This was an afternoon walk from Eastwood, down Terrys Creek, then I went down the Lane Cove River a bit, and back up, and continued to Devlins Creek and up that to Epping. I was mainly on the lookout for fungi, but was also looking for birds.
I was looking for certain fungi that I had seen on previous seasons, to see if they had reappeared. One species had – Helvella fibrosa, an interesting cup fungus. I found it in the same two places I had seen it – a small area along Terrys Creek and at another small area on the Lane Cove River a short way upstream of Devlins Creek. At the first site I found two and only one at the second site. Perhaps more will appear in the future?
I also look again for and found a lot more of the beautiful pink Coral Fungus that I had spotted on my previous trip to Terrys Creek. Probably Clavaria sp.
You can see that it is quite fragile.
As I said before, this species was first found a few years ago in Birdwood Gully by the late Liz Kabanoff. And then spotted last year in Terrys Creek by Jenny Stiles. It seems to be undescribed.
Before my trip, it had been raining a fair bit, but it was too early for a lot of fungi to appear. Here is a Jelly Fungus – Tremella mesenterica –
And a tiny Mycena sp.
I found a number of these emerging. I am not sure what they are. The caps have a rough surface. I broke the stipe of one, and it was very brittle – snapping like chalk, so they may be Russula sp.
This dirty one, is certainly Russula sp.
And here is some Ramaria filicicola –
And near the pink Clavaria, I also found a few small patches of Clavulinopsis sulcata –
I was on the lookout for Powerful Owls. This was harder than usual, as high water levels in the creek made crossing hard. At one stage I though I spotted three owls perched high in a tree. But I soon realised that were only Brush Turkeys.
Here is a Golden Whistler from along the Lane Cove River.
At Browns Waterhole, I walked downstream along the Great North Walk track for about 20 minutes to look to see if a polypore had appeared. I could not find any, so returned. Further upstream I found some Omphalotus nidiformis –
This is a bioluminescent species. I took a small sample home and photographed it in the dark.
The light seems to be mainly coming from the gills. This supports the theory that the species has evolved to emit light to attract insects that spread its spores.
I found a few orchids along the way – but they were all old.
I have access to Terrys Creek from the development where I live. In the last year, I’ve walked down to Browns Waterhole, and up to Forrester Park, many times. I’ve seen (and photographed) lots of fungus (and water dragons), but I’ve never seen anything like those bright pink ones you found. I’ll have to keep a lookout for them!