in the ocean, to my right.
We had to traverse these harsh brittle rocks
to get through to the next beach.
Watch your ankles, folks, and also the tides.

Here is a study of a large, free-standing rock which has been totally fractured under heat and pressure. Quite beautiful in its own grey way. This rock has been so stressed by heat and pressure and uplifting that I feel it deserves to be named "The Scream", as in Edvard Munch's famous painting.

"The Scream"
(Click to enlarge, to see the details in the rock).

Further along the beach is composed of fine pieces of small, yellow gravel. These mini-pebbles are on their way to becoming fine sand, but that might take millions of years, for all I know. The average particle size was like a "split-pea" one might use to make soup.Clearly this beach is relatively "new" and the rock has not yet been broken down to sand. This makes a lovely crunchy sound as one walks along it, but it is hard work to walk along it, because the gravel grains are very loosely packed and they move under your foot as you try to walk along.

Beyond the next headland one comes to a beach with millions of small shells, many still in good conditions, so clearly the ocean just beyond this patch of shore is very rich in live shellfish.

I could not resist snapping this image of a Silver Gull, as it flew past me, at quite close range. Lovely birds, well, at least beautiful, even if they can be nasty when competing for food.Talking about flying, here are several images of a Black-shouldered Kite which lives near David's house. They are beautifully marked birds and demonstrate wonderful flying control.

Sitting on the power lines.

Taking off (note the orange eyes and yellow feet).
The black "shoulder" marks are clearly visible.

A double image - two shots of the same bird
showing how beautifully these birds fly.
And finally, just to remind you that we were at the beach,
here is a perfectly formed wave, just breaking.

Much Ado about “Bundy On Tap”

I have received the following report on the public meeting at Bundanoon from Virginia Falk who had been asked to offer the "Welcome to Country" at the Bundanoon on Tap meeting.

If I might be permitted a word of explanation to her commentary below, it is quite apparent that Virginia was asked to provide a purely symbolic "Welcome to Country", thus ignoring the fact that she is well qualified (in every sense) to speak authoritatively on the importance of water to the entire community.

Trouble is, Bundanoon did not want to hear anything from her other than a few "nice" words of welcome.

Following that Meeting, Virginia sent me the following report which I am honoured to publish.

Denis Wilson

Robertson NSW

---

Much Ado about “Bundy On Tap”

Our little village of Bundanoon created a media frenzy when community were to decide whether to ban water bottles or not. Contrary to the impression created by some media journalists, who were not present at the meeting, community residents attended with open-minds and were orderly during their attendance. However, many Bundanoon residents left the meeting in an angry mood.

Protests on environmental issues tend to carry some remnant of the unkempt hair, daggy t-shirt and shorts image, where "Greenie" activists study political science or philosophy. Wrong impressions were created by the Media. The Bundanoon Green Movement fell across various social categories, from business owners, retirees and young families and Indigenous. Hardly the rabid stereotype of Greenie, chaining themselves to bulldozers in Eucalypt forests or kayaking ‘con placard’ down the Franklin. So what was the monumental fuss?

Several committee representatives met with me prior to the Bundy On Tap community meeting, the invitation was put to me to address the Indigenous issues to water on the environment that haunted the Indigenous Environmental Movement. After four years of doctoral research on this topic there were more points to address than time frames allowed.

The Green message was restricted to banning of water bottles.

Debate was not wanted on the untenable level of water extraction; the social colonial witch-hunt on swamps over generations; or the lack of research commitment to a la “Peter Andrews hydrology” of restoring endemic Indigenous environments through alternative methodology. Words such as Climate Change were few.

The Government “Silo” approach to Indigenous policy on the effects of environmental sustainability is always focussed on grant-cycle riparian planting, redundant environmental tertiary certificates that have no pathways for Indigenous peoples and where terminated Indigenous government projects and organisations often ‘top-up’ consolidated government revenue. Every Indigenous Australian that has gathered to government conferences in hope of career networking or grandstanding personal opinion, the conference ‘junkies come away with Indigenous logos upon pencils, embossed t-shirts and numerous meaningless fact sheets.

This dark view of an Indigenous world is not a “Harry Potter-like” screenplay of good versus evil, it is by the slick use of captivating animation and the use of fantasy genre to deliver complex narration in memento of ‘useless things’. Bottled water themes when singled out from complex environmental subject matter are fantastic ventures into Enviro-space that deny an Indigenous existence in Australian Conservation and Climate Change fora. Attempting to forge the purist Green message while disabling Indigenous academic and community participation in research, debate and knowledge transference - is meaningless waffle. This is what came out from Bundanoon's experiment.

The official tally on the Bundy on Tap vote was 354 for a ban on bottled water, with 2 against, one of which was a representative of a city Water business. During the “Do Something” PowerPoint presentation, the representative progressed the down-side of plastic containers. Attempts by community members to inform the “peoples” debate were “cut-off” in midstream.

I was the only speaker who was timed by a gong after several minutes. Funny how this experience was more in keeping with a stint on a local talent show than in evidence-based discussion. The Shepherd’s Hook would have been less painful and less embarrassing.

Through the evening the presentation emphasised the pollution factor to plastic bottles, not the entire still and sparkling water business practice that should expose Australia’s well-documented over-extraction of groundwater and the significance of water holes, springs and the existence of Indigenous heritage sites to these water systems.

In recent water research, I was commissioned by government to develop an Indigenous water policy in Western Australia. The request for a “reserved water allocation” met with political stone-walling. The status quo for consumptive water being politically lobbied by a range of water interest groups is the Australian model. Indigenous ‘first occupant’ status is considered tantamount to sedition. Un-Australian?

After a media frenzy of putting “Bundanoon Village” on cyber-space for posterity, the media aftermath felt like the Melbourne and Sydney Water Summits, where water conferences are run by industry and government. The Indigenous environmental concerns were under the radar, uninvited and received no media coverage.

Radio and television interviews for “Bundy banned water bottles” were saturated by reporting in ‘stock Greenie’ questions and answers. The silence on Indigenous water issues was apparent. This social mistreatment for discrete numeric minorities is core business in Australia. There is a rhetoric argument in lines such as, “The Lucky Country” or “if we lived in an emerging market economy without human rights you would be in prison now for your opinion”. I would rather be bored by reruns of polluting plastic bottles.

Social commentary talk shows in Australia are full of Indigenous media personalities that operate out of their generalist area and media hosts still employ well-worn “Aborigines vs Us” material that is facile and ineffective. On 20 July 2009, on a non-commercial channel this question and answer “Stanner” format was deployed from a journalist enquiring on the “political sufferings” of Indigenous peoples and the guest did not flinch to the stereotype question format. That is, Australian ‘sofa-sitters’ solving the “Aboriginal Problem”, as quoted by Stanner in his essay. This inane chatter raises the same fate for Indigenous environmental concerns in Australia.

For other Indigenous peoples who share a common conscience and contribute to the collective knowledge in water and its use, the ‘conference t-shirt’ appeals now more than superficial programming. Perhaps even the commercial channels would be turned from a series titled, “Two men, a tinny and a slab of bottled water”.

During the Garma “Indigenous Water Conference” 2008 the Indigenous attendees were in consensus that ‘water is sacred’. Following these intense discussions on how Indigenous peoples will be engaged in their respective communities in water management and decision-making, inclusive on the interface of environmental policy, the government attendees and university representatives and Western Scientists were ‘stumm’. Like the Bundy Bottled Water event, the message was about creating more opportunities for non-Indigenous parties to direct and inform the water research debate, through more Commonwealth paid ‘cut and paste’ style reporting. Over the past week just count how many informed, Indigenous researchers on water issues were interviewed by the media. Times up. There is no need to count.

When the Human Rights Commission requested a contribution to the current Native Title Report 2008 I was enthusiastic that this would broaden the environmental concerns of Indigenous Australian’s to the rest of the Australian community. Not so. The current HREOC report has substance and progressive material than previous years, where a chapter on Indigenous water has not even raised a media eye-brow. The chapter on water in the recent “Indigenous Australians and the Law” (2nd edition) and other contributions in this book informs the state of Indigenous Affairs by many Indigenous authors. However, this didn’t create the media frenzy that “banning bottled water” did across the Global stage. Last weeks broadsheets ran the Intervention and similar expose, not water rights. Again the mix of abuse, petrol sniffing and income quarantine conflates the underlying issues that don’t sell news.

Climbing Uluru did attract the “One Australia” melting pot fanatics and the genuine protesters to address the racial insensitivity to Indigenous cultural landscapes that were ancestrally formed not “discovered”, as some naturalist theorists and contributors affirm. Genesis and other world beliefs are sacred, why are Indigenous beliefs “myths”. Any takers?

The entire “bottled water debate” has missed the proverbial boat to England. Where water is defined as a ‘natural resource’, any policy will fail. For instance, where land and water have now been separated under Commonwealth and State legislation in Australia to affect a market enterprise and property interest, the Indigenous and informed Environmental lobbyist has been cut loose. The commodification of water devalues the communal significance of water. Australian has now legislated private rights to water as the norm. Funny how Australia believes it has sufficient human rights protection. The right to water is an international article at law. Read through Australia’s legislation, it’s absent.

I remember a number of years ago, driving around NSW and making enquiries on the level of interest from Real Estates to the Commonwealth ‘new’ unbundled water rights. Local people would say that they had calls from ‘out-of-towners’ wanting to buy their water licences for sums of money that was unprecedented to modest rural owners. Today, the water price has risen well above the ‘cockies’ ability to buy back into the market. For Indigenous landowners wanting water, the words, the "horse has bolted and left the stadium" are ringing true. Indigenous peoples in Australian have an allocation after everyone else gets their newly packaged ‘bottled water’.

The Indigenous Land Corporation, as told to me, has held onto water licences that have not been restored to Indigenous landholders. The Indigenous ‘bushies’ should have staged a ban on water in their rural and remote communities and infused this debate with the ‘real’ policy issues. Perhaps “Do Something” could hire out some reps to create a new media frenzy “coming to a town near you”. No fellow Australians, “gammon”. Meaning ‘just kidding’.

Water is not just a natural resource, a commodity or a consumer product. It is sacred. We just haven’t been allowed to debate the facts and figures. That’s democracy.

Virginia Falk

Bundanoon, NSW.

Solicitor
LLM LLB Grad.Dip.Legal Prac. BA(Hons) BVocEd

More on Sassafras Tree flowering

At the risk of driving readers crazy, I am posting several more images of Sassafras. These are of a particularly fine specimen of Sassafras in full flower.

This tree is clearly visible as one drives up the bends near the top of Belmore Falls Road (coming north, up the hill into Robertson). This was taken from the road, looking across at the tree, some 80 metres away, or more. As soon as I saw it, I parked the car to grab a couple of quick images, while the tree was in its prime.If you recall how small these white flowers are (fingertip size) - the question is, how many flowers is this tree carrying at once - the create such an impression? There will be no answer offered, of course. Just something on which we can all ponder.Can you imagine the perfume coming from such a heavily flowering tree?