Mt Samaria

Although this is a blog about our bit of bush just out of Melbourne, I couldn't help posting these photos from Mt Samaria. We went up there recently (I was researching for a kid's book I'm writing) and I was struck by the different vegetation that grew at the top of the mountain. Not to mention some of the other "growths" such as this huge termite mound. It was about 1.8 metres high (6 feet). Mt Samaria is actually a state park, and the top of the mountain is 953 metres above sea level, hence the dampness and cold.
Whereas I won't see any fungi at Lancefield for a while yet, unless it rains a lot more, these were happily growing near where we parked our car, just off the road.

Higher up, many of the rocks had lichen and moss on them, and there were plants obviously thriving in the cold, wet climate up there. We walked down one track towards Wild Dog Creek, and I tried another towards the summit. Lots of gum trees but a fair range of other kinds of trees as well, which made a nice change!
Down below, the vegetation was similar to Lancefield with mostly gums, some bracken and a lot of plants that looked like kangaroo paw, or something similar. It was a very interesting afternoon, which also included vast amounts of wombat poo and scratchings, but I never got to see a wombat. They must know I'm around!

At last, a bird

This is the first photo I've been able to take of a bird. Why? Because my camera zoom is totally inadequate, and the birds are usually too far away (or too fast for me). So this one was taken with a borrowed camera, and I got it because the bird happened to be on the tree right next to the shed, and obligingly stayed there for a while.
Now, identification. My bird book has a million options, but I think this is a White-throated Treecreeper - I know the treecreeper bit is right by the way they move up and down the tree trunks (I'd called it a brisk trot rather than a creep!).

From Out of the Earth

We found two of these last weekend - one on the ground next to its hole and one half out. Of course the casings were empty, and we guessed that they had been the pupa of something large, as they were around three inches long.
Friend Snail came to the rescue and told me they were very likely to be goat moths - or were goat moth pupa before the moth came out and flew away. That sent me Googling to discover that the larva is from the witchety grub family (of edibles!). I can see why a few of these would make a good meal. If you could eat them raw, as the Aborigines do.
Apparently the goat moth larvae like wattles - or acacias - and the larva burrows deeply into the trunk of the tree. When it's ready for the next stage, it burrows down into the ground where it stays until "hatching". Often it doesn't come completely out of the ground, but leaves the casing behind (as in the photo above).
I imagine these are big moths, although I couldn't find anything that told me their average wingspan, but we'll be keeping a lookout for them at dusk.
This might also explain why so many wattle trees up there tend to fall over!

Sightings

Lately, I've been using my binoculars more and checking out the bird life. On the weekend, I saw three king parrots, but other birds were harder to identify. I need to take my bird book with me and do it on the spot!

In the past four weeks, I've seen the echidna again, but also we finally spotted the wombat at dusk. He was a fair way off, heading up the hill, so no photos as he had disappeared by the time we got up there (he was probably wondering who the mad people were thrashing through the bracken behind him!). Consequently, I'm posting a photo instead of one of his many holes.

The other sighting was of a koala. This is only the second time we've seen one on our property, so it was pretty exciting (well, it was for my husband, as when I went up past the rocks, I couldn't find it). There is plenty of evidence though - gum trees with lots of scratches and shredded trunks. I have borrowed a copy of "Tracks, Scats and Other Traces" by Barbara Triggs from the library so that will come in handy.

More Trees

It doesn't seem to take much for a tree, especially a gum tree, to start up again. Maybe that's because of bush fires, because you will often see a burnt out area with blackened gums where the trunks are literally blooming with new growth. This tree has been down for nearly a year, but with a couple of decent rainfalls recently, we're seeing quite a bit of this new growth from broken trunks here and there.
We talked to a local man recently who told us that our property (and adjacent forest) was totally burned out in 1951. This explains why a lot of our trees are not very big and old, of a similar height and girth, and all look like they sprinted upwards at once to grab the light.
This means that we don't have many old trees with holes which is, of course, where wildlife such as owls and possums live. However, I spotted these down the southern end, and have since found more to the west.
I'm also finding a lot of things on the ground that someone once told me was 'owl vomit' - in other words, what the owl spits out after eating small animals. However, what I'm finding are things that are full of insect casings. They don't look like scats. Any clues, anyone?
My guess is that this is one of the original old trees from 1951. Its insides are mostly burned, and the rest of the tree is dead, but it's still standing, as are several others nearby. They are all large trees, which makes me wonder what kind of forest was there before the 51 fire. Very sad if it was largely trees this size, but it's also possible that it was only the biggest ones that stayed standing and the small ones that went.

By Gum!

The gum trees (eucalypts) on our property are many! And often hard to identify as my only book that covers trees has no photos and some minimal descriptions of leaves. This is, I believe, a ghost gum. Its white trunk and branches are so vivid against the rest of the green and brown that it is outstanding to see. This one was highlighted by sunshine, but at night in the moonlight I can see why this is their common name.
I think this is a candlebark gum. I've read that these were given their name by early settlers because in bushfires the curled bark (that hangs down in long strips) looks like candles when it burns.
Stringybark - again named for how it looks, I would say. The younger stringybarks are not as rough but this one is older and wiser.
We also have peppermint gums and ironbarks, plus a few other varieties that I can't yet identify. One day I'll find a decent book!

Summer Heat

As it gets hotter and drier, there's not much happening flower-wise. At the end of December I found this - a Sticky Everlasting - and a few more Hyacinth Orchids. There has been more rain this year than we've had for a while, so the bracken is not dying off as it has done before.
We've spent the past two weekends putting a culvert in at the bottom gate, so no time for walking and photos, unfortunately.