A Tour de Shipwreck

A group of friends from the ANPS ACT visited Mallacoota over the weekend to plan for a full-on field trip in August this year.  The weather yesterday was ungood, and there was a power failure last night: welcome to East Gippsland!

The weather today was a little better in that it wasn't raining but the wind was gusting up to 40kph (at home - it has been much higher than that at Gabo Island).  However we trotted out to Shipwreck Creek to do a loop track there (which I had seen on a map but not walked all of). Here is a map of where we went, courtesy of eBird.  The walk is essentially in three parts as indicated,

As we descended to the beach some quite attractive fungi were growing on a tree trunk.  I suspect the tree is beyond "unwell".  The best fit to photos in "Tasmanian Fungi" is to Antrodiella zonata but I didn't take the undersurface!
I had been worried that the creek across the beach might be high but there was a nice sand ridge blocking it.  In view of the strong wind it was no surprise that surf was up.
At least 6 Gannets were fishing offshore.  As an aside the first three species on my list were Gannet, Little Pied and Great Cormorant: for a heathland walk!  Very few birds were challenging the gale on the heath and my total list was only 10 species, with the other notable being Rufous Fantail near the junction of the Old Coast Rd and Betka Rd.

The most widespread flowers were of Epacris impressa.  All three colours - pink,white  and red were available.
This is a little lily Tricoryne elatior.
An active flower on Banksia seratta ,,
... and a somewhat older version,
I think this is B. integrifolia.
A  pretty white flower - possibly a scruffy Pimelia sp.
There were lots of insects around.  In anywhere sheltered from the wind most of these were unfortunately mosquitoes.  In the windy heath yellow-winged grasshoppers were common.
I was a little concerned that signs on the Old Coast Rd referred to Betka Rd, thinking this might be what was signed as Betka track.  However it turns out to be the main road back to Mallacoota.  There were interesting ants on the road  This one was carting a seed pod across the road,
A different species of ant I think, but showing the vicious jaws
We only saw one example of Bloodwood (Corymbia gummifera) in flower.
All up it was a pretty interesting walk covering a wide rage of plant communities.

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