A new home.

Please note that the Ben Cruachan Blog has moved to www.bencruachan.org/blog
This blog will carry all the posts that were lost when the original blog died.

Return to the hills.

Ben Cruachan, Green Hill, The Round Hill, Pearson's Point, Mount Hedrick, blue profiles on the skyline, first pointed out to me by my uncle sixty years ago, as familiar to me as my face in the mirror. Perhaps more familiar, they don't change with the passing of the years, whereas I sometimes see a stranger reflected in the glass. They may be insignificant in terms of height, but certainly not in the wealth of flowering plants that cling to their rocky slopes.
I realized the other day that it was over twenty five years since I last stood on Mount Hedrick, my wife and I hiked up through the bush in spring time and marveled at the beauty of the Grevillea, Olearia, Parrot Pea, Speedwell, Heath Myrtle, and Hovea, to name a few. With the last month of Spring here, and the temperature starting to climb, I took advantage of a calm clear day after a little rain, and headed up the old cattle trail, with the scent of flowering Black Wattle heavy in the air. At Bulldog Junction I turned right, and with four wheel drive engaged, climbed the rocky track to Pearson's Point. There is a north facing shelf there, and I dropped down on to it to see a wonderful display of the Olearia, or Scented Daisy Bush, which is virtually restricted to these hills, and even better, that beautiful, delicate mint, Prostanthera saxicola, variety bracteolata, doesn't that roll off the tongue nicely. Parrot Pea and Rock Isotome were flowering too, and although the Heath Myrtle was past its best, the reddish tint of the massed old flowers was still attractive.

Back on the road with pictures in the camera, I pushed on to the start of the walk up to Mount Hedrick, and started hiking up through bush still moist from the recent showers. Years ago there was no track, and we had to push through the spiny Kangaroo Thorn to reach the ridge top, there is a foot track now, and I stayed prickle free. It won't be long before this northern slope will be hot, dry, and crackling underfoot, but now it was pleasant walking, with the incessant calling of Wonga Pigeons to keep me company. As I gained height the Olearia appeared again, and its musky perfume mingled with the curry-like scent of the Cassinia. The track veered over to the south side of the ridge, and as I knelt down to photograph a native violet in a shady damp nook, a Superb Lyrebird burst into song not far away. We tend to think of these birds as denizens of damp forest, but I was soon passing display mounds on the hot northern side of the ridge, and I remembered my wife and I creeping up on a dancing male, on that trip so long ago.

Hedrick has three peaks, rocky, and covered with flowering shrubs, I particularly wanted to renew acquaintances with a tall Hovea we saw there, but unfortunately there was no sign of it. It may have died out, or perhaps was not in flower and I missed it, an excuse for another visit. From a high point I could see out across the plains towards home, and called my wife to tell her what I was seeing, something I always do now that she is unable to accompany me. While clambering around the rock stacks looking for the Hovea, I disturbed a Black Crevice-skink which slipped into a cleft and kept a close eye on me as I took its picture, they have to be wary to avoid being a meal for a Kookaburra.
The ledges and shelves where the best flowers grow are on the hot northern side of the ridge, and although they were now moist, when summer is at its height they will be baking in shade temperatures in the forties, how wonderfully adapted the plants are to survive. Although they seem to be growing in the barest cover of humus, their roots find moisture deep down in cracks in the conglomerate, or pudding stone, which makes up these old hills. In another shady spot I found some Necklace Fern trailing, and what should be growing up from the centre of it but a Bearded Orchid, the same species I had seen a week before on the trip to Candlewood.
Standing on the edge of a rock shelf, I looked out over the rolling hills to Ben Cruachan, and beyond on the far skyline, the pale blue shapes of the Razorback, Mount Hump, and the Gable End, prompting memories of the hardest trek I ever did in the mountains.

Turning, I scrambled back to the track, to make the easy downhill return to the vehicle, with the never ending whoop, whoop, whoop of the Wongas, echoing my footsteps.

A grand day out.

The Australian Painted-snipe is a rare and enigmatic bird, and P and I spent Saturday in the wetlands, taking part in the survey arranged by the Threatened Bird Network. These birds are quite particular regarding habitat, so we went to three places that looked promising, the Heart Morass, a swampy area at Longford near Sale, and Dowd's Morass, all associated with the Latrobe River.
We started at the Heart, scanning the shoreline of the first site through the scope, as it's a no go private farm, no luck, so we moved on to the next, which looked good, and with rubber boots on paddled through several hundred metres of ideal territory. This was also disappointing, with no snipe, crakes, rails, or even a dotterel to be seen. The best bird we saw was a Common Greenshank, flying through with its characteristic ringing call. The third site at the Heart was not far away, along the access road, but before we covered it we went for a walk to see how far it extended, and on the way back heard the call of a Fan-tailed Cuckoo. It was easy to find in a low Redgum, and a few feet away in the same tree, a Bronze-cuckoo showed up. I expected a Horsfield's, but as we got a better look, the facial pattern, iridescent green on the back, and lack of rufous tail feathers identified it as a Shining Bronze-cuckoo. Interestingly though, although it was a strikingly marked adult, the barring on its lower breast and belly was interrupted by a sharply defined clear stripe. My latest guide shows the adult S B-c with unbroken barring right to the vent, and we chewed this over with our biscuits while we had morning tea, looking out over the moist flats carpeted with yellow Water Buttons and pink Noon Flower.


The third site was a repeat of the first two, however we did see four Hardhead ducks, which were a welcome change to the run of the mill water birds we'd been seeing. Mating season for the introduced European Carp must be here, pairs of huge fish were sending the water flying as they got together in the shallow weedy water.
It was mid-day by now, so we moved on to the swamp at Longford, and saw a pair of Sacred Kingfishers before we set up the scope on a high point. It wasn't possible to walk this swamp, so we spent quite some time scoping thoroughly, once again seeing the usual birds, but with the added bonus of a Great Egret, and a Yellow, and two Royal Spoonbills, scything their bills from side to side in the shallow water. P had his new camera, and got as close as he could for this shot of one of the Royals, complete with breeding plumes. A few pairs of Black Swans had grey cygnets in tow, feeding on the lush water vegetation.

We had lunch on the bank of the river at Dowd's, leaning back in our folding chairs to watch skeins of Ibis soaring upwards in the thermals, then heading out to the irrigated pastures to feed. I knew of only one suitable site here, so we spent an hour or two after lunch checking out other birding spots. One was a wooded levee that separates two water bodies, and within a few yards we had a text book Horsfield's Bronze-cuckoo in front of us. Then, while we were discussing the differing markings, a Shining Bronze started calling loudly from within a few metres of the Horsfield! We didn't see it, but the rising “whistling the dog” call was unmistakable. Our general species tally was approaching 60 by the time we checked the last site, once again drawing a blank after paddling around what seemed to be perfect habitat.
The rest of the afternoon was now our own, P hadn't seen the Ibis and Cormorant breeding rookeries, and we managed to wade in without topping our boots. The main rookeries were deserted by now, but Little Black Cormorants and a few White Ibis were still breeding in one area. While we were looking, a Little Black flew past, heading for its nest with a stick about two feet long in its bill.
In the private property at the end of the track, there are a few old Redgums complete with Whistling Kite's nests, and on a previous visit I'd found the remains of prey on the ground under one of them. We walked over to have a look, and found eight Ibis skulls with bills attached, plus the head of a very young carrion lamb.

The length of some of the bills told us that they were young birds, snatched from the breeding colonies, virtual Ibis supermarkets! We finished the day's birding with some of our little favourites, White-fronted Chats, flitting along the fence line. We'd ticked no Painted-snipe, but like Wallace and Gromit we'd had A Grand Day Out.

A day in the bush.

The owner of a large bush property, Candlewood, kindly gave a friend and myself permission to drive around it, with birdwatching in mind. A year ago, my friend's son saw Rainbow Bee-eaters feeding on Gambusia, or Mosquito Fish, in a dam, and we were hopeful of seeing them again. On the way to the dam we saw a Nankeen Kestrel hunting, dropping from the hover into the grass, and then perching in a dead tree to eat its catch. At another spot, after searching for the Golden Whistlers we could hear calling in the stringbarks, we finally tracked down a brilliant male, singing with the feathers at the back of his head raised in a semi crest, something I hadn't seen before.
At the dam we scanned the trees in vain for Bee-eaters, but there were other attractions there. The dam was formed by blocking a creek, and upstream from the wall, Crimson Bottlebrush is growing in a dense continuous strip for several hundred metres. The bushes are just starting to come into flower, and honeyeaters are gathering for the feast of nectar. Red and Little Wattlebirds, New Holland, and Yellow-faced Honeyeaters were filling the air with their calls as they zipped around the flower spikes. In a week or ten days this place will be absolutely spectacular, and we hope to return to photograph what will be a riot of colour and bird activity.
Unfortunately the weather had turned rough with a storm front passing through, so we left the property, and continued east along the bush road which parallels the railway line, stopping occasionally to look at the many sun orchids and other wildflowers growing on the railway reserve. Soon we left the hilly terrain and entered the flat country, and the reserve started to delight us with a wonderful display of the grassland flora, large numbers of tall Tiger Orchids being outstanding. We wanted to go into the Providence Ponds Flora and Fauna Reserve, which lies over the Perry River from Candlewood, so after reaching the main road, we crossed the rails and turned west on to the track which runs back to the Ponds. The display along here was mind blowing, with hundreds of Purple Doubletail orchids, Showy Podolepis, Tiger Orchids, many other species in the daisy family, Grevillea lanigera, and small lilies of many kinds.
We stopped several times to check out promising spots, and at one were pleased to find a number of Bearded Orchids, Calochilus robertsonii, growing out of a tussock on the other side of the line. They are fairly inconspicuous and easily missed, but are fascinating in close up.

Once on to the west boundary track in the Ponds Reserve, we continued to see many more Sun Orchids, including this outstanding pink form of the normally blue Dotted Sun Orchid.

Recent posts have mentioned the number of Goannas I've been seeing recently, well, we saw another one here, a strikingly marked individual, and unusually, it allowed me to approach quite close to take its portrait. While I was sneaking up, its long forked tongue was flicking out, probably sampling the aroma of insect repellent accompanying me!

The wind was really starting to get up again by this time, so after getting out to within sight of the highway, we decided to call it a day, and it had been a good one, despite missing out on the Bee-eaters, maybe another time. I have put up another gallery with some more pictures of our outing, you can access it here.

Nectar plants.

There has been a gathering of the clan at the Ben Cruachan Blog, with October birthdays being celebrated, and grandchildren the only wildlife being photographed! This morning started with fog, which soon cleared to a bright spring day, and while walking the dog I found a couple of nice subjects for the photos below. A few years ago we were impressed with the Red-flowered Mallee which we saw growing at Waikerie in South Australia, I collected seed and grew some, and they are now coming into flower in the back plantation. The mallee eucalypts are great producers of nectar for the honeyeaters, as are the grevilleas, the one pictured being Robyn Gordon, a great favourite of the New Hollands in our garden.

Three days of birding.

The TFN bird surveys at the Bush Family and Frair Reserves are over for another year or two, and I'm sitting here with my legs gently tingling from the myriad of small scratches collected during three days of pushing through scrub in shorts. Memo, buy a pair of gaiters for the next outing. P and I arrived early on Friday, and started surveying in the north east corner as requested, and our best birds were a Leaden Flycatcher, and a pair of Scarlet Robins, unusually, flying fast through the tree tops. After two surveys we went back to the access road and did one more before L arrived, and we then did three more down to the main road. More good birds included Olive-backed Oriole, Noisy Friarbird, Jacky Winter, Dusky Woodswallow, and male Rufous Whistlers competing for mates and territory.
This was just about as good as it got for P and me, L went on to bigger and better things with another crew, but when the C. O. arrived, P, myself, and S, were allocated sites mainly on the perimeter of the two reserves. This meant we were in Noisy Miner territory, they are aggressive birds which tend to drive off other species, and our site species counts were well down on what some of the others were getting deeper into the reserves. A bright spot late on the first day was a flock of 25 White-fronted Chats at one of the few dams in this dry country.
The next day saw the three of us driving to the southern boundary track, and we had just turned onto it when P said to stop and reverse. He'd spotted two Goannas on a dry tree, these large Monitor lizards are fearsome predators of eggs and nestlings, and it was out cameras and over to the tree for photos. Unusually, they didn't move, even when we were directly underneath them, S suggested they were warming up in the early morning sun, they were probably well fed also, the largest had down from a nest sticking to its claws. There is a collection of pictures of them at this gallery.

After lunch we drove across country to the Frair Reserve for 6 surveys on the northern boundary track, where the story was the same, heaps of Noisy Miners and a scarcity of other species. A highlight though, was a wonderful display of Tiger Orchids, Diuris sulphurea, in colonies along the 2 kilometres of track.

At our last survey for the day things changed for the better, S found 3 Gang-gang Cockatoos, a Mistletoebird flew over pursued by a Miner, and we ended with the best variety for the afternoon. Another floral highlight on this section of track was a good number of blue Sun Orchids, a Thelymitra species which I am still trying to identify to my satisfaction.

On the final morning we had to repeat the six surveys in Frair, and the results were generally similar to the previous day, the last being the best, with one exception. On the fourth survey I was walking along the edge through fallen timber, looking for a kangaroo track to take me in through the scrub, when the sixth sense kicked in and I looked down to see a very large annoyed Red-bellied Black Snake about five feet in front of my bare legs. Its neck was flattened, giving the head the characteristic threatening triangular appearance, I stepped back quietly and it was happy to slide under a log, leaving me to continue on showing the whites of my eyes.
I told S about it, and it led to the only record of a Tawny Frogmouth in the two reserves for the three days. In the next site she was keeping a close eye on the ground, and sighted a patch of whitewash. She looked up and there it was above her, a great sighting. At our last site the Gang-gangs were still feeding in the Eucalypts, and we at last got a look at the Lorikeets that we'd been seeing zipping over from time to time, they were as we suspected, Musk Lorikeets, and we finished our thirtieth and final survey watching them feeding quietly in the top of a Stringybark.

Lizards plus.

After three days in dry plains woodland I felt like a change of scenery, so a friend and I went into the foothills to look for wildflowers along the Avon River. On the way, two Common Bluetongue Lizards crossed the road in front of us, and we were hardly into the bush when a large Goanna went up the bank away from the track. Prior to the weekend I hadn't seen any for quite some time, and that made the fourth in three days, funny how things like that happen . The particular orchid I was looking for didn't show up, but there were some nice peas flowering, the Rock Waxflower was out, and the banks of the river were like a garden, with Calytrix lighting up the red rocks.

It was nice to just sit in the sunshine amongst the flowers and listen to the sound of the crystal clear water tumbling down the small rapids, it doesn't come much better.
At another spot on the river we met up with this little fellow, a Jacky Lashtail. These small dragons usually get out of the way as quickly as possible, but this one was very co-operative and let me follow it around taking pictures. The light was poor, but eventually it moved into the sun and I got a couple of reasonable shots.

There are two bigger pictures here.
This morning before I started this blog I happened to think of other lizards I've met over the years, so it was out with the slide boxes and the results are in this gallery

Bee-eaters plus.

The weather cleared this afternoon after morning showers, so I went out to the river to see if the Rainbow Bee-eaters had arrived. Quite a brisk breeze was blowing, and big white cumulus clouds were piled up high in the sky. I hadn't walked far before I heard the distinctive call, and then one flew and perched out of sight below the edge of the bank. While sneaking up to get a closer look, I saw a movement on a fallen tree trunk down below me, and there was an Eastern Water Dragon sunning itself.

These large Dragons are sometimes whimsically called Gippsland crocodiles. After getting a few photos I pushed on to the the river junction and found more Bee-eaters, and managed to get one passable shot for the record.

They are newly arrived and a bit flighty, and try as I might I couldn't get close enough for a detailed shot. On the way back I saw quite a few Mistletoebirds, zipping round a big old infested Manna Gum, and a nice patch of Calytrix was in flower in what was once the river bed. Calytrix tetragona is a most attractive shrub in the Myrtaceae, the flower colour can vary from white to deep pink and the one I photographed was a nice in between colour.

Not far away a Bronzewing Pigeon was picking up seed on the stony ground, there is a picture of it here with a few more from the outing.

Yellow and blue.

A taste of early summer today, bright sunshine and just a light breeze. Took the camera out again and got two more flowers which have just showed up, a small cluster flower everlasting, and a small grass lily.

Personal history meme.

The wind is up again today, a good excuse to stay inside and get this done clearing the way for something more interesting.

10 years ago. I was ten months into “retirement” after 43 years in the building industry, the last 33 with a local firm, working at various times as carpenter, joiner, tiler, welder, and general troubleshooter. They call it multi skilled. I had just finished catching up on all of the jobs around home, and was trying to psych. myself up to start a 12 month building project I had agreed to in a moment of madness. You can see why the word retirement is in quotes.
5 years ago. My wife and I were probably in the South Australian outback, seeing exciting new birds, plants, reptiles, and scenery. Wonderful arid country, so different from our forested south eastern home territory, it calls us back whenever we smell a warm north west wind coming from the inland.
1 year ago. Waiting for our third grandchild to arrive, which she did on the 13th .
Yesterday. Measured up for a security door, and routed out the tread housings in two sets of steps I'm making. See what I mean about retirement?
5 songs I know all the words to. Sorry, melodies speak louder to me than words and that is what is filed away in my brain.
5 snacks.
Preserved ginger.
Crackers and matured cheese.
Macadamia nuts.
Roma tomato on Savoy crackers with salt, pepper, and a touch of sugar.
Chocolate.
5 things I'd do with $100 million.
Give to family.
Donate to conservation appeals.
Buy the best photographic equipment available.
Buy the best binoculars available.
Buy a motor home and go birding around Australia.
5 places I'd run away to.
Broome, W A, when the migratory waders arrive.
The Scottish Highlands, land of my ancestors.
North Queensland.
Macquarie Island.
The Coongie Lakes.
5 things I'd never wear.
Flared jeans.
Baggy jeans.
A beret.
A cardigan.
Long Johns.
5 favourite TV shows. (All funnies, I like a laugh)
The League of Gentlemen.
Little Britain.
Porridge.
Open all hours (vale Ronnie Barker)
Get Smart (vale Don Adams)
5 favourite toys.
Digital camera.
Binoculars.
Spotting scope.
Computer.
GPS.
5 greatest joys.
Our grandchildren.
Sharing a new bird sighting with my wife.
Finishing a job I've been putting off.
Immersing myself in a place remote from civilization.
Smelling the perfume of flowers.
5 people I'm tagging.
Nobody, I wouldn't want to put them through it!