Orchids

Several species of orchid are now in full flower on Black Mountain in the middle of Canberra. There are over 50 species known for the local patch of dry hilly forest. Here are a few shots of the more abundant species.



A group of Wax-lipped orchids, stand erect with single flowers.

A colony of Nodding Greenhoods stand on a mossy gully bank. Many of the smaller green orchids are easily overlooked.

A single Nodding Greenhood.

A cluster of Pink Finger Orchids. Their flowers dot the ground all over the forest.

A Black Mountain Leopard orchid. A species thought to be unique to the ACT region, but locally common and many are now in flower.

Echidnas

While out looking for frogmouths today, I came across three echidnas, two males and one female. She was having a siesta with her head tucked under a log, the males were sniffing around, following her scent trail - its the mating season.

Echidnas are quite furry animals really, with a layer of fine hairs beneath those sharp spines.

And now fire
Two days ago I noticed smoke rising from a patch of bush where I new there was a frogmouth nest. The park rangers were burning ground litter in the wood to reduce fire danger to the nearby suburbs. They did well, and the ground cover was only lightly burnt when I went in the day after. And no trees were damaged or canopy burnt. However, there must have been intense smoke during the burning and a bit of heat and flame - enough for an incubating frogmouth to desert his nest. This might not have been too much of a problem if they could safely leave their eggs during the day, but only fifty metres away was a pied currawong nest with young. They are predators of frogmouths eggs and young. The exposed white eggs of a frogmouth, left unguarded would have been an easy meal for the currawongs.


A few flames still licked on the day after. The frogmouth nest is up below the canopy.


This was the male sitting on the nest before the fire.

Now the nest is empty and abandoned. The currawongs were feeding their young in their nest while I was visiting the site. There was no sign of the frogmouths.

Mixed findings

Spring is rolling on and yesterday I saw a fledgling Horsefield's bronze cuckoo being fed by a pair of buff-rumped thornbills. And today I found a grey fantail incubating one egg.


Fantail nests are delicate eggcups of cobwebs balanced on a thin branch. They always have a tail hanging down which seems to break up their outline and reduces the risk of predators seeing them.

Meanwhile, predators seem to be finding the frogmouth nests. In the past few years, only a few nests have been predated, but this year eight have been lost so far. Currawongs or possums might have taken some eggs or young, but some nests have eggshells and young lying below them, so they hadn't been eaten by them. I have seen brown goshawks most days when I have out in the bush, and one pair which have abandoned their nest have a goshawk nest only 25m away. And I found the plucked remains of a chick on a branch not far from another nest which had been raided.

A dead frogmouth chick of less than a week old lies below its nest.

More signs of Spring

Today I flushed a hare from her form where she had two small young. They were lying in tall weedy patch directly below a white-winged chough nest, and about 250m from a wedge-tailed eagle eyrie. I wished them luck and moved on.


The leverets as they were concealed under the weeds.

I opened the cover briefly to take a photograph then replaced the herbage.

Farther on I came across a party of three Kookaburras lined up on a branch where they calling in chorus.