The track

Welcome Swallows and Martins, basking.

There's a track winding back, dividing the farm to provide easy access to the paddocks. On any day in summer, on this particular curve, I can guarantee you a big bunch of swallows and martins just sitting on the gravel, a pair of Blue-winged Parrots and a pair of pipits.

It's a mystery to me because it looks just like every other part of the track.

Titan Arum

This is what my daughter and I did on our way to my brother's place for Christmas lunch.

We had to drive from Geelong to Ringwood so it was easy to leave a bit earlier and on the way visit the Tropical Glasshouse at the Melbourne Botanical Gardens. Why? To see the flowering Titan Arum Amorphophallus titanum.

Quote from an information board in the glasshouse: After seven years of careful nurturing by Royal Botanic Gardens' staff the stunning Titan Arum, also known as Corspe Flower, is expected to reach full bloom during the week of Christmas. This extraordinary plant has the world's largest unbranched inflorescence, featuring a cluster of small flowers inside the base. The exact day of the bloom is difficult to determine, however once flowering the inflorescence may only last two or three days before collapsing... the Titan Arum is currently growing at a rate of 10+ cm a day and is expected to reach a height of 2-3 metres in height.

My six-foot-tall daughter standing next to the inflorescence spike.

The flower has not yer opened. You can see that the inside of the frilled skirt that is yet to drop is deep purple and it doesn't have any odour as yet. Look carefully at the photo above. The tall green plant to the right of the picture is in fact another specimen of the Titan Arum but is at an earlier stage of development. That plant will die down and then the bulb will be dormant for possibly years before the flower spike emerges.

To keep tabs on the status of the flower the Botanic Gardens' Facebook page has the best information. And here's what it will look like when it opens in the next day or so.

Department of Botany, University of Wisconsin-Madison

It was a bit tricky getting good photos of the plant. Too many people, and the high humidity in the warm glasshouse kept fogging up the lens on my camera!

Update: Flowered Boxing Day, 26/12/2012

Lake Victoria

Find Emily Street, Point Lonsdale on Victoria's southern coast. Go right to the end, where there is a small carpark, and walk through the gate. The walking track takes you right out between the shallow waters and roosting areas of Lake Victoria that wading birds love.

We were there yesterday because it is one of our stops on the annual Challenge Count. There were a lot of birds there--LBJs (little brown birds such as Curlew Sandpipers and Sharp-tailed Sandpipers), Banded Stilts, ducks (including a single Freckled Duck), swans, dots (Red-kneed and Black-fronted Dotterels), pelican and spoonbills. It's heaven for a birdwatcher.

Mystery objects, Lake Victoria ...

... and the more normal view of juvenile and adult  Banded Stilts.

PS Best bird, for me, on the Challenge Count was a small flock of delightful Horsfield's Bushlarks singing and occasionally flying in grassland at Connewarre. Thank goodness it wasn't up to me to identify them. I had no idea, but others in our group knew what they were.

Lookout for the Box-Ironbark

Box-Ironbark* woodland exists mainly in central Victoria. Draw a line around the extent of the Victorian goldfields and you're encompassing the the Box-Ironbark. And because of the gold-digging and mining the forest was damaged and fragmented. It's also a fantastic place to find orchids and birds if you're there at the right time.

We were there last weekend, about a month too late for orchids. And late in the afternoon, not the best time to see birds. But we could see what it might be like and it's excellent that the Heathcote - Graytown National Park exists to help preserve what little Box-Ironbark forest is left. This particular area is a stronghold for non-breeding Swift Parrots.

The view from Melvilles Lookout

We drove to Melvilles Lookout near Graytown through the healthy forest, past the very tall grasstrees, past the quarry at the base of Mt Black, up a rough and stony road through an understory of yellow everlastings and prolific Stypandra glauca Nodding Blue Lily that had just finished flowering. At the lookout we found several picnic tables, a view over the surrounding countryside and two butterflies. I don't mean two species, I mean two individuals! (We saw very few butterflies anywhere we went last weekend.)

These grasstrees were at least twice my height. They must be very very old.

Heath Ochre Trapezites phigalia

Australian Painted Lady Vanessa kershawi

We plan to go back another time but a little earlier in the spring to see the flora at its best.

*Box-Ironbark is a term that incorporates a number of eucalypts, mainly White Box and Red Box, Red Ironbark and Mugga Ironbark, Yellow Gum and Red Stringybark. The best book on the subject is Wildlife of the Box-Ironbark Country by Chris Tzaros.