A nearly Happy Christmas to you all! What a busy Spring it’s been, not just because of all the “festivities”, meetings, workshops, fairs, walking & running events … that erupt as the weather emerges from winter, but also because of the glorious display of wildflowers in the Grampians-Gariwerd. The orchids especially have been/are magnificent. We were slightly overwhelmed (!) by the masses we saw on our field excursion with Hamilton Field Nats … but very, very happy. A time to relish and remember. The much-wanted rain has made the bush happy too, and there’s even been some sunshine, enough to make the sun orchids bloom.
Baby birds and animals are an added pleasure, except when they’re rabbits.
Some of us take part in the GGBS (Grampians-Gariwerd Bird Survey), which has been especially valuable in burnt areas where the bird population it is taking time to recover. The surveys are always enjoyable, even when getting nearly washed out by the rain. An added pleasure was finding orchids scattered about – great as it is to be shown new species and dense concentrations, I think nothing beats suddenly discovering a beautiful orchid, all by itself. It pays to look at the ground when birdwatching ….
This month we had an interesting presentation by Aggie Stevenson on the Grasslands of the Victorian Volcanic Plains, followed by a field trip the following day. The field trip brought the info from Aggie’s talk into much greater focus, seeing the grasslands and finding the many tiny plants surviving and thriving in amongst the Kangaroo Grass. Her enthusiasm is fantastic, and we had a great time, despite the Western District weather! (See report below). Many thanks to Ross for organising this.
Next month there is our Christmas wind-up to look forward to, at Staplyton Campground, as advertised in this newsletter.
Wishing you all a happy, peaceful (or unpeaceful if you’d rather) and safe, fire-free summer season.
Leigh Douglas.