Enfield Forest is a favourite haunch of Ballarat Field Nats and on a visit last week to the Berringa – Misery Creek Road, we found 9 orchids. Here are 2 photos taken by Bill.
Chiloglottis valida Bird Orchid
Caladenia parva Spider Orchid
Posted in Uncategorized
There are so many beautiful places to visit at the moment and we are spoilt for choice. Here are 3 photos from Bill, taken yesterday.
And a few more from his companions.
Whist 2 car loads of Field Nats visited Trench Reserve last Saturday, two of us went for a 3km walk along Old House Track in Long Forest, near Bacchus Marsh. If you don’t know the site is it the only patch of mallee south of the Great Divide. The mallee is Bull Mallee, Eucalyptus behiana.
There a several walks to choose from and well worth considering. We came across a biological release site for a rust to control Bridal Creeper and it seems to be working well, as many plants were nearly leafless.
Following the excursion to the Melton Botanic Gardens some members headed off to the Trench Reserve in Bacchus Marsh. It is located in Tramway Lane and is listed as a geological reserve and is highly significant. Here are some photos I took back in May.
Posted in Excursion reports, Places to visit
Tagged Bacchus Marsh, geology, Trench Reserve
Despite windy weather we had an interesting time being shown around the Melton Botanic Gardens by the friends group last Saturday. Their knowledge and involvement in working in the gardens gave us great insight into the amount of work that has been involved.
Whilst the display gardens are the big attraction, there are some beautiful red gums, quite a lot of regeneration works to view and a many birds to observe. On each visit there is something new to see and always something spectacular in flower. Find the Melton Botanic Gardens on Facebook and the Plant Nursery and Depot are also on Facebook. A report on the excursion will be in our next newsletter for club members.
Out at Linton recently on the BEN Reserve at Flagstaff Hill, there was an interesting collection of lichens. They were mainly on rocks but some of the plants were covered as well.
Posted in Field reports
Field Nats Bill and Paul, visited several sites at Dereel on Tuesday – the Dereel Stone reserve, Swanson Road and Bliss Road reserve (east side). Unfortunately there are several gorse plants, some gladiolus and at least one plant of boneseed along the northern section.
There was little out in flower at the Stone reserve, only two wattle species – Acacia paradoxa and A. myrtifolia and leaves and buds of helmet and mayfly orchids.
The other two sites had good flowering examples of two orchid species plus flowers of nodding and trim greenhood orchids.
While it might have been cold and wet early in the day yesterday, we managed to have lunch in the sunshine at the Linton Reserve. The Ballarat Field Naturalists have kept an eye on this reserve since Trust for Nature added it to their estate many years ago.
We completed the usual fence check to see what branches had fallen in the recent storms and a chainsaw will be needed next time to remove some branches. We removed a bridal creeper from under a Cherry Ballart and had time to admire the correa and a few wattles in flowers. Over fifty kangaroos seem to be spending a bit of time in the reserve and we also spotted a fox and a wallaby.
Epacris impressa
Here is the link to the latest Friends of Canadian Corridor update. Our Field Nats Club is a member of this group but you may like to take out individual or family membership as well.
Note that there is a planting day in Woorookarung Regional Park on 13 August and that you need to register if you are interested in taking part. Details are in the update. FoCC July 2017 update
Posted in Field reports
Here are two photos of the same ghost fungi taken in daylight then at night. The luminescence is seen at night. On film and in digital cameras the light from the fungus is recorded as green, while our eyes will see the fungus at night as stark white. It does not actually “glow” like a light bulb. Thanks to Carol for the photos. Click on a photo to enlarge and see the luminescence.
