White Mountain, September

It was a lovely time to venture into the far western edge of the Helidon Hills area, near White Mountain. Our first stop was at the creek crossing below Greg's place to look at the havoc caused by the January flood.

Jenny & Nick in the ravaged creek

After morning tea we had an invigorating walk through his property. A particular plant of interest was the Climbing Orchid Erythrorchis cassythoides or Black Bootlace Orchid. 

Erythrorchis cassythoides 

 

The black stems

                                                                                    

Looking at the long dark stems you can see the reason for its name. Go to Trish Gardner's blog for more about this lovely orchid,  toowoombaplants2008.blogspot.com/2009/09/black-bootlace-orchid.html. Other plants that caught our attention were Large-leaf Hop-bush Dodonaea triquetra, the vulnerable Four-tailed Grevillea Grevillea quadricauda, and the Koala Fern Caustis blakai subsp macrantha. 

Four-tailed Grevillea

Plenty of Koala Fern 
on the rocky slopes

John and Bob coming through
the Koala Fern and Grass Trees

Bird list: +/- 250m from S27º 25.724'  E152º 05.377' The honeyeaters were out in force on this fine spring day. The Scarlet Honeyeaters particularly were calling and fluttering everywhere. So though there was plenty of activity only 12 species were recorded on the morning. Perhaps some quiet time beside the creek may be worth investigating in the future. We also saw Button-quail platelets. Possibly Painted Button-quail as they've been recorded at Paradise Creek which is close by. Lorikeet sp. (Rainbow/Scaly-breasted), Fan-tailed Cuckoo, Laughing Kookaburra, White-throated Treecreeper, Buff-rumped Thornbill, Yellow-faced Honeyeater, Scarlet Honeyeater, Brown Honeyeater, Noisy Friarbird, Rufous Whistler, Grey Shrike-thrush, Pied Currawong. 

Relaxing at lunch

Photos by Lesley & Heather.
  

Durikai State Forest – 7 August 2011

This was certainly a day for honeyeaters as far as birders were concerned. 16 different species were seen. The highlight would have been the lunch stop at Durikai Waterhole where we had wonderfully close views of a number of species as they came in to drink. Particularly amazing as there were about 20 people sitting around chatting. The lone Bell Miner was a very unusual bird to get at the waterhole.

The group of 5 Emus on the way home was also a special sighting for our overseas guest.

Durikai Waterhole (28° 11’ 20”S/151° 37’ 27” E) 
Little Lorikeet, Striated Pardalote, Yellow-faced Honeyeater, Yellow-tufted Honeyeater, Fuscous Honeyeater, White-plumed Honeyeater, Bell Miner,  Scarlet Honeyeater, Brown-headed Honeyeater, White-naped Honeyeater, Noisy Friarbird, Crested Shrike-tit, Grey Shrike-thrush, Olive-backed Oriole, Eastern Yellow Robin, Mistletoebird. 

Lorraine took us to the Scientific Area of the Durikai, and we searched along the fence line with success for fossils of the fern Otozamites feistmantelli from the Jurassic period. 

Looking for fossils

And finding them!

There was plenty for the botanists too, with 3 types of mulga, several different wattle in flower, and other plants of the 'traprock' country.

Green Mallee Eucalyptus viridis flower

The wonderfully coloured calyptus, the bud-cap,
of the Baker's Mallee Eucalyptus bakeri.

Butterfly List

There was only one species seen flying on the day, a White or Common Migrant Catopsilia pyranthe. One was caught by Nicholas Matheson and identified by members before being released. There were two individuals fluttering around the morning tea spot at the Karara Showgrounds.

The brown hairy caterpillar found on the mistletoe (possibly Smooth Mistletoe Dendrophthoe glabrescens) was the larvae of a Scarlet Jezebel Delias argenthona. An ugly duckling of a larva compared to the beautiful butterfly it becomes. 

Scarlet Jezebel caterpillar