Barwon River, Geelong

Yesterday, we went to Buckley Falls for the first time in ages. Pokemon has been taking up a fair bit of time (there aren’t that many here) and everything gets a bit boring in winter. Even though we were looking for skinks and fungi, it turned out to be a pretty awesome adventure.

We’ve been getting a fair bit of rain this winter. Way more then we’ve had in previous years. There has been flooding along some parts of the river and the water was flowing pretty fast here. It was awesome, even if it was a bit boring with the water birds. No egrets or herons this time.

When I’m adventuring with mum I tend to notice the ‘faces’ on trees a lot more. I now collect all the images at Faces In Nature

Plants

I’ve sometimes photographed plants along the Barwon but I’ve never really gone out of my way to identify them. I know its lazy but man, there is do much biodiversity in small areas sometimes. Mum was pointing out plants so I made an effort to ID them. I then sought help from members of the field nats.

The above is a pest plant, probably from a nearby house bordering the river. That’s a bit disconcerting.

Turns out this is a weed too, which is weird considering mum thought it was so pretty. This is a species of fumitory and there are 8 species. My friend referred to it as a smoke weed.

On a side note, I actually want to join the friends of Buckey Falls. It’s hard because of transport and family commitments, but hopefully in the future I can help out 🙂 Just got to make sure I don’t overcommit.

Not sure what the above is yet.

This one is clematis microphylla. We get 8 species of clematis in Australia.

Male and female flowers are produced on seperate plants (this is called ‘dioeceious’ in botanical lingo, meaning ‘two houses’). The male blossom is more abundant and the plant is perhaps more attractive in flower, however the female flowers, produced more sparingly and with green central stigmas, are followed by seedheads with fluffy, silvery ‘beards’

via Indigenous Flora and Fauna Association

Mum assumed this was a pest plant, so this is awesome news. I identified it as “austral clematis’ using my recently purchased book about Melbournes native plants, so I was stoked. I got the genus right!

Apparently it looks awesome when it seeds, so I will have to check it out.

Fungi

We only found one type of fungi here, surprisingly. There was about five of this type on a tree as we were walking down a set of steps. No luck in identifying it yet.

Moss and Lichen:

I haven’t really photographed moss or lichen that much before. On this day, it was so interesting that I couldn’t help experimenting with the macro. I’ll definitely be paying a lot more attention and taking even longer to do my walks.

I’m hoping to be able to ID them down the track. I’ve organized them into different folders on Flickr to help me when I’m ready. Man, there’s just so much out there.

Insects

It was an average day for insects but we did our best. I observed this clump of spitfires which made me pretty chuffed.

Sethy found the below species of bark cockroach, which I’ve since been able to identify as Laxta granicollis. I didn’t have any help with that, had no luck on Bowerbird. I may be wrong but that species is the one that has the distribution map that reaches Geelong.

I’m so proud I was able to ID it. It’s incredibly time consuming, especially as I’m overextended as it is. The sense of pride when you figure it out is awesome though.

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It was a cool trip and I’m definitely going to pay more attention to the local flora now. It’s going to be hard, as many field nat trips and adventures with friends go too fast for me to photograph and notetake. I’m going to have to ask for a lot of help. Which I dislike doing, as it feels like I’m just taking advantage of others generosity.

I’m going to start with the Barwon, as I already have resources for that. Those ones I’ll actively try to ID myself. The rest, I’ll put in a folder and get help over a longer period of time.

<3 Hello, new interest!

 

Earlier today, Sethy and I made a quick visit to Balyang. It was an impromptu trip. The weather was decent and was due to turn in a couple of hours.

It turned out to be an awesome trip – partly because of the recent crazy weather.

We were there earlier in the morning, so this pelican was standing unusually close. I’ve had to put a pause on my bird poo photography project due to time constraints but still thought it was worth a try. Success! A much better shot then the previous blurry one.

A raven landed on the bridge as we were nearby and I had a hunch I had another opportunity. Alas, I was asked to zip up someones jacket at that moment. Oh well.

The weather was quite windy and this mudlark was grooming itself. I could have gotten some brilliant photos if someone wasn’t distracted by all the frog sounds.

We did find some interesting fungi along the river and at Balyang itself. Alas, I haven’t had much luck in ID’ing them. I’m putting stuff on Bowerbird but am very, very doubtful. That, and Fungimap said they are extremely busy and don’t have much time for ID’ing records.

Boardwalk

We still had some time, and sun, so wandered over to Yollinko boardwalk. I didn’t expect for anything to be there, I just thought it would be a way to extend the adventure a bit.

There was water in there!

I never saw it like that in the three years I lived in Highton, nor in the year since I moved out. The river was even creeping up the fishing platforms and past the canoe ones. There were frog calls everywhere in the main area. It was phenomenal.

The flooding also had the benefit of causing a lot of fungi. It was that prolific that we dragged mum down here later in the day to photograph it all. Alas, by the time we got there the heavy rain had hit. I’m looking to ID them but not holding out much hope.

We found this larvae attached to a log. There was at least 50 of them spread over a large area. I put them on Bowerbird and they were quickly ID’ed as a honeybrown beetle, which is a ‘Tenebrionid’. I’m so glad I bought that book on Tenebrionids in the CSIRO sale for a massive discount! They are known for skeletonizing leaves, which is funny because we noticed some interesting leaves and thought about taking them home.

I’m not yet confident enough to ID the above mosquito, despite buying the book. I had hoped to get more photos but someone picked it up and squished it before I could. Oops!

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This is going to be a fascinating time to see how the ecology of an area changes. Just need to figure out how to learn as much as I can without overexerting myself too much. Someone may have an issue with trying to learn everything.

Two months ago, I shared photos of what I assumed was a leaf curling spider eating a wasp. Well, turned out the previous critter was a soldier beetle. Oops! Buying more books to hopefully rectify such mistakes 😉

Last week, Sethy and I were walking back from Balyang Sanctuary. We’d spent a couple of hours there looking at frogs. Now I understand how Glenn feels when I bird for too long – after two hours I really wanted to move on.

We were near a set of steps when Seth pointed at me to look. WOW! There was a wasp.

Unlike other situations, the spider wasn’t in control. I was only able to get these two shots before it flew off with the spider. It was so fascinating – I was so thankful to Seth for all his help. That kid knows how to find critters!

Earlier this week, mum asked me to take Sethy out for a couple of hours. Mum has been finalizing her dads estate, so they haven’t been walking along the Barwon as much lately.

I said yes, thinking that it would be pretty easy to do a 3-6km walk and waste half the day. There is a lot to look at!

What I wasn’t counting on was for us to spend the entire time at Balyang.

Frog

We’ve heard frogs several times at Balyang but haven’t been fortunate enough to see them. He was looking under rocks – which is where he normally finds bugs – when he had this.

What the?

I later got it ID’ed as a southern brown tree frog. Which is amazing, I never knew we got TREE frogs in water. It’s actually quite common in the region.

It’s fascinating. I’m used to hearing about marsh frogs and pobblebonks, not tree frogs.

He managed to find two of them. I made sure they were kept wet and that his hands were washed. They changed colour after being taken out of the water. I’m keen to learn more about amphibians and reptiles. Part of me wishes Sethy could just stick to one part of nature as being primarily a birdwatcher was so much easier.

Birds:

Birding was a bit same ‘ole, although it’s interesting to see that there is still mating going on. Even darters + little black cormorants were going for another round near Princes Bridge. Part of me felt like saying “You are going to be nesting when it is cold. Ha!”

Me, hate the cold? Nah. Well, at least I get less migraines.

Other:

Another highlight – for some – was the amount of invertebrates we’ve found. I’ve been trying to get many species identified and keep records, something that Sethy has also really gotten into.

The above has been ID’ed as a sawfly larvae. No wonder I couldn’t find it in my books 🙂 So helpful and Seth gets really excited knowing what species it turns into.

There were a couple of these about. I tried to photograph one and someone scared it away, so he caught it for me. I’m pretty sure it’s a heliotrope moth, Seth has been seeing a lot of them around his area lately. Not so much here 😉

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Balyang is changing now that the breeding season is ending. I definitely wont be recording it to this depth again next season. Winter, things will definitely slow down and I’ll be reassessing how I blog about my adventures.