Walking in the Monga area

Today the ANPS went for a walk to Monga State Conservation Area (SCA) and a nearby private property.

We had intended to go to the Mongarlowe Cemetery to look at the great display of orchids there.  Unfortunately some locals had mown the cemetery and killed off all the orchids.  So we went straight to the SCA entering on the Narranghi Fire Trail off Northangera Rd.  Many thanks to the Senior Ranger for the area in pointing out how to access the area.

After getting into the area a blooming Heath was noticed immediately as was an orchid.  As the latter was Parsons Bands (Eriochilus cuculatus) which I have show in several recent posts I have shown it below. Here is a photo of the heath Epacris microphylla.

 This area was fairly low and swampy and there seemed to be a few birds around (including Scarlet Robin).  However I wanted to visit another part of the SCA to check out an area for weeds.  So I split from the group and set off for a walk along the fire trail.  This was a very pleasant walk (and also served as an exploration of the track's suitability for the group's vehicles on a future expedition).  The local termites go in for major constructions.

I crossed a gully with a good collection of tree ferns (Dicksonia antarctica) and an Eastern Yellow Robin.  The trees are Eucalyptus sieberi, the Silvertop Ash.

A couple of other intersting plants seen along here were Banksia spinulosa, Lomatia ilicifolia and Xanthorrhoea concava.

I got to the area I was interested in and found it to be relatively free of weeds.  There were a few exotic trees but most of the patch was covered with native bracken.  The walk in and out from the fire trail was through a Lomandra understorey.  This was very much an area where one made a fair bit of noise and tried not to think about reptiles.

Theer was considerable rustling in the undergrowth but every rustler I saw turned out to be small and to have an acceptable (ie non-zero) number of legs.  They didn't hang around for their photo to be taken so I snapped this colourful spider instead.

Walking back I found some Vittadinia gracilis and a small blue flower (Comesperma sphaerocarpum) which is relatively unusual and also one of the plants where the name is considerably larger than the plant itself!.

There were also quite a lot of Midge orchids around, but unfortunately they had all passed on (naturally, not by the efforts of a bunch of Anseriformes from the Bushfire Brigade).

The rest of the crew had gone on to the second venue so I got in an extra-good walk.  The main attraction (given that their waratahs weren't flowering) was the Monga River.

I wimped out of going across the river on this swing bridge.  I couldn't work out how to hang on to the side cables and take a photo at the same time!

As we walked around their property I noticed our colleague Roger looking at a Lomandra leaf.  He was actually snapping a mountain grasshopper.  Roger has advised that these have vestigial wings but very strong rear legs (here folded under) and can jump more than 1m.