Carapooee West, Vic - Mid Winter

åIt’s on again- the season turns

Out on Border Track today 13th July 2023 to check on orchid cages and re-emergence of plants, I found a very early Long-leaf Early Nancy (Wurmbea latifolia).

This is an ordinary Early Nancy- female plant- note the purple band.

Below is the very early Early Nancy- Wurmbea latifolia (today) with female flowers- no purple band.

Also flowering was Clematis microphylla.

Like Wurmbea, this species has separate male and female plants so the 3 that I know of out here in the National Park are either too far apart to pollinate or are all of the same sex . I have never found either seed or new plants- a case for a bit of a replant to boost the chances.

Near the last of the orchid cages was a small colony of Pterostylis robusta, protected from the busy mouths of the wallabies by fallen branches.

Large Striped Greenhood,

On 7th July my Golden Wattle was flowering-this is about the earliest I have recorded.

That’s all from Carapooee West and the Kara Kara National Park north end

Anne.

Busy Bee

My two bee hotels have been full of activity this summer season with 2 hatchings of Hylaeine bees already. This short video shows a female Hylaeus(Euprosopis) honestus bee finishing off the protective cover to a bamboo tube full of eggs. She seems to be licking the whole edge of the membrane to make sure it is sealed and tight- much as we used to put brown paper covered with vinegar over jam jars to seal them, before the advent of cellophane circles. Further up the hotel, we can see an emerging new Hylaeus bee.

So successful have these bees been this year that I have had to install a third hotel for them. Hylaeus honestus looks more like a wasp with its shiny body and an absence of pollen-carrying hairs. The pollen it collects is carried internally! These little hotels do not seem to attract any other bee species at the moment but then, there have been very few other native bee species around this summer. In fact, all insect activity is well down since mid-2018, few native bees, wasps, moths, butterflies, stick insects, ant lions, and cicadas have been recorded in my usual haunts. What are all the insectivorous birds eating then?