Odds and ends of Monaro wild life

To make it clear, I don't mean this sort of wild life ...
... nor indeed that sort of Monaro.

Rather this post will be an assortment of bits and pieces I have recorded around the Monaro Tablelands over the last couple of days.  I'll start off in Captains Flat Cemetery which is renowned for orchids.

Unlike so many other cemeteries this one doesn't get mowed to billiard table condition so we found some Sun orchids quite quickly.


On my reading of the ACT Field Guide these come out as Thelymitra juncifolia.  However last time I took photos of these the local gurus all said T. ixioides (not in the ACT Field Guide as this orchid recognises the Territory boundary and stays in NSW).

We dipped on the Gastrodia seamoides and Prasophyllum, so to continue the baseball scoring analogy we batted .333 (which puts us well ahead of any Yankee for 2012 and any American League player in that year).

Closer to home I went for a walk along Whiskers Creek Rd (hoping to find the Blotched Blue-tongued Lizard I saw while running).  I dipped on that - but didn't see, or feel, any snakes so am probably in front of the game.  Here is what I did see:

We think this is a yellow 'form' of Dillwynnia sericea if such a thing exists.
 A forest of Stylidium (Trigger plants) near the start of the area.
A Common Brown Butterfly (and bonus ant) dining on Xerochrysum viscosum.
 A small blue moth, which I should be able to identify but haven't yet been able to.  As the proboscis is clearly visible it meets my criterion for an OK moth-shot.
Getting right back home, the Phallus rubicundus that has been growing in a pile of eucalyptus chippings for the past two years has decided to make it three in a row.
Also home, in the sense of on our property, we found the first Thysanotus tuberosus (Fringe Lily) on 16 November.
Near Canyon Creek we picked up Velleia paradoxa - which I think is very spiffy,  I suspect we only have one clump of this.
Although it is normally against my principles to photograph grass, a Joycea pallida flower deserves a spiffy rating.
While the red anthers are well known (it is known colloquially as Red-anther wallaby grass) I have never before noticed the delicate purple 'brushes'.

To ensure balance in the blog, during the day I saw a couple of high speed falcons.
Nope.  Not one of them, but going about as fast was a passing Brown Falcon while a Nankeen Kestrel searched along Whiskers Creek Rd for tucker..

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