Another excellent outing!

After comments on the Mallacoota Weather and Wildlife Facebook page about the wonders on the Betka loop which we hadn't seen yesterday, we took ourselves back there this afternoon with an aim of just doing the clifftop section to see if we could find any extra orchids.

We began by finding a lot more mosquito orchids (Acianthus exsertus).  We have been looking for these for weeks without success, but after finding some yesterday here were a heap.  All unfortunately fertilised but they still count.
Then Frances found the bud of a Pterostylis pedunculata (Maroonhood) with several others, less well developed, nearby.
I dived into the scrub seeing what else was around and found this interesting flower.  I am taking a punt on it being Phebalium squamulosum.
No punts needed for Kennedia prostrata.
A nice Earthstar Geastar sp.

And another puffball.
Then we came across a nice patch of full developed Pterostylis pedunculata.
I tried out the effect of my flash to get this photo and it seemed to work well.
Shortly after this we encountered a jolly band of folks well equipped with binoculars and cameras and discovered that we had met the Wednesday walkers including Jenni, the author of the Facebook comment referred to above.  We swapped a few stories - with us gaining the great knowledge that there were some Helmet Orchids just a bit up the track and that a subtle marker had been left.

Were there ever Helmet Orchids!  We have since run these down as being officially Corybas diemenicus - although a number of other names seem possible.  As is so often the case the vernacular name seems more stable than the scientific!
There were a lot of them around once we got our eyes in! 
Thank you so much WWs: now for the Powerful Owl!

Unfortunately at this point my camera began to misbehave, with the LCD screen going to black!  Grrrrr.  Fortunately once back home a few minutes with the manual revealed which button I had inadvertently pressed and things are now back to normal.

We had a brief look out to sea (with no warships in view but a very nice swell running.
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