Ben Cruachan – natural history

Peter and I had a day out on Monday, it started off according to plan, but went slightly astray soon after. The plan was to go to Sale first and have a look at the thousands of Hardhead duck on the Sale Common, then go to Holey Plain State Park to check more locations for the Wellington Mintbush, which I blogged recently. The Hardhead were certainly there, but took off as soon as we started to approach the bird hide, no chance of a decent photo but what a sight. Thousands of ducks in the sky, with their rapid flight and white underwings defining the species perfectly.
Off then down the Rosedale Road and on to Chessum Road for the run through the pine plantation to the park. Plantations are always confusing due to the network of unsigned access tracks, it had been some time since I’d made the run through, and with harvesting and regrowth the whole appearance of the place had changed. After pulling off the road to let a couple of loaded trucks past we arrived at the five ways intersection, I carefully left two roads on my right and followed the well used main drag thinking I was on Chessum. Yes, well no, I wasn’t, we gradually became aware of the fact, and when we ran into a dead end with a barrier it was time to turn back. Now I knew that Chessum took a left turn, so when we got back to an intersection I turned right and drove for a kilometre or so until something stopped me in my tracks. The area on the right had been harvested some time ago, and in the furrows between the raised planting ridges there was a blaze of colour stretching as far as we could see. In the previous blog I mentioned the Rush Lily, Sowerbaea juncea, quite a rare plant. Well, that’s what we were looking at, luxuriant plants in full flower, hundreds of them, an unbelievable sight. The disturbance of the earth during harvesting had created a garden bed, and the Sowerbaea had taken full advantage of it. Here’s a sample, click to enlarge.

After we’d taken plenty of photos and our jaws had returned to their normal position we returned to the five ways, and of course then we saw the (rather indistinct) sign marking our correct route, and off we went. Finally we were into the park, tracks were signposted and agreed with our sketchy map, and when we pulled up at our first location we only walked a few metres and Peter found a mint bush. That was the first of many we found, there was Boronia anemonifolia too, a nice lot of Blue Stars, Chamaescilla corymbosa, and a great display of Candles, Stackhousia monogyna.

Peter found a nice big brown snake too, which wasn’t too pleased to see him. After coffee and discussion over the map we headed off to the next location which we could see in the distance, pulling up once on the way to take this lady’s portrait. Obviously enjoying the warmth, she was a beautiful specimen of Red-bellied Black Snake, her skin gleaming in the sun.

We pulled up opposite the high point and were immediately on to the mint again, our information was correct and we found many plants and lots of boronia up on the slope. At this point we’d accomplished pretty much all we’d set out to do, so changed our plans, and decided to go back to Sale for lunch at Lake Guyatt, and then head out to the Stockdale bush in a quest for orchids. Our search for the mint had been very successful, it’s a rare and lovely plant, and seems to be hanging on in its last stronghold.

I knew the Flying Duck Orchids, Caleana major, were in flower as I’d recently been out and found several colonies. This seems to be a very good year for them, possibly due to the winter rain. They are only tiny, but like so many of our wildflowers they really come into their own when seen close up.

My friend Val had told me of two other orchids she’d found in the area, Bearded, Calochilus robertsonii, and Brown Beak, Lyperanthus suaveolens, and during the afternoon we spent quite a bit of time searching for them. Well we missed out on the Brown Beak, despite having good directions, but we did find the Bearded, a single plant with one flower out.

Then, what should pop up but a single plant of Caladenia catenata, the White Caladenia or White Fingers. It used to be called alba, which was a darn sight easier to remember, why do they have to make things complicated!

There was still a profusion of Waxlip and Dusky Finger orchids in flower, and we also stopped off to have a look at the small flowering colony of Snow Mintbush, Prostanthera nivea, the only one I’m aware of in this part of the state. Spring is a wonderful time of year to be out in the bush, and as I said at the start, we had quite a day, here’s to many more of them.