ANPS visits the Poo House at the Corner (of Kambah)

For those who wish only to see a faecal residence, I suggest you go straight to the end.  Those who wish to look at some other interesting, and less yucky, stuff read on!

I'll begin with a sight which used to bewilder some friends marginally interested in birds: ducks in a tree.  I think it is a tad early for the Wood Ducks to be nesting (plus these were mob-handed with at least 6 in the flock).
 OK.  It is June.  What the heck is Bursaria spinosa doing in flower now?  It is usually around December!
 A couple of samples of Westringia eremicolia.

I was initially excited by the sight of a flowering Grevillea juniperina even though we expected to find some.
Indeed we found lots ....
 ... and some even had set fruit.
Correa reflexa were also expected to be flowering.  Although we found the one I photographed last visit I thought this snap, taken down at River level was the most pleasing of the green form.
 The pink jobbies are also nice.
Apparently my good friends the taxonomists have found time in their busy schedules (between cupsa espresso #4 and #5 on a Monday I presume) to rename Cryptandra propinqua to C specious speciosa.
 At one point we found a good collection of Spent Speculantha sp. with numerous rosettes.  There were calls about leaves of Microtis sp at one point.
 Stackhousia monogyna.  Again, why is this flowering now?
 Vittadinia cuneata has gone to seed - possibly in season.
Discaria pubescens is an endangered species.  I think it unlikely that it is threatened by being picked for the foliage trade but it does look like the stuff the Maasai used to construct kraals for their cattle.
 Astroloma humifusum: flowers and fruit.
Now I want everyone to settle down, and not get too excited about the magnificent display of Pomaderris buds and leaves.  First up P. angustifolia (thanks Mike for pointing out that 'angusti" means "narrow".
 P. eriocephala.
 And finally P. pallida: another endangered species which grows in profusion along this track.
 Enough with the flowering plants.  Fungi were a tad scarce today, but this collection of Trametes versicolor were very attractive.
 On a much smaller scale, so was this white furry job, growing down by the River.
This is what I call pond sludge.  I have no idea if it is algae or some strange component of another part of the web of life.  It was at the top of the waterfall - see below.
Topsoil was in short supply, as is often the case in burnt out areas.
 Some snaps of the Murrumbidgee.

To say the least, despite little rain for about 6 weeks a good flow through the rocky bits.
 This pile of logs looks to have dropped a bit in the last couple of years.
This waterfall was near the top of the creekline we walked down to get to the river.  (Going down from the lunch stop was not feasible, as the footing and gradient both got a bit average.  I am quite interested in going for a helicopter ride sometime, but not to a hospital.)
 My latest attempt to get an arty water slash photo.
 An intrepid mountaineer scaling the waterfall.
 There were a few invertebrates around.  An ant!
 A white insect on a Pomaderris eriocephala leaf.  It wasn't big.
 A spider with very strong mandibles.and a bad attitude.
The poo house is shown below, courtesy of a wombat.
 I suspect this isn't poo, but a pellet coughed up by a Pied Currawong that has been eating rosehips.
As Ros said, a good walk.

Comments

Whirlwind said…
Martin, your photos are brilliant - superb detail on the tiniest of subjects.
Flabmeister said…
Thanks Gail. Of course many more images were left on the track, and at least as many as appear here were given a trip to the bit-bucket when reviewed on my computer!

Martin
Ian Fraser said…
Unlikely as it seems, Discaria (both species, pubescens and nitida) are threatened at least in part because they are attractive to grazing animals, especially livestock and deer.
Flabmeister said…
Ian

That is particularly interesting as we found a stringybark in which a lot of the lower bark had been ripped off and left on the ground. We wondered what had done this, with deer being one prospect.

I shall draw your comment to the attention of the group.

Martin

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