kayelk's Journal
First visit to Morang Wetlands in South Morang. Not the best time of day but photographed a few waterbird species and a pair of turtles. Looking forward to a visit earlier in the morning soon. Two very nice men - fellow photographers - kindly pointed me in the right direction, kept to the track today but will walk closer to the water next time.
Candlebark Park, Templestowe, started walk around 8.30am, sunny, warm, windy.
Starting to see a few insects appearing after a couple of random fine, warmish days. Saw, but couldn't photograph about 6 dragonflies - possibly Emerald Tau - and the first distant butterfly.
Olive backed oriole and fantail cuckoo calling in the distance, have heard them around for about two weeks but never close enough to photograph.
Walking in Candlebark Park, a couple of observations.
A clump of spitfire sawflies on a small gum tree, definately not there two days ago.
A group of 8-10 white winged choughs attacking a lone magpie. The magpie flew down the track, the choughs ran down and continued the attack. I have seen a magpie attacking choughs a couple of times so maybe revenge.
Noisy minors calling in a tree, looked up to see a pair of currawongs attacking something. Eventually a sugar glider ran around and up the tree trunk, followed by the currawongs. Couldn't get a photo as they were too high in the tree, but worth documenting.
Back to Candlebark Park, nice sunny and still day. I found a few fungi, the colony of Orange Pore Fungus are growing well but not spreading much yet. Not many insects around, those I found were all on the one small gum tree. Heard the first Fantail Cuckoo for the season, Hopefully I can get a photograph at some stage but they can be hard to see and high up in the trees.
Back to my main walking trail after a couple of weeks. Pleased to see a few fungi appearing after recent light rain - colony of Orange Pore Fungus starting to appear where I observed them last year, a few others starting to appear along the sides of the track. The Orange Pores are still small, the largest about 1 cm across but I expect they will grow over the next few weeks.
Started walking on Main Yarra Trail Templestowe around 8.30am. Dull and cloudy but little wind. As it was not good light for bird photography, I put my macro lens on my camera, looking for insects, spiders etc. Pleased to find a wasp nest on a bush I look at regularly. 3 groups of Schellenberg's Soldier Bugs, two on wattle leaves, one on a ti-tree leaf. I will be interested to learn more about a soft looking green spider I found on a gum tree leaf with what looked like an egg sac.
I had not thought of making journal entries until I read one by someone else earlier today. My main observations are at Westerfolds and Candlebark Parks in Templestowe where I walk along the Yarra Trail. At the moment I am somewhat restricted in the distance and terrain I can cover so I usually walk about 3 kms along the trail and back - up to 6 kms total. I always carry my camera and I am not afraid to use it! This morning was cool and cloudy with not many insects around. I was pleased to find a small patch of Schellenberg's Soldier Bug cases, didn't realise what they were until I zoomed in on the photo to get the detail. Also a blue ant on a bush beside the track, I had only seen these on one other tree until now. Just a couple of other insects close enough to photograph but a relatively successful morning.
