Ben Cruachan – natural history

It’s been a busy week since the last post with several things on the go, including writing up the minutes for our last Landcare meeting, something I’m not really fond of. However, I knuckled down and had them done by lunchtime last Thursday, and then as a reward to myself for being a good boy, I put the camera in the 4WD and went bush for the afternoon. I had a new field guide to the fungi on order, and thought it might be a good opportunity to look for some to photograph before the dry autumn weather we’re experiencing dissuades them from pushing up fruiting bodies.
Acting on a hunch I went to a spot on Mount Angus Creek, and as it turned out I did the right thing. The south slope of the ridge was quite moist and I found a few species to photograph, nothing very spectacular, but enough to start my efforts in identification.

Some time ago I blogged about a rock shelter on the creek that had been home to countless generations of paper wasps. The surfaces are covered with nests of two different kinds, the majority are irregularly shaped and attached to the rock by their upper surface, the others are a flat conical shape, and are suspended by a “stem”. After I’d finished with the fungi I went up the creek to the shelter, and was lucky enough to find active nests of both kinds. Apparently these wasps can be aggressive if disturbed, so I moved slowly and quietly and had no problems taking flash pictures at fairly close range. These wasps feed their larvae on masticated caterpillars and beetles, and when the larvae are mature they spin silken covers to their cells and pupate. In this picture you can see larvae waiting to be fed, click to enlarge.

The first of the next two pictures shows the wasps in better detail, and the second is the other species, click to enlarge.

After I’d finished with the wasps I drove down to the river to see if there were any dragonflies about, there were a few, but not as many as the last time I was there. The Blue Skimmers had disappeared and there were only a very few Scarlet Perchers to be seen. I guess they’ve laid their eggs and done whatever dragonflies do when that part of the life cycle is completed. There were still quite a few damselflies, and then a Common Shutwing turned up and landed on a rock in front of me. I inched closer and sat down, and managed to get quite a few pictures as it came and went, always returning to the same rock for a spell. Click for a larger picture.

I was lucky to find so much of interest, because birds were very quiet, I could count the number of species seen on my fingers. I had one bit of luck though, there was a Kookaburra sitting on a branch near the parking spot and it was unusually cooperative. The reason being I think that over Easter a lot of people had visited and had barbeques in the fireplaces, Kooka had probably been cleaning up very nicely. You can see him here. My field guide to the fungi arrived yesterday, it’s a beauty and I’ve identified a few already, still got a long way to go though, the author has photos of over 3000 species and is still adding!