Lal Lal and Moorabool Falls

If you didn’t make it out to see the Lal Lal Falls in the last week, here are some photos from Friday.  There were lots of people looking at the water today.

Lal Lal Creek

Lal Lal Creek as it goes over the falls

Lal Lal Falls

Lal Lal Creek after the falls

Lal Lal Falls

Not everyone knows about Moorabool Falls and they are smaller than the Lal Lal Falls but close by.  It is a bit a a walk to get to them, but if you park in the carpark in Harris Road and take the scenic walk you will be rewarded with plenty of views and you may spot a wallaby or two.

The West Branch of the Moorabool River

Kangaroo grass on the slope

View to the Lal Lal Reservoir

A bird with a view

Lal Lal Reservoir

The West Branch of the Moorabool River

The West Branch of the Moorabool River

Moorabool Falls

Moorabool Falls

Clarkesdale and Field Nats

On 3 September about 30 Ballarat and Geelong Field Nats met up for an excursion to Clarkesdale at Linton. This is a favourite site for birdos and there are always an interesting selection of birds to see. When the ‘bird paddock’ was first planted out many native plants were included that were not local to the area but provided great bird habitat and food.

view from the bird hide

Jacky Winter

Spring is here

Probably Sprinter is here if you subscribe to the six season calendar. On a recent trip out to the Enfield Forest Bill M. really felt spring had arrived when he saw  Chiloglottis trapeziformis , Corybas incurvus , Pterostylis concinna , Pterostylis nana and the find of the day was a large colony of Cyanicula caerulea.

Corybas incurvus Slaty Helmet – Orchid

Cyanicula caerulea

Pterostylis nana

Mooney’s Dam

Mooney’s Dam

Mooney’s Dam

Mooney’s Dam

Signage at Mooney’s Dam

Mooney’s Dam at Smythesdale is a Crown land reserve managed by the Ballarat Environment Network and the last site we visited on our August excursion.

A Beaut View

view to Mt Buninyong from Flagstaff Hill lookout

Native oxalis

Slaty Helmet Orchid

reflections in a small pool

Rock Fern

As the tour of BEN reserves continued we had lunch at the Flagstaff Hill lookout reserve on Mt Bute, where there is a panoramic view 360 degree view.

 

Flagstaff Hill

Part way up to the Flagstaff Hill lookout tower (just out of Linton) is another BEN reserve. It was a gravel reserve and used to be covered in pine trees. Since the pines have been removed the native vegetation is slowly growing back.

Rock sheet at Flagstaff Hill

Lichen

View to Mt Emu from Flagstaff Hill

Acacia pycnantha – Golden Wattle

Sundew

Newtown Recreation Reserve

The first site on the tour of some smaller Ballarat Environment Network Reserves for the August excursion began at the Newtown Recreation Reserve. Since we arrived as most of the group had toured the reserve and surrounding bush, here are only a few photos of the plants. There were masses of coral lichen – Cladina confusa .

Scented Sundew

Lichen

Coral lichen

coral lichen

Yam daisy flower

Official Announcement of Canadian Regional Park

As Field Nats we have a particular interest in this so RSVP today if you want to attend

Phlebopus meltdown

Towards the end of May we noticed a large fungus, Phlebopus marginatus, on the wall of our dam. It was fairly large when we first noticed it but it grew and grew and then finally just melted away.

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Up close with a scented sundew

Scented sundews are looking beautiful after all the rain. This photo was taken in the Brisbane Ranges on Sunday.