Who Needs Roses ?

For several years now I have tried to photograph this tiny plant out on a buckshot gravel ridge in the Kara Kara National Park.

A small patch of these 4-5mm high plants is adjacent to one of our conservation plots.

I thought it would be easy to identify- just get a shot or two of the flowers and we would be away! The first year, I missed the flowers- a few tiny dried-up dark-red bits on one plant showed up on the computer screen. The next year, 2016,a wet year, the plants disappeared and White-winged Choughs seemed to be the culprits; beak-shaped holes were everywhere. 2017 came along and I had a good choice of plants to snap when I realised that I needed a supermacro function on the camera. Not good enough- a Panasonic Lumix shot on macro and blown up on the computer.Not enough detail and overexposed.

The use of a digital microscope showed a hairy, cobwebby tube sprouting 5 dark red, 4 or 5 petalled flowers.

So this year, after getting a camera with a super macro function I tried again.

2018 would have to be one of our driest years in the last 4 decades and the ground is bare in many places.

Chough holes are everywhere, grasses are chewed down to their roots and there are few plants of any sort about.

My little mystery is reduced to a few scattered plants on the south-east facing slope amongst Yellow Gums (Euc. leucoxylon). Even through the camera lens it is very difficult to see if there are any flowers so it is a case of point and shoot... and hope, otherwise it takes several trips to get enough shots with the desired features. Here is the first photo taken 26 Aug 2018 with an old Konica Minolta DiMAGE 3- it has great telephoto capability and 2 macro settings- a treasure.

This is the plant with the flower assembly forming in the middle, covered with cobwebby hairs

Flowering today, 9th August, the greeny-white tubes with hairy cobwebs topped with the dark-red of the "petals" makes these flowers nearly impossible to see with the naked eye. Each tubular flower would be 2-3 mm in length.

So, very nice, but what is it? A clue. Common Bow Flower- Millotia tenuifolia, which also grows in the same area.

My bet is Millotia perpusilla- Tiny Bow Flower. It is listed in Beauglehole's Vascular Plant List for our region- North Central. At no more than 5mm tall, the name seems apt.

Wild Weather

On last Sunday morning,13th May 2018, I walked through my new chookhouse, still under construction but looking like the Taj Mahal already.

Three gates have cobbled together at the back to prevent (oh yes?) the chooks from accessing the work area.

As I went to open the only moveable gate to let the chooks out of their sheds, I noticed a small greyish- brownish blob in the corner against the concrete tank.

Taking a good look I realised it was an Australasian Grebe, Tachybaptus novaehollandiae, and a male, losing his breeding colours.

Now, if you can approach and pick up a wild bird it means one of two things; either it is on the point of death or it has knocked itself silly.

After the wild Friday and Saturday of galeforce winds and sleet I thought it was probably the latter- so I picked him up, suffering two rapid and savage bites from a rapier-like beak then rolling him into the front of my possum jumper.

Warmth and dark prevented any more attacks on my person and I transported him across to our big dam, parking him in the sun in long grasses under a bush.

After resting for a couple of hours, he took off straight into the water, diving and splashing around.

I have never seen a grebe on land before.

Here he is- the bare patch of skin at the corner of his beak confirms his identity.

Heavy winds take a toll on wildlife; a young magpie suffered a heavy blow and had an injured wing on Saturday too- she recovered fast so at least the wing wasn’t broken.

Big and unusually savage storms are another consequence of climate change

What luck, to end up in my chookyard, in reach of help. How many others are not so lucky?

At the Birdbath

Autumn brings a shortage of water and food supplies in the bush and we see an influx of birds into gardens where these 2 commodities are available.

On the left is the "owner" of the birdbath, year -round inhabitant of creeklines, the New Holland Honeyeater Phylidonyris novaehollandiae.

In the front we have year-round inhabitant of River Redgums, the White-plumed Honeyeater Lichenstomus penicillatus.

The interloper at the back right is the Yellow-tufted Honeyeater Lichenostomus melanops whose usual habitat is the higher Ironbark ridges.

All managed to get a drink and a quick flip in the water but the truce was short-lived and the poor old Yellow-tufted Honeyeater was chased away.