During the week I had given a talk to the Menai Wildflower Group about fungi and their importance and this was followed by a field trip to Bola Creek on the Sunday.
Digi Dave also came along. I was initially concerned that there may not ben too much fungi out after my recent visit to Sassafras Gully where I had not found much. But it seems there had been more rain at Bola Creek and the fungi turned out to be quite good. Continue reading
This was a very pleasant two days spent at Donkey Mountain in the Wolgan Valley. The mountain lies within Gardens of Stone National Park. It is not a large mountain but its top is a maze that you can easily spend two days exploring. Bob had never been on top of it before and was keen for a look.
When we pulled up at the parking area on the Newnes Road we were surprised to see other cars pull up too. There turned out to be two other parties on the mountain that day (a Friday). One group was from UNSW and I knew Laura from that party. Continue reading
It had been a while since I had inspected the fungi in Sassafras Gully and thought it about time to make a visit. I had been away in Tasmania and was not sure how dry it had been. I found the gully very dry and was disappointed with what I was able to find.
I did find a few cordyceps – but they were perhaps the same ones I had photographed on my last visit. They seem fairly robust. Continue reading
This was one of our regular bush care days at Barrenjoey. This time we walked around the headland and weeded on the far side. We were mainly removing Bitou Bush and Asparagus Fern.
But we were also lucky on the day to observe some great natural spectacles. As we started out, we noticed a pod of dolphins. Later our weeding was interrupted by the shrill call of some fairy penguins. During the day, we saw more dolphins and field penguins. And, as we were walking out, we noticed a seal sleeping on a rock. Continue reading
This was a field activity organised by the Sydney Fungal Studies Group Inc, held at Mill Creek on the Hawkesbury River.
It was a popular place on the day with campers, a bird watching group, a didgeridoo player and many groups of bushwalker being there as well as our group of fungi enthusiasts. Continue reading
It is delightful to spend the best part of two weeks in the wilds of Tasmania on a fairly relaxing trip. I travelled down to Hobart and then caught a bus to Lake St Clair. My plan was to walk around the lake to Narcissus and then continue up to Pine Valley and use that area as a base. If the weather was good, then I would head up high and camp in the Du Cane Range. If the weather was not so good, then I could stay in the sheltered valley and photograph the beautiful forest, Cephissus Creek and the amazing fungi to be found in the area. And if the weather is really bad then Pine Valley Hut provides a good refuge.
The bus dropped me off at Cynthia Bay outside the visitor centre a bit after 11 am. This gave me time to buy a national park pass and grab a cup of coffee before setting off. The weather was not great – cold with light rain, but after that the weather forecast was excellent – fine weather for the next 5 days. This was as far as the forecast went.
I wanted to walk around the lake slowly to see what fungi was out. There certainly was plenty out, but I was a bit frustrated. I tried taking a few photos but it really was a bit too wet. So I continued on to Echo Point where I planned to camp or stay in the hut. The area around the point for some reason is very good for fungi, so if the weather eased then I could photograph later in the afternoon. This worked out OK. The hut was fairly full and some of the occupiers (from Broome) did not seem at home in the ambient temperatures of the mountains of Tasmania and had come down with colds. So, for me, it was an easy choice. I set up my tent outside. Continue reading
This was another walk from Bexley North to Tempe along the Two Valleys Track to check out how the fungi was going. It had been raining overnight and it rained on the first part of my walk.
I think I was too early after the rain for a lot of fungi to be out, but it was still a pleasant walk. Continue reading
Digi Dave and myself had met up and headed down to the Cooks River for some bird photography. We started off at the Cup and Saucer Creek Wetland, but there were quite a few cormorants on the boom in the Cooks River, so we moved down to the nearby Boat Harbour.
Dusky Moorhens (somewhere there between the bottles) – Cooks River
As well as cormorants, there was a pelican, a heron and an egret. Higher up in the trees was some rainbow lorikeets. So we had plenty of subjects. We had the time to be patient and wait watching the birds with our cameras ready, waiting for them to do something interesting. Continue reading
This visit to Bola Creek was a field activity organised by the Sydney Fungal Studies Group Inc. With a lot of members and visitors present we were able to find some very interesting fungi.
The previous Saturday, and also been a field activity of SFSGI, held at Wolli Ck. On that activity, a large number of boletes had been observed. A week later in a different location, we also observed a lot of boletes, but also a lot of Russulas. Continue reading
This was another of my regular trips to Sassafras Gully to record what fungi was out. My previous visit was about two weeks earlier, and that hadn’t been dry good – the fungi out then was quite limited. Since then, there had not been too much rain at Springwood. A little light drizzle perhaps. Good rain is needed for an explosion of fruiting fungi.
But things were better than the past few trips. A lot more was out this time – in particular Russulas and Cotinarius. Also some more Hygrocybes are re-appearing. Continue reading
