An excellent expedition to Robertson!

I will begin by thanking Denis, of Nature of Robertson, for his great hospitality to us when we visited Robbo today.  I should warn folk there are 25 images in this post so it might be a bit slow to load.  (Denis noted in a recent post he takes up to 250 images in a day in the bush.  I estimate I pushed the button over100 times in about 3 hours: of these about 40% were binned immediately.  Another 20% bit the dust when seen on my computer, leaving about 40% 'reasonable' snaps.)  On the good side there is less text!

After a refreshing cup of coffee, some pastry and a good chat in the (Le?) Café Pirouette in the village we headed to the den of Peonies.  There was an astonishing array of plants in flower: it is amazing the difference good soil and rainfall make.

Two images of peonies, which pretty much demonstrate one reason why people like to grow them.

 A native hibiscus was particularly interesting.

The first of the plant/insect photos was taken when a red-tailed bee investigated a rose (as may be gathered from the apparent size of the stamens this is a rather zoomed image).

Also in Denis' garden was a fine example of the Carrington Falls Grevillea Grevillea rivularis. 

This provides a nice link to a few of the dicotyledons we saw in the bush of Kangaloon.  The first of these is the woody pear Xylomelum pyriforme.  Here is the flower (not fully out) followed by the fruit - enhanced by a patina of lichen.

One cannot go to this area, at this time of year, without a photograph of a Waratah Telopea speciosissima.  Well I suppose 'one' could, but this one couldn't.

Moving into monocotyledons at our last stop the ground was liberally scattered with small vanilla rush-lilies (Sowerbaea juncea).

Finally we get to the orchid business.  In addition to those shown below we saw Petalochilus fuscatus (many images elsewhere in this blog), Thelymitra carnea (not fully out) and Cryptostylis leptochila (only the leaf, which looked like a eucalypt leaf that had speared into the ground and not very photogenic).

Close to Robertson we saw a wonderful collection of Sarcochilus falcatus growing on a huge eucalypt and - surprisingly - on an adjacent and equally huge pine tree.

The rest of these images were taken along the verges of Kirkland and Tourist Roads, Kangaloon.  It was good to see the signs prohibiting access to the area to preserve the catchment.  It also preserves the habitat!

The pink not-Caladenia (Petalochilus carneus) was present in fair numbers, but Denis reported that numbers had dropped a lot compared to the recent past, possibly as a result of the hot weather.

The upside of the hot weather was that sun orchids (Thelymitra ixioides) were very easy to find (note the few dark blue spots).

Its beardie time! We found two species of Calochilus in large numbers (especially around the trunks of eucalypts where the mowers can't get them). The first two images are C. platychilus

and the next is C. paludosus.

There were quite a few Flying Duck orchids (Caleana major) which I always find tricky to capture adequately.  Perhaps they are unusually aerodynamic as they always seem to bob about in the breeze!

We then found some white not-caldenias Stegastyla sps.  The first is S. moscata ( which has a musky scent)

The second is as yet unidentified.

and some Diuris  sp.  First D. chryseopsis

and then D. sulphurea.

The final orchid see was an as yet undescribed Leek orchid which can apparently be referred to as Prasophyllum sp aff fuscum.  It was notable for being rather difficult to spot until one's eye was in.  We both walked right past them until one plant was spotted and them realised at least 10 were all around us.  (Situation normal for me and orchids.)

We now move on to more insect plant interactions.

The first image shows a flying ant (thanks Roger Farrow for the ID) which has been incautious in landing on the back of a Thelymitra where a spider had laid a trap.   The spider had done an exit-stage-right so is not in the image.

Another spider was not so camera shy and after some adjustment of my camera posed nicely on a Calochilus.

We finally get to the works of man.  This old bridge under Tourist Rd is far more attractive than the grotty concrete pipe as would be used these days!