Ben Cruachan – natural history

Wednesday’s forecast was for a sunny day and 25 degrees C, so Peter and I headed north up the Marathon Road, making for the Moroka River in the high country. It was overcast when we left, although it looked clear over Mount Wellington, and we reckoned the weather would fine up nicely for us. The road was in good condition as far as the helipad, where we made the usual stop for a break, and a look out to Wellington and the Gable End to the west, and Mount Baldhead to the far east.

The trigger plants were in full flower, putting on their usual show, and after a few photos we pushed on to start the climb up Bleak Hill. We sighted the occasional Grey Currawong along the way, saw a Lyrebird scuttle off down the slope, and then we were climbing the steep rocky pinch to the top of Bleak Hill.
When we reached the top, we noticed a lot of tree branches down on the forest floor, and at first put it down to a heavy snow dump during winter, but then we started to see large trees upended, and others twisted off with the crowns lying on the ground. Obviously there had been a big blow at some time during the previous few months, but at least the track had been cleared of debris. Every now and then a Crescent Honeyeater zipped across in front of us, easy to pick by the yellow wing flash. Our first stop was the start of the foot track in to the Moroka hut, an old cattlemens’ hut, and we started the walk in with the calls of Golden and Rufous Whistlers, Crescent and Yellow-faced Honeyeaters, and Striated Pardalotes in our ears. Halfway in, a flash of colour gave us a male Golden Whistler in all his glory, with the black, white, and yellow of his plumage just brilliant, and then near the footbridge over the river, a male Flame Robin’s orange-red breast caught our eye.
The hut is set on a small fertile river flat, and the damage here was saddening, with lots of the big old snow gums, White and Black Sallee, lying on the ground. We walked through to the edge of the plain to find a small herd of Herefords, and a bay stock horse gelding eager for some human company, it followed us back to the hut, whinnying loudly as we started back up the track to the road.
Movements in the foliage were White-naped Honeyeaters foraging, then a bird appeared on a low branch over the path, and hey! there was the shivering tail, a Satin Flycatcher. This was one of the birds we had come up to see, a lifer for Peter, and we had great views of a female with her orange-buff throat and upper breast. We looked for the male with no success, but we had another string to our bow, so went on to the Land Cruiser for morning coffee, and a look at a fluffed up White-throated Treecreeper calling from a high branch.
I wanted to check a location further west for orchids, so we pushed on, with Peter getting another tick on the way, a pair of Spotted Quail-thrush, one running across the road, and the other flying with its fanned white-tipped tail showing up beautifully.

The Alpine Hovea and Eyebright was as good as I have seen, and when we arrived at the start of the old logging track, we soon found the Musky Caladenias I was after. After photos we headed back east, and half an hour later drove into Horseyard Flat, to see more utter devastation. The Black Sallee with its deep olive green trunk is one of my favourites, and to see them strewn about everywhere didn’t do much for my day. Anyway, after a late lunch watching White-eared and White-naped Honeyeaters in the trees above us, we walked down river to the crossing, where I’d found two nesting pairs of Satins a few years ago. On the middle of the sagging foot bridge we paused, I had seen a dark bird low down, but then Peter pointed, another female Satin straight ahead. While we were watching her the male suddenly appeared and gave us a glimpse. They are stunning birds, glossy blue-black breast, head, and back, with a snow-white belly. We lost them for a for a little while, but then spotted the pair high in a tree, upstream over the water, and then, there was the nest, a beautiful small cup on a horizontal fork, made of bark and moss, bound with spider web. After watching both the male and female briefly settle in to the nest, we went on down the river looking for the other bird we had come for, the Olive Whistler. It was optimum habitat, but we had no luck with this elusive species, so we returned to the bridge to see two male Satins contesting the territory, great stuff.
Back at the vehicle a male Flame Robin was feeding a youngster, and although it was only 3 PM, the weather was closing in, so we called it a day, leaving the Olive Whistler for another trip. Climbing up to Bleak Hill we ran into thick cloud which had us crawling in low gear, hardly able to see the track in front, but as we rolled down over the rocks it gradually cleared, and we had a good look at another Lyrebird going up the bank to our left. An hour later we hit the cleared country, and the weather there was windy and even duller, we hadn’t seen much sun up top, but we’d obviously had the best of the day. Pictures of some of the alpine wildflowers we saw are here.