ANPS Bang(o)s on!
On 29 October we headed off to Bango Nature Reserve a few kilometres North of Yass. It is quite a large Reserve and we only covered a small part of it, as shown by the yellow line in this snip from Google Earth.
This is more typical of the bulk of the Reserve, although there were some very large trees.
Our turning point was this rather spectacular gully.
Other than the Ammobium craspedioides the major excitements of a floral nature were orchids. The commonest species were Stegostyla moschata delivering a musky scent (referred to as 'hippy shop') to those - unlike me - with a functional sense of smell.
After many white not-Caladenias had been smelt when almost back at the cars I found this plant which is pretty obviously S. cucullata with the prominent purple labellum. (And, I am advised, a pleasant perfume.)
In the depths of the gully where we turned our only Petalochilus fuscatus for the day was lurking in the shade.
The first 'beardie' of my season was found quite early in proceedings.
It is Calochilus platychilus given by the purple colour of the beard and the two sham eyes connected by a ridge
Early on - just after traversing the gate some members (possibly all except me, who was off looking at Leaden Flycatchers) found a Microtis unifolia. Roger Farrow has provided an image thereof.
Many bits of evidence of sun orchids were seen and eventually I found two plants with open flowers in a sunny clearing near the turn round point. I sought advice from the ACT Orchid Group and the eagle eyes noted finger like glands which identify the species as Thelymitra juncifolia.
Nearby, other eagle eyes in the field noted this closing plant which I thought might have been T, carnea although the stem didn't appear noticeably zig-zagged. A suggestion has also been made that it is a Steg. moschata, as they can have very pink undersides to the flower parts: having received that suggestion I reckon it has a lot of merit!
In the depths of the turn-round gully 3 example of Pterostylis nutans were found.
On to the other floriferosity. In the fist paddock there were quite a few Burchardia umbellata (aka milkmaids - que?).
The only member of the Fabaceae I noted was a tiny Dillwynia sericea.
Cheiranthera linearis: apparently an indicator of gold in the soil!
One nicely flowering example of Amyema pendula was located.
Detail of the Amyema flower
A closer-up of the Ammobium craspedioides.
There were a squillion Arthropodium minus throughout the walk.
Wahlenbergia luteola being tortured into a position to showing the blue and yellow colours.
An attractive Asteraceae seed head!
There were a gazillion (approximately 10X a squillion) Bulbine bulbosa. This one was kind enough to host a bark beetle (Eleale sp.).
Moving into vertebrates this smart chap's presence was not greeted with universal acclaim
By pure chance this blurry image did capture the forked tongue !
A fair range of birds were noted, although considerably less than the 40 species COG recorded a few days earlier. Leaden Flycatchers were calling all over the place.
There were at least two pairs of Sacred Kingfishers zooming about and calling noisily. I didn't actually spot them emerging from a hollow so could really call it a breeding record.
On the other hand the White-winged Choughs were definitely breeding.
The property has been grazed in the past.
As soon as we got into the Reserve we were greeted by a host of golden Daffodils Yass Daisies.
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