ANPS doesn't find Azorella macquariensis

That is hardly surprising most of the time as the plant is endemic to Macquarie Island.  However given the fogginess (this image is in focus) ...
.. and temperature (2C) when we started it was quite possible the species had decided a visit to the NW might be fun.  This was the closest we got!
I think it is moss and lichen rather than an angiosperm cushion plant!

Having got most of the "humour" out of the way let us have a foray into plant stuff.   There were not a huge number of flowers around.

This Cryptandra (there was still debate about the specific name) was in large clumps, but hadn't quite got its act together.
 Also a Hibbertia - note the fog still coalescing on the bud at about the noon hour!
 Astroloma humifusum gets the award for flower of the day!
A eucalypt - I think E. melliodora - had gone the extra step of flowering, but the local parrots had repaid the favour by snipping off all the flowers and chucking them on the ground!
 I was totally unsure which eucalypt this was, but Ros has kindly pointed out that is E. blakelyi!
 Acacia pycnantha - some debate about whether this was a plantng or a "natural" occurence.
 Birds do of course use the trees for various purposes.  This Galah was initially looking very innocent ..
 .. but eventually a smoking gun of bark ripping was detected!
 Other species merely seemed to use the trees as a quacking site.  Australian Wood Duck male ..
 .. female ..
 .. and a pair!
I cannot imagine that their beaks will be able to excavate a hollow so they will just benefit from the Galah's activities (after a few decades of weathering).

The smaller birds just use the vegetation as a convenient perch.
Alongside the hill was one of the golf courses, which - unlike Yowani - still seems to tolerate Ibis.  These were flying after a golf cart startled the flock.
 But they soon went back to their day jobs of removing grubs from the fairway.
 A couple of locals paid us scant heed.
 The view from the top of the Hill showed the taste of the developers of Crace.  There was some discussion whether this was more influenced by the Stalinist principles of pre-glasnost Slovakia or the free (or at least cheap) enterprise model used in the informal settlements of Africa.
Hopefully the inhabitants of this barrio will wander across the road and enjoy the natural delights of Percival Hill!

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