Ben Cruachan – natural history

Usually when we go to Swallow Lagoon Nature Conservation Reserve we’re doing our Atlas surveys, twelve two hectare, twenty minute surveys, and it is a real job of work. Lots of walking, concentration, and note taking. That’s coming up again in the middle of next month, but we thought today that it would be nice just to go there for a quiet wander around without any pressure. There were the usual flurries of Eastern Rosellas along the road as we drove in, but the reserve itself was very quiet with only the odd bird calling, thrush, oriole, pardalote and fantail being the main ones. It’s autumn of course, the birds are probably taking it easy after the flat out work of the breeding season, and who can blame them. Dragonflies were still active, sunny glades amongst the trees had up to six or eight Tau Emeralds patrolling, the odd one landed and stayed put long enough for a photo opportunity and we saw one coupled pair that also co-operated.

We also spotted male and female Wandering Perchers on the walk back to the vehicle, but the dams were without damselflies, it’s getting late in the season of course. There’s a very nice spot on the Valencia Creek that we thought would be worth a visit, so that’s where we headed after we left the reserve. The creek is beautiful there, and it’s close to where I caught two monster Long-finned Eels when I was a lad. both were over five feet long, were handsomely spotted, gave a great fight, and ate very well. When I cleaned one I found two small trout and thirteen inches of an unfortunate Gippsland Water Dragon’s tail inside it. Can you imagine the commotion that would have occurred, one minute the dragon would have been sitting peacefully on a log or rock with its tail in the water, only to suddenly be in a life or death struggle with the eel. Good thing that the lizard clan can divest themselves of their tails in a situations like that, but I digress.
There were birds along the creek, blue wrens, scrub wrens, and thornbills were foraging, and over the rocky creek bed dragonflies were again patrolling. A different species this time, Southern Vicetails, males and females, and they landed frequently and allowed a close approach.
The first picture is a female, the second a male, identified by body markings.

With the sun starting to sink below the ridge tops it was time to head home, but as we got back to the 4WD a White-throated Treecreeper landed on a tree quite close to us. You don’t have much time with these birds as they work their way up the trunks, but I managed a hurried shot before it disappeared, a bit soft but not too bad in the circumstances. Just look at those elongated toes and claws, so beautifully adapted to their tree creeping lifestyle.