Mallacoota October 2016 pt 6 Gypsy Point

The plan for today was to pack and head for home, with a brief look at Gypsy Point Cemetery on the way.  (We were to come via Eden so as to pick up goodies at the Smokehouse.)

Our efforts at the house were watched by a White-headed Pigeon - which is just getting rid of its greyish juvenile plumage.
 As it was somewhat cloudy and windy I wondered if the sun orchids (if any) at the Cemetery would be open, despite the temperature being well over 20oC.  Were they ever: I have never seen so many Thelymitra sp.  In this image I have put a pink ring around T. carnea and a blue on a couple of T. ixioides.
I would say there several hundred of both those species in the cemetery.  It is very pleasing that the mowers restrict themselves to the area occupied by graves (perhaps  ~5% of the area of the cemetery).

A close up of one of the larger T. carnea.  OOps, no.  I am advised that the reason it is larger is because it is a hybrid between T. careea and T. ixioides.  The myriad of smaller specimens were T carnea (as were those photographed under the pwerlines earlier in the visit).
 T. ixioides
Another species - to be looked up now we're home.  That would probably have been difficult as it was simply an unspotted T. ixioides.
 A detail of the column of the unknown - in case it helps it to become 'known'.
As an aside, and letting a hobby horse out for a canter round the paddock - I wonder what proportion of DNA is required to cause - or not cause - spots in this species.  My thinking about this is of course related to what is the critical value when looking at DNA difference to split things into species.

 We found one Caleana major.
 There were of course many Glossodia major, including this almost white form.
 One small colony of Diuris orientis (thanks for the expert advice) kept the donkey flag flying.
In one area there were many of these small blue lilies. They have subsequently been identified as Chamaescilla corymbosa.
 A small but colourful moth posed quite well. (The proboscis is visible so it must be in focus!)
 A new large memorial had been erected.
I suspect there is an interesting story as to why this has been erected as it seems to commemorate a number of people who didn't serve overseas!
 The next two plaques were on a columbarium and seem to commemorate local identities with interesting epitaphs.

Just after Nimmitabel I noticed that we had a good view of the snowfields.  I don't recall noticing them from this position in the past, although the mountains are usually visible, cloud permitting, off the Cann River Way towards Bombala.
 On getting home I thought the fuel consumption graph gave an interesting perspective on Brown Mountain.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A tour of the West (part 1)

Image
A friend from my time in the UN sent me some photos of her family trip along Route 66.  They did this is a large camperwagon rather than a Chevy Corvette (apparently the kids jacked up about being offered a trip in the trunk).  It seems to have been a very good trip for them and most interesting to see their photos.  It was also educational for me, as I found out the German for rocking chair (schaukelstuhl, since you ask). They did 7200 miles in 30 days - a pretty serious bit of distance. This made me think of the trips we did in 1981 when living in Denver.  Frances initiated that idea by getting a book about the National Parks of the West  and marking interesting places.  I then worked out a route on a Rand-McNally Road Atlas (GPS was unknown then  - as were iPhones, personal computers and the internet).  From memory, taking nearly the whole Summer school holidays we covered about 10,000 miles in 70 days.  Here, approximately,  are our routes: That map comes from Google Maps (G
Read more

Insects from pine trees

Image
This afternoon (13/1/2015) we were looking out of our sunroom and noticed a strange bit of mist.  On getting my binoculars on the case I found it to be a cloud of tens of thousand of insects.  They appeared with naked eye to be flying away, but with binoculars I thought they were circling. Here are some images In the second one it may be possible to see there are two streams coming from the top of each tree. There was a loud buzzing noise but that could just be several thousand wings. Earlier in the day Frances had been to some nearby willows and they were infested with many little black soft bodied insects.  Perhaps they shifted to the pines and were swarming? Help!! Any information welcome. A colleague, from Wamboin, had noticed a similat phenomenon, but involvng eucalypts rather than pines!  Here are the photos he took with his phone. I have consulted some expert friends.   Their responses were: I would have gone for chironomids. I recall years ago driving al
Read more

Maslins beach rules

Image
Anyone who was in Adelaide in the 1970s will be having a good nudge nudge at that title.  However the beach is really nice even though it is the haunt (in Summer ) of naked people.  (As an aside one of the 'van park staff was talking to some other guests and commented that the sights on the beach in Summer were not at all exciting.)  In April it is the haunt of seniors, many of them exercising their dogs, and thus a far more attractive place. Getting to the beach was a walk of about 1km along roads, from our van.  The second half of this went past a rather daggy looking paddock with many formed ridges in it, as though it was irrigated, although a water sources wasn't evident.  The paddock got interesting towards the end as some green parrots appeared.  Thanks to Frances eye for detail we have subsequently identified these as Elegant Parrots: my first lifer for 2014.    The locale is indicated by the red lines in this mudmap: Here are the birds: The view from the top of
Read more