ANPS Wannanother Wanna Wanna

This follows on from my solo visit to Wanna Wanna NR last week.  The weather forecast, and indeed the weather, was a lot better this week so a fair mob turned up for a stroll in the Reserve.  I think we confused the heck out of a resident of Pony Place who was innocently using his cellphone when some 10 vehicles drove into the turning circle and then parked in a  quiet cul-de-sac.

Whatever.  After scaling the fence we got into some plants.  My Orcadish desires - nothing to do with

• aquatic mammals,
• some islands to the North of Scotland; nor
• the works of J R R Tolkien -

were much better satisfied today than last week.  A colony of Eriochilus were found in flower close to the gate  and the first of several clumps of Little Dumpies (Diplodium truncatum)

soon after.   One of the later clumps had several photogenic members:

Then a member of the group found a Corunastylis cornuta (after most of us had walked past it!)

When we stopped for lunch, on top of the ridge, some members found various taller, but 'gone over' Diplodium sp.  We then found some live specimens ...

... of Diplodium reflexum.  There were also various leaves of this and that - possibly Diuris sp - but that way lies madness.

Moving into dicotyledonous plants I will start at the highest, with Eucalypts.  The first three images are of the flowers of Red Stringybark (E. macrorhyncha).

 Looking at the caps of the buds in the next shot shows clearly where the species part of the scientific  name (macrorhyncha translates as 'big nose') comes from.

 These are Brittle Gum E. mannifera.

There were a few flowers around at ground level.  A couple of clumps of Astroloma humifusum had an astonishing number of readily visible flowers.  Normally one has to get very down and dirty to see these.

 Brachyscome rigidula was all over the place

 This Wahlenbergia was agreed to be W. stricta.

Moving away from the Kingdom Plantae we come up with the Fungi.  There were many clumps of Clavaria sp.  The first 'different' fruiting body seen was Sullius luteus 'Slippery Jack' (note reflection in mirror, showing the pores, rather than gills, in the fertile surface).

The next two I have not yet identified.

Now we move to sundry Athropods- mainly with >6 legs.   You have been warned.  The first image is of a 'nursery' as the contents look too developed to call this an egg case.

 This is mum (or dad - I didn't like to get too personal in my investigations) Orb Weaver Spider.  I will take a wild punt at Eriophora sp.

 This Wolf Spider seemed a little atypical of the species usually found in the Southern Tablelands but the arachnophiles in the group thought the pattern of the back reasonably 'sound'.  The more arachnophobic element squeaked and watched from a distance.

 What is not to admire about a jewel spider?

Most of the 6-legs (or indeed 5 legs) of interest have been covered in Roger's email.  However the next couple of observations sort of fall within that category.  Some alert members noticed a bunch of bees - unfortunately imported Honey Bees -zipping in and out of a recently horizontalised tree.  A particularly alert member then noticed that the horizontalisation process had revealed honeycomb within the trunk.

Then I found this nifty caterpillar wandering along a grass stem,

Presumably one of the few insect larvae not gobbled by migrating honeyeaters.

After a very good start - Wedge-tailed eagle overhead as we climbed the gate - birds were very thin on the ground.  Given the amount of Eucalypt blossom that was surprising.