East Gippsland Field Trip - part 1

[kizshrimp]

A mate and I just returned from East Gippsland after a couple of days running around hunting various things. As is normal for us we left Melbourne about 10pm thursday and drove until about 4am - that way we maximise our time out there and don't spend a potentially good day sitting in the car. 

 

We had a few objectives for the trip and as normal only fulfilled some of those. Our primary goal to check the last possible location in Victoria for a generally NSW Utricularia species (uniflora) had to be aborted for the second time, this time due to track closures and an approaching severe thunderstorm. The site is so remote it's no wonder that nobody gets out there. Next time we'll need a chainsaw in the car to get through.  BTW I intend to bore you all with this non-aquarium stuff before moving on. Deal with it! 

 

A secondary goal was to photograph an orchid species in the same general area, which we did achieve: 

 

Dipodium variegatum, near Mallacoota

 

Another secondary goal was to see a couple of tree frog species in the rainforest pockets out there. Litora citropa (Blue Mountains Tree Frog) is known from Victoria these days but we couldn't find any adult frogs, a shame as neither of us has seen this species in the wild. Litoria nudidigita was the other target and we found them in abundance. I have seen these before when they were still called L. phyllochroa but my mate had never seen them. Hunting frogs around rivers at night is not something I carry my camera for, so fortunately we also found one during the day: 

 

Litoria nudidigita, near Cann River

 

We saw some interesting things walking around the rainforests. Unfortunately it was very dark and I discovered the tripod mount had fallen off my camera somewhere (doh), so the shots are all handheld and pretty average. For the flowers below (and frog above) I was standing on tip toes and just couldn't set the focal plane where I wanted. 

 

Asclepiad species (something like a Hoya) 

 

another nice tiny flower

 

Thurra river tributary - typical sandy bottom and tannic water

 

Forest floor

 

We bumped into a young German bloke traveling alone and for his benefit I grabbed a nice male Water Dragon for him to photograph. That made his day, so a minute later my mate saw a White-lipped snake and I grabbed it too as it raced off the path. As I picked it up I saw the Tiger stripes on it and realised the mistake. We all got an uneasy laugh out of that but I think the young tourist will remember that walk for some time. Sorry but my hands were too full to get photos.   

 

Something I've only seen a couple of times before is the larvae of a butterfly - Jalmenus evagoras, the Imperial Blue Hairstreak, with its attendant ants. In the same way that terrestrial orchids fascinate me because of their reliance on a symbiotic relationship with mycorrhizal fungus, the butterfly family Lycaenidae (blues) fascinate me due to their symbiotic relationships with ants. The ants protect the caterpillars and pupae and are rewarded with a sugary secretion from the butterfly larvae. Nature is wonderful. 

 

 

At another site I was able to photograph a pretty amazing dragonfly, despite having the wrong lens on the camera. Eventually he allowed me to sneak close enough to get this heavily cropped pic: 

 

 

I'll wind up "part 1" here because of time constraints and prepare myself for part 2, which will mainly cover mosses, shrimp and their habitats.  

 

 

[Squiggle]

Nice pics dude, very cool stuff!

[Ronskitz]

So cool i really need to get "THE TANK CHAIR" and go for treks like this

[fishmosy]

Awesome pics mate. Love the river shot.

[Morgan]

Beautiful photos and I like the narrative too.

[kizshrimp]

Thanks for your comments everyone, sorry I haven't had a chance to get the next installment done yet. 

Haha Ron, that chair's a beast huh? Yep, you should get one. Hell, I want one too. You could have done a couple of rainforest walks out there in a normal chair but there were a couple of steps to get down at the start. 

Ben, I'm glad you like it. It was so dark when I took the river shot I didn't think I'd get it. Shutter was down about 1/20 sec so I had the camera balanced against a log for stability. I've had to pull the exposure as far as possible to make it worthwhile and usually my shots are shown as they came from the camera with absolutely no post processing. There was a lot out there so similar to the habitats you show around Coffs and many of the same mosses you get too. I found nothing really below the waterline but I'm still hopeful of growth in my tanks. 

Morgan, thanks. I tend to crap on a bit so nice to know someone appreciates it. More narrative coming in part 2, of course! 

[northboy]

Love the Ground Orchids lovely, looks like there is other good stuff there to,

I must start field trip reports again

 

Keep them coming Kiz