ANPS gets Pomaderrissed (again)

After a few false starts - including one trip aborted due to Urriara Crossing being well flooded - ANPS finally made it to Woodstock Reserve on the Western side of the Crossing.

A nice map showed the horizontal layout of the reserve which is on both sides of the Murrumbidgee.  I suspect the sign is sponsored by OPSM as the small size will lead to eye strain.  It is probably co-sponsored by ACME Chiropractic since it doesn't mention the verticality of the tracks, which are their most noticeable feature.

Several members commented on the high quality of the track.  This was also a feature of discussion when COG visited the area in May this year.  At that time I asked CNP the reason for the opulence and then included the following comment in my post:

 "A CNP staffer has explained that the area is a strategic site for fire control and there is a lot of water quality work done downstream.  Thus they need reliable access: a very fair answer. "

Sounds like a fair thing to me.

There is still a very healthy flow in the River.

To the Pomaderris!  We'd hardly strapped on the crampons for the descent when we came across P. eriocephala.

 Two belays later P. subcapitata revealed itself.

 After initially getting excited about a few fairly miserable specimens we then found an example of P. angustifolia in full bloom is a side canyon.

 I normally refuse to have anything to do with subspecies or varieties, seeing such additional detail as the work of he-who-should-not be-named tempting young academics with easy research papers.  However my Rhamnacephile colleagues today were excited about two subspecies of P. betulina.  The first found was P. b. betulina.

 While this is P. b. actensis.

 Enough with the Pomaderris.    I thought we were going to fail to find any orchids for a while.  Then we came across a garden of Glossodia major.

 When the weather warms this will inshallah turn into a Thelymitra.

 Petalochilus fuscatus.

There was also a huge number of Microtis (Onion orchid) leaves evident. but I have enough trouble trying to work them out when in flower and I didn't see a need to bother you with, effectively, a photograph of a strange lawn.

I was bemused by the absence of greenhoods from the bank beside which we walked for a fair bit of the track.  We discussed whether this could reflect geology as the area was over igneous rock with the orchid-rich Black Mountain is sedimentary rock based.  (Interestingly the area of our block which is orchid rich is shale based while there are few/no orchids in the granite section.)

On to more general flowers.  Cymbonotus sp. (Bears ears).

 Clematis leptophylla: these flowers looked very shiny, waving around in the gale.

 This one really got folk agitated as it is Bossiaea grayi and is about hen's teeth level of rarity.  (I was going to mention rocking horses there, but remembered this is a family oriented blog.)

Gynatrix pulchella: male flower.  I was shown a female tree but the flowers were well past their youthful phase and the images were very ordinary: you may judge how bad they had to be by contemplating the quality of some of those which have made it!

Wahlenbergia communis.

 Stackhousia monogyna

 Westringia eremicola

A very nice population of Bulbine glauca was growing on a large rock outcrop.  My guess is there were at least 60 plants in this colony.

As we got down to the lower levels (supplementary oxygen no longer needed) a field of Wurrmbea dioica caught my attention.

 Mixed in with these were a huge number of flowering Drosera peltata (?).  Anyway, sundews.

 They are carnivorous and I would say that this one had vored some carni.

Thysanotus patersoni!

Grevillea juniperina

 the lunch stop was by the river under the shade of a Coolabah Casuarina cunninghamii tree .  This was graced by some Amyema cambagei imitating the leaves of the host.

 This is a close-up of the very spiffy flowers.

 I will close with a picture of a very pretty bank of weeds on a huge (5m+ high) shingle bank.  Califonia Poppy springs to mind.

We also racked up a quite reasonable bird list, with 26 species.  The highlight occurred quite early with a passing Wedge-tailed Eagle being harassed by a pair of Nankeen Kestrels and a larger Falcon.  I concluded that the larger bird was a Brown Falcon rather than one of the Peregrines known to reside in the area.  A few other species (Eastern Whipbird; Eastern Yellow Robin and New Holland Honeyeater) are more commonly found in the ranges to the West of this site than the urban area growing ever closer from the East.