Up the creek

We started in bright sunshine. At Ceres in the Barrabool hills I just had to stop and take some photos of the Barwon River valley covered in fog. It looked spectacular and I'm pleased with the photos.

By the time we got to Winchelsea to meet up with other field naturalists it was cold and wet. In the rain we explored the riparian vegetation of the Barwon River with two men who have been very involved, with others, in weeding and planting. The gorse, blackberry and willow have been replaced by Black Wattle, Gynatrix, River Red Gum, Blackwood, poas and sedges. They've had great success despite the drought. It's hard to take photos when your gloves are wet, your fingers frozen, your glasses covered in rain drops and your nose dripping! But several of us found some lovely little fungi species to photograph.

The weather cleared and we went further upstream to see a section of the river that a farmer has fenced off from animals. He's installed a solar pump to take the water to the stock rather than the other way round. The River Red Gums lining the river were ancient and we thought they were wonderful. So did the cockatoos, galahs, corellas and Red-rumped Parrots. We also found Callistemon sieberi and Leptospermum myrsinoides. Dave took home a scoop of the river water to identify the invertebrates under his microscope. It would be good to go back in a decade or so to see what grows now that the stock has been excluded.