fungi – bushboys world

This is March 2020

Published on April 3, 2020April 3, 2020 by bushboy13 Comments

Welcome to my March, a bit late I know but I had so many photos to get through it was quite daunting. I did manage to get the photos down a bit but as usual, there’s a bit of scrolling….ok a lot of scrolling but hey! What else do you have to do whilst in #Isolation or as sadly some of my lovely bloggers are, in #Lockdown. I just had to get this done so this post isn’t as cohesive as normal, I hope you won’t be disappointed.

OK my wonderful supportive friends and hopefully a few who haven’t dropped by and had a glimpse into bushboys world. Not as much to blah blah about so settle back with your usual cup of tea or coffee or if reading in the evening, perhaps it’s aperitivo time.

Maybe you would like a bit of music while you have a wander with me

As usual, let’s start in the morning where the welcome rain in the first part of March has led to some wonderful misty mornings.

I did venture to the Gibraltar Ranges to see the results of the huge fires that raged through there late last year. A big surprise was the emergence of the Tree Ferns.
A bit of an adventure to Rocky Creek Dam I found these wonderful woof fungi.
Back at my place, the rain and warm weather produced a few fungi. This little one was happy to pop up and say hello.
At my besties place at the garbage bins I found a frog.
and in her garden the young Green Tree Frogs seemed to appear in the garden.
I am going to do a wrap up of the Red-necked Wallaby and her Joey. Here they were one morning, the little fellow just hanging casual.
Some March mornings were a bit cool. The Noisy Friarbird thought it was cool and fluffed up his “scarf”
I have a bit of bird food left so every now and then I put a some out. “It’s breakfast!!” the King Parrots say as they swoop towards me.
A thoughtful Kookaburra.
The noise that Sulpher-crested Cockatoos make when they fly in unmistakable.
Meanwhile, a White-face Heron was on the lookout for a snack.
The Willie Wagtails have taken over the garden and are quite vocal when I go outside.
“Whose flower is this” the caterpillar asked the bee
It was lovely to see a Blue Tiger Butterfly when on a walk.
A Common Crow Butterfly was just hanging around the verandah for a while one morning.
The proliferation of butterflies is amazing. I was amazed to see a Lrge Grass Yellow at my place. Not a regular visitor.,
Lesser Wanderers are everywhere.
I have been waiting for the Caper White Butterflies to arrive. This is a dark form female on a Pentas flower.
A Male wasn’t far behind.
Caterpillars are always the result of lots of butterflies. This poor rose was a causality in my besties garden.
The Lemon Migrants were the main butterfly last month so it only goes to show that their caterpillars were next to show.
The Common Crow caterpillar is very “Hey back off” looking
So is the hairy caterpillar who wanted to come on our picnic.
You can’t see me…..I am a stick.
The dragonfly was ready to take off.
OK This is a prehistoric insect. A beetle I think.
A common Line Blue Butterfly is so tiny as it sits on a Farmers Friend flower, some may know this weed as Cobblers Peg
It is unusual to find a Line Blue Butterfly with the wings open for a long time. This is the inner wings of the butterfly above.
Meadow Argus have arrived as well.
Back to prehistoric, this time a moth
It was lovely to see a Scarlet Jezebel cruising around the garden. Pentas are wonderful flowers for attracting butterflies and bees.
As opposed to the Large Grass yellow, the Small Grass Yellow again on a Farmers Friend flower. They are the most common butterfly at my place at present.
A Blue-bamded Bee was very bust buzzing around the blue Salvia flowers. He has quite a haul of pollen in his pollen baskets on his rear legs.

OK for those who dislike spider, even Daddy Long Legs, there are a couple of spiders coming up. Get you scroll fingers limbered up but do have a peek through your fingers covering your eyes.

A Daddy Long Legs is having a snack in my kitchen, best natural pest controls.
While outside, a Golden Orb Weaver seemed to just hang in the sky.

Spiders over.
The Hibiscus had their best flowering for years. Another Caterpillar though so too.
The Native flowers around my garden and property are amazing. I think this is a Guinea flower with bonus water drops.
A Native Hibiscus waits to unfurl and greet the day.
A lovely Native flower with the unfortunate name of Mitre Weed.
Native Wisteria was sending purple flowers skyward
This is a mouthful. A Leafy Purple Flag Wild Iris flower.

You have seen lots of the red Pentas, here is a lovely pink variety flowering in my garden.
The Leopard Lillies had a good flowering this year too.
A Sarsaparilla flowering was lovely to see again with bonus water drops.
A Native flower with a Bee Fly.
This rose is called Chocolate. Such a wonderful colour.
The sunset is quite pastel so time to get ready to go.
Our wonderful Moon

I hope you enjoyed this quite long wander about bushboys world.

Also linked with Su’s Changing Seasons March 2020

Raspberry Lookout 1 March 2020

Published on March 26, 2020 by bushboy26 Comments

Raspberry Lookout. One of my favourite places to go and have a picnic and chill for a while. I have featured the lookout in past posts but never in a whole post.

We went from my place up the Gibraltar Range to see what had happened there since October 2019. The fires had burnt through there and eventually came down the mountains to my place. As it is a wonderful place to see, I could not bring myself to drive along the highway to Raspberry as the memories of such a special place for me would have had me in tears I reckon. Couldn’t go there anyway as the highway was closed until late January. The amount of very big trees that had burnt down and fallen across the road was amazing. They are still removing trees and fixing protective road barriers.

It has taken me until now to be able to write and show you the photos from the lookout. This is just Raspberry Lookout not the drive up or down the mountain. As they were working there wasn’t the opportunity to stop. I was very heartened by the recovery that had taken place so come on, lets have a look around Raspberry Lookout.

This is the view from Raspberry Lookout. You can see where the fires had been. Some parts of the countryside were patches of rainforest
In case you were uncertain what to look for, here’s a bit of a close up. Usually this is lush forest and you cannot see the bare ground. Some of the gully lines contained species of rainforest plants. There weren’t many birds to be seen or hear. It was eerily silent.
This ridge line is showing signs of recovery. The ridge behind is what it will look like again.
One of the first to appear after a fire are the fungi. There were a number of these tiny orange fungi dotted through the bush.
This fungus was sending a message of love and hope
The colours of the new foliage is amazing. From a burnt stump life springs forth.
Everywhere flowers appeared. I must confess we did go over the fence and scramble about the gravelly soil looking around at the wonderful flowers and whatever else we found. Most of the flowers are quite small up to 15mm or half an inch.
This was the first flower I found as it was right beside the car when I opened the door.
So many varieties of Pea Plants that seemed to grow out of the rocks.
Along with flowers come the insects. Not only bees pollinate flowers, wasps do as well.
A Blue-banded Bee really enjoyed getting right into the flower
A Teddy Bear Bee was moving from flower to flower quickly.
Another wasp on a Billy Buttons flower. It was lovely to see small clumps of Billy Button flowers scattered throughout the lookout.
A wonderful find was a Nobbi sunning on a rock. This male has his breeding colours on. They are distantly related to Bearded Dragons. Not long after I took this shot he was off a great speed. When I looked in book to try and identify who he is, the book said that Nobbi’s run fast. Well they certainly do!
As there was a good amount of rainfall in February, the sound of water rushing was an unusual sound at the lookout. Normally you can’t see this waterfall cascading down the mountain and plunging into the stream below.
I was so glad that this old tree stump survived the fire with a little bit of scorching. The “mouth” is the notch they cut with an axe to slot a board in and cut higher up the tree. It would take four or five people holding hands around the tree to gauge the size of this old beauty. I would miss his spooky face when I head up the mountain from my place to Raspberry Lookout.

Thanks for coming with me and having a picnic at Raspberry Lookout.
The featured photo is from 2017

This is February 2020

Published on March 6, 2020 by bushboy36 Comments

February, a month of rain thankfully. The bush is coming back to life, the grass is growing and my garden is almost back. I will have to do a lot of pruning of the bushes and small trees where some limbs haven’t recovered from the drought.

A few minor muscle strains and sprains prevented my for doing as much as I wanted to do. This resulted in wandering around the garden chasing butterflies, walking around the place not going too far into the bush taking photos. Oh yes I did do a hard cull but still I have managed to have lots and lots of photos for February.

So settle back with you appropriate drink for your time of viewing, perhaps a snack or two is advisable and let’s get going to explore bushboys world.

As there has been moisture many mornings have had a fog or light mist. The Grass Trees on the distant hill, flower spikes at the ready in the foreground, emerging from the mist.

A tree on the hill is usually the first to be seen.
The wet weather did induce a bit of cabin fever so we had to get out every now and then exploring the region. I love this old farm house. Though I should get a photo before it falls down or is demolished.
Meanwhile on the farm next door to my besties, the big white bull showing a bit of affection to one of the cows. He spent a bit of time licking her head and neck.
On the wall a tiny young skink patrolled in case something was available to snack on.
Undeterred, these two ants fought on
One morning I was in the kitchen when I noticed a tiny insect walking about with the most enormous wings for an insect of this size.
Satin Bowerbirds like blue things to decorate their bower where they dance in the hope of attracting a female bowerbird. I hope he isn’t trying to steal my bucket.
While I was walking around, a female Satin Flycatcher kept and eye on me
Superb Fairy Wrens are stunning little birds
and Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos are stunning big birds
We went to Lismore Lake to see if many birds were around. The Swifts were in huge numbers swooping about and getting ready to roost in a tree. I have never seen so many Swifts.
A Black Kite was patrolling the skies
Meanwhile a bit of an excursion to the beach wasn’t the most welcoming by a Silver Gull
A Masked Lapwing Plover had a bit of a stretch on the tidal flats.
I love Sand Crabs and the artistry. I think this looks like a stingray.
The combination of wet and warm weather has bought out a variety of fungi. Tiny brown fungi with frilly caps
White fungi with frilly caps
Yellow fungi with frilly caps
The hint of a lot of water going to be about is when the ants build up the entrance to the nest

“Hello…….is anyone home”

The Ponytail Palm flowers have the bees all a buzz and little beetles also like to get among the flowers
The Cassia flowers attracted all sorts of bees
In the dying moments of floral decay the Carpenter Bees still came looking for the last drops of nectar and pollen
The little Stngless native Bees found the Crepe Myrtle flowers irresistible
The bush had many buds ready to burst forth.
The ants also visited the floral display
Water drops and roses. I did resist posting lots more

The Pennisetum Purple Fountain Grass flowered adding colour to the garden.

The Hibiscus flowering in February was magnificent. Not seen here for quite a few years.
The miniature red Hibiscus looked wonderful adding bright spots of red in the garden.
This Hibiscus has never looked so good. The colours are amazing.

A wax leaf Begonia flowered all the time

The Cats Whiskers in my garden came back to life. I thought they had died during the drought as I didn’t have enough water for all of the garden. The few waterings did keep them going though.
The Cats Whiskers at my besties are much better.
A red Eucalypt with the flowers and buds
The Bauhinia with a lots of flowers is a treat to look upon from the sunroom.
So many tiny native flowers have emerged. This little Blue Trumpet appeared from the ashes
The native Dianellas flowers are a splash of purple and yellow in the garden. Also known as a Flax-lily

Another native flower I haven’t seen before also came out of the ashes.

The Pandorea vine struggled to flower after the drought.
Ever so small and delicate about 10mm across this native flower seemed to be everywhere in February.
The was a butterfly explosion everywhere once the rain came. All around the garden in February (and is still happening) hosts of yellow butterflies have been around the garden. They are all around the Cassia bush. One day I counted around fifty butterflies and that was just in the front garden. I think they are Lemon Migrants. This is definitely a Yellow Migrant of the Pentas flower.
The butterflies love the Pentas flowers. Orchard Swallowtails drop in every now and then.
Another little native flower that has appeared in the garden. I didn’t notice the Crab Spider until I was getting the photos ready for this post. The flower is about 15 to 20mm so how tiny is the spider!
A Water Strider making his way across the dam.
While the Dragnflies hovered about, some resting on branches on the edge of the dam
or finding small twigs to rest
I don’t know who or what was in the dam. I just saw the ripples and bubbles. It could have been a Long-necked Tortoise.
On the house dam, a float holds the foot valve for the pump out of the muddy bottom of the dam
More reflections. This time the boats in the marina at Evans Head
Water drops on the leaf. One of my favourite subjects to capture.
It’s getting late. The afternoon clouds are building so a storm looked in the offing
The moon made a dramatic entrance when full one evening

So there was My February. Thanks for hanging in to the end.

Also for Su’s Changing Seasons February 2020

Wordless Wednesday

Published on February 19, 2020 by bushboy13 Comments

fungus02_binnaburra_named_april2014

The proceeds of rain and hot weather

Published on February 18, 2020 by bushboy16 Comments

Kate’s Friday Fun: Fungi

A bit of a walk around today and I found a few fungi that have popped up.

A cup shaped one that I haven’t seen on my place before

A little brown fungi that has appeared in quite a number of blogs over the years
A bright yellow fungi that popped up in a plant pot on the verandah over the weekend. A Leucocoprinus birnbaumii

Durranbah – Fire Recovery part1

Published on February 13, 2020 by bushboy46 Comments

I have been out and about but not far into the bush as there are limbs falling and the ground is quite wet now so some burnt trees could still topple. These are in the area around the house. This area was just burnt ground with some blackened timber. The unburnt leaves have fallen since the fire went through on the 6th December.

Some of the plants I know what they are and have named. I am going cross-eyed trying to find all the plants in my books. Many of the flowers are small some up to 10mm or half an inch. There is quite a few photos.

The start of a Native Wisteria emerging from the soil
Fungi were the first plants to appear. The Finger Fungi is small and struggling. There’s a bit of Lichen too.
The Golden Lily is showing as bright dots of yellow through the bush. The flowers are 20 to 40mm and in places they are in clumps of flowers. There are about five buds waiting to open here

The Lomandras are in clumps or individual plants and all are flowering

The Lomandra flowers are tiny balls on a tall spike emerging from the tough strappy leaves

A different Lomandra.
Not sure what this plant is
A small group of plants
I should know what this plant is but cannot remember
Some plants emerge from the roots that survived the fire. This could be a shrub to small tree a Cheese Tree possibly.
The growth surrounding the burnt trunk. A lot of Australian plants start life red then turn green as they mature.
Another hardy Eucalypt grows. They are fire hardy plants and there is a sort of root, a lignotuber at the base of the tree that conserves energy and when it’s time, the tree will commence growing. Many species can re-sprout from buds under their bark.
Another tiny flower. These are on slender stalks and in clumps of tiny white flowers.
This is a ground cover that spreads along the forest floor. Bright dots of purple catch your eye.
These yellow flowers are ones the Native Stingless Bees love. Again around 10mm across.
Almost a clover like flower but opens up as you can see in the background
There are lots of these purple flowers on tall spikes and multiple flowers.
I think this may belong to the pea family. So pretty with many flowers along the stalk
Lots of clumps of these flowers and bees buzzing around.
A close-up of the flowers in the above clump.