ANPS goes to the movies at Gigerline

The movie analogies started just as we were leaving home when we got a phone call warning of two of NSW finest hiding behind things annoying motorists on Captains Flat rd.  This became a bit like the various scenes of The Blues Brothers!  One would think they had better things to do than raise revenue.

On getting to the appointed meeting spot at Williamsdale the next movie appeared.  This was The Omen: not that any demon spawn were evident (they were on Captains Flat Rd) but the skies were ominous in the matter of cloud and the plants in the matter of weeds.

Vipers Bugloss, the Wort and a big Scotch Thistle: not looking good.  The first paddock was pretty terrible, but things began to look up after we crossed this rather attractive creek.

All still water bodies were well endowed with frogs spawn, although neither amphibians nor pollywogs were seen.  {Update: No frogs were seen by me, but many saw a Peron's Tree Frog by the dam at the lunch spot.  I was busy photographing a legless reptile about 1km away at the time.}

Few flowering beans were seen today.  The only one I photographed was Zornia dyctiocarpa: here in flower ...

 ... and here in seed.

Many Blue Devils (Eryngium ovinum) were encountered (OK - back to The Omen) but most looked as though they had received a visit from The Exorcist!  This one was the exception.

Here we are getting back to 1950s Horror movies with a gigantic ant - or a really tiny set of flowers.  Of course it is the latter: the name Glossostigma ? diandrum is far longer than the flowers are wide!

This is a Chocolate lily which I thought was Arthrodium fimbriatum, but someone seems to have been short of a topic for a paper so the forces of evil (Omen, anyone?) have disappeared that from Plantnet,

Glycine tabcina.

The recent rain appears to have engendered a girth spurt in the Eucalyptus rossii revealing the nice new cream bark underneath the dirty old grey stuff.

Ottelia ovalifolia 

Of course we have to have a Pomaderris.  In this case its P betulina betulina.  (Perhaps we are moving to musicals and, like New York NY, its so good they had to name it twice?)

The birds were actually pretty good although few of them posed for photos .  I sort of nailed this Noisy Friarbird.

I didn't feel I should disturb this Wille Wagtail's nest, by bringing the whole group over, as the parents were going quite ballistic enough with just me there.  There are 3 chicks in there!

This is bird of the day.  It is a fledgling Brush Cuckoo which was being fed by a Leaden Flycatcher.  I couldn't get the feeding in an image but the cuckoos are pretty unusual so I have put in two snaps.

It doesn't have golden eyes so isn't a Midwich Cuckoo!

A cooperative Jacky Lizard.

Its always good to misquote from Crocodile Dundee.    "Call that a snake? ...."

No, that's a bit of discarded pipe - this is a snake.  Notice the forked tongue and - for one reader of this blog - you can see the red on the belly!

I will do some more on naming the invertebrates, which largely consisted f copying the names from the photos Roger circulated - thanks Roger - . but have decided to get the snaps'n'quips out in a timely manner.  A Golden Orb spider Nephila edulis.

 A caterpillar Doratifera quadriguttata (a cut moth larva) exploring Frances' fingernail.

This one adhered to tradition and explored a gum leaf.

A woolly bear Anthela varia

There are two grasshoppers Caledia captiva  in this image.  I assume they were engaged in 'adult business' which was somewhat to the detriment of the lower individual.

Another long thin job.from the family Eumastacidae.

Back to the monster insects: a Christmas Beetle Anoplognathus montanus with a beautifully iridescent carapace.

An unusual case moth as the case is made of leaves rather than the usual small twigs.

I am not sure which movie this mess represented - perhaps the finale of Mad Max?- but surely several tonnes of scrap metal could be recycled rather than just left in the bush to oxidise?

This old truck body had a lot of interesting stuff in it.  The pots look like those used for testing the strength of concrete so may have some link to gravel mining.

I don't know if Bonney and Clyde drove an International truck (somehow I imagine them as more Packhard or Dodge people) but this door looks just like the final scene of that movie.

And after survivng the descent to water level, which certainly had my "body all achin' an racked wid pain"  here we have Old Man River.  It did look muddy enough to be the Mississippi but I couldn't spot anybody totin' barges or liftin' bales.

Then just a quick sprint back to the cars.