A cluster of spiders

October is a bit of a hot month for celebrations for us, with three major milestones in Lisa and my life all making an appearance, and if I sneak the 1 Nov into that period it becomes four.  Lisa’s birthday is first up, and luckily for her it always falls in the spring school holidays resulting in her being off work.  I too took Friday off, so we could spend the day together.  Opting for a bike ride towards Busselton, for a mid-morning feed at a small but relaxing café that is a little of out the way from the hustle and bustle of the main town:

It is a forty plus kilometre round trip, so not to be sneezed at considering we haven’t been on the bikes for a long time.  Quite some months back I forced myself to cycle round a local circuit, to build up some cardio fitness.  However, after a couple of times it fell by the wayside.  While Lisa can’t even recall when she was last on her treadly.  I’m happy to report that we had a scrumptious feed, played a few games, and enjoyed the bike ride made all the more special with a couple of lucky spots along the way:

As can be seen in the first image, when we cycled under a big bird of prey that was perched just off the roadside it alighted.  Providing my second close up encounter with a Eastern Osprey (Pandion haliaetus cristatus) within a week of each other.  Lisa and I survived the bike ride despite the distance and the temperature, which was starting to creep into the high twenties on the return trip.  While I full expected to have tree-trunk legs today they were fine, and based on all that I feel it is fair to say that our fitness levels are not too shabby:

Today was forecast to be another warmer than average spring day, which prompted me to head out early for a stretch of the legs round Ambergate Reserve.  Early enough to be the first there and only as I got back to my car, two hours later, did another car finally roll into the carpark.  Being early the sun was low making it a little tricky to scour the scrub, and as I was the first person out today the path was crisscrossed with spider webs.  I’m not entirely sure how may spiders hitched a ride on me, but I was continually collecting more webs as I walked round:

The eight-legged variety were not the only spiders out, and as can be seen by the second image there were a bounty of spider orchids.  That was by far the biggest single collection I spotted with some 30-40 flowers, but they were also scattered all over the place.  I looked at each closely and took way too many images, checking them out again at home but I’m struggling to figure out if they were all the same species.  I’d suggest they were, being the Karri Spider Orchid (Caladenia brownii), which named after one of the authors of the orchid guide I have, Andrew Brown:

The spider shown in a web, which I did not walk through, is more than likely a Garden Orb Weaving Spider (Eriophora sp.).  This is based on the body shape, size, and areas that the hairs are not covering, i.e. the femur (the section of the leg closest to the body) and the maxilla (the sides of the head).  There are however over 100 species found in Australia, and with the quality of the image I got there is no point in trying to narrow it down.  It seemed that Western Grey Kangaroos (Macropus fuliginosus) were finding it a bit too early to be disturbed, and they seemed a bit sluggish:

They would normally bound off as soon as they became aware of me, but at this hour of the day they seemed content enough to simply and lazily hop a few metres and then carrying on grazing.  Needless to say I did find other orchids in addition to the proliferation of spiders, but of the others I spotted there were only one or a few of each species.  The Rattle Beaks (Lyperanthus serratus) a couple of image up reminded me a bit like the kangaroos I spotted, standing to attention to look at me but not really caring or moving:

There were a number of dragonflies about, but above was the only red one I spotted.  And if I am right, it may be that this was the only male I spotted, probably being known as either the Red or Wandering Percher (Diplacodes bipunctata).  A small species with a wingspan of a couple of inches, but one that wanders all over Australia.  Another small find, of which I only found one, was the above Common Mignonette Orchid (Microtis media subsp. media).  As mentioned in my last post this species has an elaborately fringed labellum, as shown below:

This walk comprises four sections, each being a little different.  The first is money section, if you are after orchids.  They can be found in the other three segments but from my experience they are generally in lesser numbers.  Some of the others sections have far denser understorey making it tricky to see what might be there.  The third section was burnt some time ago and has still not fully recovered.  I’m not sure if it was a controlled burn, but it looks like it may have burned a bit too hot and if I am right the seed base in the soils may have been damaged:

In this blackened section I did however spot one small clump of White Fairy Orchid (Caladenia marginata), which is one of the species that is said to do well after a summer burn.  Mind you last season I spotted this species in great numbers in the money section, which I have not known to be burnt in the many years I have been coming here.  It is said to have unpleasant odour, which is used to attract small native flies, although I didn’t notice it myself.  With all the understorey burnt I spotted movement at the base of an exposed and burnt trunk:

I waited patiently standing motionless for five to ten minutes, although my eyes drifted about looking for anything else of interest.  The only other movement I saw was the below Buchanan’s snake-eyed skink (Cryptoblepharus buchananii).  Way less timid than the above find, and happy for me to take some close up snaps making it easy to identify.  That said based on the scale configuration, shape, and size of the head plus the meaty foreleg with long toes, I’m prepared to guess it was a King’s Skink (Egernia kingii) that had been cautiously watching me and refused to come out of its home any further than shown above:

I was also being carefully watched by a myriad of birds.  As the morning wore on, and the temperature began to rise, the dawn chorus became less prominent.  I still caught the sound of song for the whole two hours, which drew my eyes to where it came from and on occasion a bird would perched long enough for me watch it.  The below White-Browed Scrubwren (Sericornis frontalis) providing me with the best opportunity.  While it is the most common of the five species of scrubwrens found in Australia, it varies in appearance in the differing geographical locations it is found.  With this race, maculatus, with its speckled breast being restricted to the southern coastal areas of Western Australia:

I’ll leave you with a selection of my spider orchids images, and if anyone is game to suggest that some may not be the Karri Spider Orchid (Caladenia brownii) shout out:

Uniquely beautiful

The Capel Nature Reserve was calling me for a little nature boost.  And I went there despite looming clouds that threatened a sprinkling of rain, which did eventuated but didn’t dampen my spirits.  I parked in a different location this time and wandered off into the bush at some random spot.  Hoping that by taking a completely different path, and not being drawn to the familiar locations, where I have previously seen particular species, I might stumble on something new.  The groundcover, like at Crooked Brook, was a wonderful sight:

The main shrub in flower being the Yellow Buttercups (Hibbertia hypericoides), there are some 400 species of Hibbertia in Australia although I can’t find out how many of these are found in the SW of Western Australia.  Regardless of how many there may be I’m taking a gamble with my identification, but it looks about right.  One of the drawcards for coming here was not the blanket of yellow, but the Chapman’s Spider Orchid (Caladenia chapmanii).  When I last came here just three weeks back, they were only just starting to come out:

Sadly however every specimen I stumbled across was wilted and on its way out.  And if you want to get an idea of the display that I had missed, check out my post from last year https://sandbagged.blog/2022/09/18/the-multi-coloured-picture-show/.  Walking on aimlessly with no idea of where I was going or indeed where I was, other orchids were scattered about.  The most common being the Cowslip Orchid (Caladenia flava).  This particular orchid, while common as muck, can pop up with quite a wide range of petal and sepal sizes, shapes, and hues of yellow, white, and pink:

There were also a fair few Sandplain White Spider Orchids (Caladenia speciosa).  It was when I spotted the first one of these and put my bag on the ground, that right next to it I spied this Burton’s Legless Lizard (Lialis burtonis).  Several things made it obvious that it wasn’t a snake, including the shape of the face and ear openings.  It stayed completely still, as I took a few images getting very close.  So close that I thought it may have been dead, that is until I lightly touched it.  When it shot off into the undergrowth, slithering like a snake.  This particular legless lizard has no front limbs, and only tiny hind limbs that are hard to see:

While in warm climates they are nocturnal, in cooler climates they can be active during the day.  Today for me was one of those lucky cooler periods.  These lizards wrap themselves round their prey, suffocating it.  Then use a special hinge in the skull that allows it to dislocate its jaw and swallow its prey.  Carrying on there was a swampy area, with no snakes that I could find, but heaps of Dense Mignonette Orchids (Microtis media subsp. densiflora).  These look similar to the Common Mignonette Orchid (Microtis media subsp. media), but its spike has a far denser arrangement of flowers:

It has up to one hundred and fifty small yellowish-green flowers, that have a less elaborately fringed labellum to the Common Mignonette Orchid.  There are a number of different Mignonette species and I’ve read they are often overlooked, even by orchid enthusiasts.  This is due to the seemingly dull and insignificant flowers, when compared against the many other varied flowers of other genera of orchid. But just like the drably coloured Rattle Beak Orchid (Lyperanthus serratus), below, when you take a close look at the flowers they are in fact just as pretty in their own unique way:

A bit too spicy

For quite a while now a couple of work colleagues and I have been trying to organise a date to get out on rock.  All three of them have young families so it has been somewhat tricky but we eventually plumped for this weekend, which suited three out of the four of us.  Sam has been out with me a few times now, but Pat had yet to sample the delights of climbing.  We had to watch the clock, as needs to happen that bit more with young families, so we opted for a trip to Castle Rock.  Offering a shorter walk-in and some good introductory low grade lines.  I offered Lou to join us, but she hinted it was a tad too early for her:

Some of her gear did however make it out with us, as she loaned it to us for Pat to use so thank you for that.  It was a great choice for many reasons.  This included Sam not having climbed here before and Pat, until today, ever having visited this particularly beautiful part of the South West, which is nestled in the Meelup Regional Park.  As you may have picked up on, we got an early start and were rewarded by a glorious view of the sun radiating through the clouds that were starting to disperse.  And as soon as we arrived at the crag I got super excited when I spotted a whale a mere 1-200m off the shoreline, and I set off like a mountain goat scampering across the rocks to get a closer look:

It was so very tempting to jump in the water and swim out to the whale.  However, with the sun as low as it still was, the light would not be penetrating the water enough plus I didn’t have a snorkel mask with me.  Then I almost ignored both of these reason not to go in when I realised it was a mother and calf, who stayed in the same general area for the entire time we were at the crag.  There was the occasional bit of flipper and tail action and this allowed Sam to deduce that it was a Southern Right Whale (Eubalaena australis), which I have now read are well known for using the bays along this coastline to protect their young:

I eventually wandered back to the boys and the crag, when I was again distracted.  This time by the above Eastern Osprey (Pandion haliaetus cristatus).  The species and subspecies names coming from the Greek and Latin words of haliaietos and cristatus, meaning ‘sea eagle’ (noting that actual sea eagles are a different genus to osprey) and ‘crested’ in reference to the clearly visible stiff tuft of feathers at the nape.  As I inched closer it looked me straight in the eye, just for a brief moment and after that it didn’t pay me any further attention not even when got within five meters of it:

I left the Eastern Osprey perched on the boulder and finally got back.  Sam is used to my, at times, overly exuberant response to nature’s marvels.  And while Pat had an inclination about it before today, he now fully appreciates just how much of a kick I get out of such sights.  This also made it clear that climbing, for me, was just one part of being out here.  Luckily it was the same for them, that said we had come here to give Pat a taste of climbing so that is what we did.  I was not aware of Pat’s fear of heights before today, it was something he had considered but felt he would be OK about it due to the ropes and intention of going easy:

However after sending Sam on lead up the fun Cornflakes, the exposure of the flake out on an arête was just too much for Pat’s brain.  He gave it a go and a third of the way up his anxiety got the better of him forcing him to retreat.  The good news being that he was not completely put off.  So we found an easier line and, more importantly, one that was in a more secure and less exposed position.  Pat seemed to be more keenly observing Sam as he led the route, taking note of the holds and how he climbed it.  He then followed up, and while he had to sort himself out a bit half way up, he managed to get up the route:

It was great to see him overcome the battle that was obviously raging in his brain.  His movements were not what I would call smooth, and at times he looked very conflicted but overcame that and was smiling we he got up.  He was however happy to take a break to collect his thoughts and allow his heartrate to return back to normal.  This left Sam and I to tackle a slightly more challenging line, one Sam had spotted and was drawn too without any encouragement form me.  Above he can be seen as he floated up Pursuits to clock up the highest graded lead he’s done to date, after which Pat was keen for more action:

We picked another similar fun and short unnamed line, and this time he looked way more relaxed making far smoother movements and not needing to stop and sort himself out.  The morning had been somewhat disrupted by all the whale watching, which included what we believe may have been a pod of Pygmy Whale based on their size.  Therefore, time was catching up with us, but before we left we had a bash at Smear to Glory.  And in the interest of time Sam suggested I lead.  Pat decided this one looked a bit too spicy for him, but he has not been put off and said he is keen to come out again:

Crossing my fingers

As to be expected I have been out and about for a wander to look for orchids since our return from overseas.  My first jolly in nature was not in fact climbing related, being a walk at Crooked Brook where I drove to full of anticipation of seeing a heap of orchids.  You may wonder why I have not reported my findings, especially as this trip out was before my post about Howsie and my trip to Wilyabrup.  Quite simply it was due to not seeing many orchids, although I did have a lovely walk round a couple of the circuits:

And despite the abundance of cars, which was not unexpected being a long weekend and the start of the spring school holidays, I didn’t bump into too many people.  My eyes were however mostly glued to the ground, but I also looked across the colourful groundcover to take in the beauty of all the flowers in bloom.  At one point in particular I also spent a long time looking at a flock of Forest Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus banksii naso) who seemed unperturbed at just how close I was to them:

There were of course some orchids out, but I really had to look hard to find them.  Sadly some of the beauties I found on my last visit here had already disappeared or were wilting.  While a couple of the more commonly seen species were coming out to keep the numbers up a bit, such as the Purple Enamel (Caladenia brunonis) and Cowslip (Caladenia flava).  The only new find for the season was the Forest Mantis-Orchid (Caladenia attingens), of which I only spotted one despite being described as a relatively common orchid:

The common name is self-evident, and the Latin name also seems appropriate for the same reason with attingens meaning “reaching to”.  This was not however intended to refer to the sepals at the front of the flower that are reaching upwards like a praying mantis.  It was instead used to describe how the calli, or fleshy lumps on the upper surface of the lip, were said to extend as far as the tip of the labellum.  However, as seen in the image above they only reach as far as the green portion, and do not extend into the tip where it turns purple:

Despite the lack of orchids I managed to spend a very relaxing couple of hours scouring the area, and even took images of different ant nests with an aim to identify them for a post.  Spotting amongst others Bull Ants (Myrmecia gratiosa) and Green-Head Ants (Rhytidoponera metallica), which have very different entrances to their nests.  But when I discovered there are over 500 species of ants in the South West of Western Australia alone, I abandoned that idea.  And we will finish that walk with an image of a flowering Grasstree (Xanthorrhoea):

The order of insects Diptera covers flies, and Hoverflies are considered the most important pollinators of all fly families.  You may notice in the above image a Hoverfly, possibly being Melangyna collates or Symosyrphus grandicornis both of which are common native Australian species.  These two species have been identified as being pollinators of orchids.  My hunt of which continued on Thursday, when after three days of being back in the office I really needed to get out and declutter my brain, so popped into Manea Park on the way home:

This time I had a fair bit more success with several new species for the season including the Blue Lady Orchid (Thelymitra crinita) and a number of hybridised Pink Fairy Orchids (Caladenia latifolia).  While this restored my faith that there could be more to come, chatting to a friend in Perth, Verity tells me that the orchid season up that has also been somewhat lame.  With many of the usual species that are commonly seen being hard to find this year.  All I can do is keep my fingers crossed for down here, and keep heading out:

A little crustacean

The risk with long weekends is that it can get pretty busy at the crag.  But being the last day before I go back to work, after a few weeks off the idea of heading out was just too tempting.  And much to Howsie and my surprise we ended up with the cliffs all to ourselves, although as the morning wore on we did spot a few people who were out for a wander.  It started off a bit gloomy and overcast, which could have resulted in the humidity being up.  This could have hampered the primary goal of today, but luckily it cleared up nicely: 

We had come here specifically to allow Howsie to progress is on again off again 2023 challenge.  The difficulty of climbing for this year is entirely achievable although like so many other activities, it is of course relative to someone’s ability.  And for us grade 23, while not a ridiculous target, is a level of difficulty that we do not often extend ourselves too.  The other thing I considered for today was the way Howsie’s mind can work against him when a climb gets a little testy.  So I decided to encourage him to start at a reasonable grade so as to get into the right headspace:

On the “warm-up” lead at grade 19 he got up to his usual antics of letting his mind play games.  It was a good prompt to have a little chat about it and make sure he could shake it off for his next lead.  Before that he had a slightly more relaxed second following me up a grade 17.  Then we headed across to Steel Wall for the main dish of the day, a dish that Howsie has never sampled.  The lower section is shared with climbs he has been on numerous times before, but once past the horizontal break every hold and position would need to be figured out on-sight and I was not going to give anything away:

The tactics for the first route seemed to be working, and he tackled this much harder line with a completely different attitude.  Not so afraid to go for it and being that bit bolder when the going got tough, and there are plenty of places on this climb where that happens.  I do not think there were any expectations from either of us that it would be a clean lead or that he would necessarily top out.  But it was good to see him focus on working out each move one step at a time, and then be prepared to accept the airtime when his fingers couldn’t cling onto the small crimps or his feet couldn’t stick the awkward holds:

After an hour on the wall and quite a few big falls he finally conceded that his body was physically exhausted and he had reached the high point on this particular route for the day.  To give you an idea of how long that would have felt like for him, both of us had romped up the first two climbs in the same time he had worked just the first two thirds of this climb.  This meant the gear was still hanging on the wall above us, and to retrieve it there were two options.  The first being for me to head up and finish the route, and then Howsie could follow up with the safety of having a rope above him:

This would have however given him intel on the holds, moves, and positions that he had, as yet, not encountered.  After a bit of discussion it was agreed to go for option two, which was for me to run up a different line on the same wall to allow us to rap down to clean the gear of his route.  The climb we picked was still no walk in the park at grade 20, with a steep fingery crux section that spat him off.  It was a battle but eventually he got up, after which I rapped down to clean his line while he wandered down the path.  That way he was still none-the-wiser of what the rest of his climb had instore for him.  Back at the base it was clear Howsie didn’t have much left to offer, so it was a gentle climb out on a grade 13 with packs of course:

He had just enough left to get up the last climb of the morning.  Made extra special when we spotted two Southwestern Carpet Pythons (Morelia imbricata) on route, a Bark-mimicking Grasshopper (Coryphistes ruricola) that waited patiently in position so we both got to see it, and then as we sat atop looking out to sea we got to watch a whale breaching.  And while there were no crustacean in sight, Howsie confessed he was feeling a little shellfish for not wanting me to finish off the grade 23.  I was however not crabby about it, as I wanted him to enjoy stepping into the unknown above his high point on his next attempt:

Enjoying being out

Less than twelve hours after completing the twenty eight hour door to door trip home from the UK I was meeting Rob in the Capel, at the slightly tardy time of eight in the morning.  He was a little surprised that I was keen to get out, but I find that getting straight back into a routine is the best way to overcome jetlag.  And what better way to do that than heading out and about on the first day into the fresh air and being active.  Rob kindly offered to drive today, and I was more than happy to accept his offer:

What a way to come back home, wandering down to Wilyabrup and be greeted by orchids and a good half hour display of aquatic acrobatics by some fifty plus dolphins.  I found out that Rob’s wife also likes orchids, so to allow him to remember what we saw I’m going to recount them but have only included an image of a Pink Fairy (Caladenia latifolia), which was out in abundance.  The others in flower being Purple Enamel Orchid (Elythranthera brunonis), Murdoch Snail Orchid (Pterostylis ectypha), and Cowslip (Caladenia flava):

And just because I am so stoked to have spotted it this year, I couldn’t help myself from also showing him the tiny basal leaf of the Sandhill Helmet Orchid (Corybas despectans), the flower of which was now completely gone.  It took a while before we started to climb, as the dolphin display continued.  Each time it looked like they were moving away they came back for another play in the waves, until finally they continued south out of sight.  Despite already being past nine we were the only ones to enjoy the show, having the place to ourselves:

We continued to be alone the whole time with no other climbers, tour/school groups, or even walkers being about.  It is a rare occasion these days not to see a single soul, but we did not complain.  Having the pick of the climbs, I left Rob to let me know what he was keen to have a bash at, whether on lead or second.  Picking off some of the relaxing classics with nothing too serious, which suited where he is currently at with his climbing and I was at with my slightly woolly feeling head and slightly lethargic feeling body:

I was a little surprised when he suggested one particular line, being a long and very enjoyable climb that has a start that puts many off.  Fairly graded, in my opinion as a traditional climber, but gym and sport climbers claim it is a complete and utter sandbag.  This made me think about a TV series called The Climb, which I watched on the flight back from the UK.  A bunch of amateur climbers were given the chance to win sponsorship to launch their professional career, and of all the climbs they were put up against there was only one traditional climb:

The rest were sport climbs with bolts, bouldering problems protected by crash mats at the base, and deep water solo routes above the ocean.  Interestingly, traditional climbing was talked about as being the most dangerous form of climbing, despite the cuts and bruises they got on the dynamic sport routes; several scary falls from the boulder problems with one that resulted in a knee injury requiring care; and the numerous up to 20m falls into the ocean for which if the entry into the water was at the wrong angle could have resulted in serious injury:

On the plus side if such fallacies about traditional climbing keep areas such as this relatively quiet then that is fine with me.  And getting back to the line I was surprised Rob was keen to follow me up, I thought it may have unnerved him to take on another lead.  He did waiver for a bit but I managed to encourage him to keep going.  He managed a clean lead on a line he had never been on before, which was great to watch.  Despite coming to these local areas so often I am still surprised at what I have overlooked, such as the sight in the above image: 

How I have missed seeing the contrasting calcified roots or branches right next to the dry bare roots I have no idea.  I also missed this little fella, which Rob spotted, and despite the orange colouration of this specimen it is a Red Jewel Bug (Choerocoris paganus).  I was starting to tire but rather than walk out we decided to climb out.  Hoping to, but not, finding one more scaly friend in addition to the many Southwestern Crevice Skink (Egernia napoleonis) and Buchanan’s Snake-eyed Skink (Cryptoblepharus buchananii) who today, like us, were just enjoying being out:

Playing in the Rain

Last year Lisa and I went back to the UK separately at different times and to different locations.  This time we went together to spend some time with, and look after, the folks while Seeta, my sister who is there primary carer, took a well-deserved holiday with her family.  Both my Mam and Dad will tell me often that getting old is no fun.  They are however lucky in many regards, as while their physical faculties are reducing they have not been hit by certain ailments that bring a debilitating loss of cognitive functioning:

Not only did Lisa join me, but Elseya and her boyfriend Griffin also came along.  It’s been five years since Elseya has been back to the UK so she was keen to see her Oma and Opa, which put an extra wide smile of the folks face.  Griffin has travelled with his family, but never to the UK.  I personally feel he was pretty brave, seeing it was yet again a short and sharp week long trip with a sole purpose of looking after the folks.  That did not however stop the two of them from taking advantage of being in the UK and doing some exploring by themselves:

We arrived in time to catch up with Seeta and her family for a few hours before they departed for sunny Spain.  Wend were then left with their house and car keys, allowing us to settle in after the long trip.  For the first night we also had a surprise visitor for dinner.  Angus, my brother, happened to be working not too far away and was staying up for one night so joined us for a scrumptious Chinese.  Unfortunately, we brought bugs with us resulting in some of us not feeling all that great and impacting how much we did:

This understandably reduced Elseya and Griffin’s motivation to get out and about as much as they could have.  They made plans to travel bit further afield to check out a few sights that they respectively had interests in, making use of the far improved rail network that the UK offers in comparison to Western Australia.  Sadly, as it was only one trip became reality being a short day into Manchester.  That said they enjoyed themselves and it may have given them a taste enough to want to join us again one day in the UK to get a bit further afield:

As can be seen we did still got out and about with the folks, sticking mostly to local places.  Staring with the must do visit to Pear Mill.  If you are keen to read a bit more about this unusually place check out the post of my last visit https://sandbagged.blog/2022/08/01/time-to-head-back/.  I thought this place with all of its antiquity and quirky items would be of interest to both Lisa and Elseya and was not disappointed.  For Lisa it brought back a bounty of memories and Elseya got drawn in by the abundance of interesting items to check out:

So much so that we ended up with a second visit there, this time with Lisa’s Mum and sister, Becky, who came up from Torquay for a day visit adding to more family for Griffin to meet.  This required a four plus hour journey each way, so we were very appreciative of them making the trip.  Rewarding them with a visit to see my folks followed by a brew and trip down memory lane at Pear Mill.  A place that Lisa’s Mum never got to when she used to live not that far away from here.  Then it was onto the Romiley Arms for a lovely late pub lunch, before they had to start to the long trip home:

Pubs were of course part of the itinerary, and we managed to get to a few.  This included a couple of lunchtimes out with the folks, with one that I was particularly keen to try.  The Hare and Hounds is located at the top of Werneth Low, a hill that is part of the Pennine range and offers great views across to Manchester.  I have passed this pub numerous times on my early morning walks in previous visits, and it looked good and certainly was.   This time I didn’t get any early morning walks in, having the family with me it was a different kinda trip:

That said some things didn’t change, including playing games and getting through a few puzzles.   And while we managed a few trips out, my folks mobility has certainly declined since my last visit in March this year.  This meant the times we headed out only included a short walk.  That is not to say they are house bound and we did the odd walk into Romiley with them to have a feast in a café.  I had to include the next not so clear image, my Mam likes to watch the birds and also gets a visit from a local squirrel twice a day:

This has resulted in needing to reinforce the feeders, which the squirrel can gnaw through and destroy in one visit.  There are squirrel proof bird feeders these days, which means the birds have a chance at having a feed too.  But on this occasion a Jackdaw was more interested in having a go at the squirrel than getting a feed.  This show went one for a while before the squirrel decided it wasn’t worth hanging about.  Unfortunately, the weather came in for the second half of the trip, and this prevented us doing as much as we would have liked:

It was in this period that Elseya and Griffin finally managed a trip into Manchester, and got drenched.  Meanwhile Lisa and I took the folks out for another pub lunch at the local pub called the Spreadeagle.  A pub I have memoires of having a magnificent feed many, many years back.  And again was not disappointed, enjoying another feast while we watched the driving rain outside.  On the plus side the rain made us realise how slippery the paving at the house got when it rained, due to the build-up of algae:

Lisa spotted a pressure cleaner at Seeta’s place so we were happy to provide assistance with many the less than enjoyable chores she has to manage, by cleaning the paving.  Just like on previous visits, we did not spend time on the chore of cooking.  Making life easy by taking advantage of the many varied takeaway and eating out options right on the doorstep.  There was however one meal that was cooked, being onion bhajis.  A dish my Dad used to cook on a fairly regular basis as we were growing up:

It was certainly a little different not staying at my folks house, but with four of us that would have been too much for them.  It was also handy for us to ensure that my sister’s house remained occupied.  That didn’t stop us spending a lot of time round the folks place and had fun times.  My Dad was invigorated by our visit to risk his morning walk to pick up the paper even when it was wet and a bit windy.  Enlisting the use of Lisa’s arm to hold onto, as they braved getting wet while I stayed dry and warm puzzling away with my Mam:

Elseya and Griffin also got sucked in by the puzzles.  All up we managed to finish the one that was on the table when we arrived, complete three more, and get a fifth started leaving that one for my Mam to complete.  As has happened on each visit, the week came to an end all too soon and it was time for us to head home.  Being the same day Seeta’s family returned from Spain, to ensure the continuity of support was there.  All things considered the folks aren’t doing too bad, and while getting old may not be fun we all had fun during our visit:

Unseen but there

It’s been a while since Sarah has joined us for a climb, so we let her pick the location.  I was happy when she picked Moses Rocks, which always offers a fun outing.  There are two areas of Moses Rocks that she hasn’t climbed at, but the conditions today were not conducive for either of them.  To be honest neither Rongy nor I had anything in particular in mind.  So we dumped the bags at the first area the walk-in takes you past, and started climbing.  Picking lines that we had not been on for a while:

Rumpoles Rocks was one of the areas Sarah hadn’t climbed at, but the routes can feel a bit tricky and maybe would have felt harder in these conditions.  That said not all the ones we climbed today were Sarah’s cup of tea, but she was happy to simply be out and jump on routes that looked appealing.  I was pleased this included Hathersage and Stanage Youth, just because the names have references to the Peak District in the England.  But Classic Thrash, above, and Kami-kaze Catfish did not pull her in:

The latter almost being a bit too much for me and I almost peeled off.  Deciding to move to another area Sarah was still not too keen to jump on rock, allowing Rongy and I to pick a couple of choice routes on Hands Up Wall.  Both selecting climbs named after characters of the satirical British comic Viz, founded in 1979 and very popular in the 80s when the routes were established.  Rongy enjoyed delicately slabbing up Johnny Fartpants, which inspired me to have a bash on another route I haven’t led for a long time:

Fat Slags, above, climbs in a similar fashion to Rongy line but is just that bit steeper.  Good friction is required to avoid popping off especially at the very start.  Fortunately, despite the high tide, rough swell, and strong onshore winds, the rock was in great condition.  These conditions did however keep us out of the Zawn, below, being the second area Sarah hasn’t climbed in.  While I didn’t falter on my climb, Sarah made me almost fall over afterwards by saying she wanted to have a climb, on lead:

Since I have known her, she has adamantly stated she would never lead climb.  And I’m still not sure what made her decide to change her mind and have a go today.  I’m not however one to hold people back when it comes to having a go on lead.  She’d also picked out the route based on the description in the guidebook, which I wrote, so I have to say she picked well.  Mini Thor is a short but great line, so after a bit of tuition on lead climbing she set off.  Whatever was holding her back from following us up the other lines, was vanquished:

Not showing any signs of nerves and placing great gear, which is plentiful on this route making it a great beginners climb.  Rongy couldn’t recall previously climbing on this small face, probably having walked past it numerous times and overlooking it because it is so short.  But after climbing Sarah’s route, his eyes were drawn to the slightly overhanging wall to the left.  Offering the slightly pumpy Blake and the Thoroughbreds.  Maybe it was the steepness but Sarah wasn’t interested in that line, and had even taken her harness off:

Not a reptile was in sight, despite both of us checking lots of nooks and crannies.  Other than the occasional passing gull, the only creature spotted was this tiny Deto marina.  It probably wasn’t more than a few millimetres long.  Sarah spied it, and my eyes would never have noticed it without a magnifying glass.  It is a genus of the woodlice family, and known to live in intertidal zones on or under rocks feeding on algae.  There are five confirmed species, but only this one is listed as having been sighted in Australia on the Atlas of Living Australia:

To give you an idea of scale, a small part of my thumbnail is at the bottom of the image, so some may say I’m forgiven for not having noticed the creature.  Sarah surprised me one more time when she said she was keen for one more route, but this time on second.  So her harness went back on, for Many Hands on wonderfully rounded holds to round of our time at Moses Rocks.  While they may have thought the climbing was over I led them on merry way back to the car that included just a wee bit of scrambling:

Great expectations

Being early spring I try to temper my expectations when I head out for a wander.  This week managing two visits into nature, intentionally squeezing them in as I won’t be out and about as much as usual for a couple of weeks.  However, before I managed my first excursion Pat from work, who is keen to get out on rock so you may hear about him again, sent me an image asking if I knew what he had found.  I did and it reminded me of when Lisa and I used to work at Ooraminna Station Homestead some 40km south of Alice Springs, where I used to take tourists on nature walks:

Being what is commonly called an Antlion (Myrmeleontidae), although with approx. 2,000 species worldwide I won’t even attempt to work out which one it is.  The family name originates from two Greek words of mýrmex and léon, meaning ant and lion of course!  As you may have guessed their primary diet is ants, and I can only assume the term lion is used due to their ferocious ability to capture their prey.  The species I am familiar with do not however hunt them like lions, but trap them in the conical pits they dig in sandy soils.  These pits are no bigger than 5cm deep and 7.5cm wide at the top:

The steepness of the sides are enough to result in the ants falling to the base, underneath which the Antlion, with its scary looking mandibles, waits.  If an ant looks like it might escape Antlions have been observed to flick sand at it to make it loose its footing, and tumble back down.  Antlions are the larva stage of this insect, which can last years and during periods of no food they can stay dormant underground for many months.  When they eventually transform into their adult phase they become airborne as Lacewings, whose life span is much shorter at 25 to 45 days:

During my nature walks at the homestead, and those for my own pleasure, I have only had success in finding an Antlion once.  Pushing my hands round and under the pit and sieving the sand out through my fingers, so it was really cool to the one Pat found.  I’ve described the insect luring and trapping nature of Greenhood Orchids several times, but unlike the Antlion I thought they did not consume the insect merely use them to facilitate pollination.  Done by forcing them to escape the trap and brush past the stigma to deposit any pollen on them and then the anther to collect pollen from the flower.  The above and below images are taken from the top of the same Jug Orchid (Pterostylis recurva):

Taken before and then after I managed to trigger the labellum, by giving the flower head a little shake.  This was enough to trick the sensitive-to-the-touch labellum into thinking an insect had landed on it.  In the second image it has sprung towards the back of the flower, an action that traps the insect and forces it to crawl up past the stigma and anther to escape.  For those keen I have found a website that has some great imagery of this, and a theory that the plant-insect relationship could include the need to trap and kill a gnat after pollination (https://www.foxeslair.org/foxypress/shell-and-jug-orchids):

Other than the first image of the Antlion the others until now and below are from a wander at the Capel Nature Reserve on Thursday.  Knowing how mosquito ridden this place can be I wore closed in shoes, which is a rarity for me.  This helped minimise the number of successful strikes these pesky insects managed to get.  Things had certainly progressed here.  The first image is of one of the many Sandplain White Spider Orchid (Caladenia speciosa), and below is the only Flying Duck Orchid (Paracaleana nigrita) I found in flower.  But the above orchid, which was just starting to come out in numbers, is the one to go here for.  The Chapman’s Spider Orchid (Caladenia chapmanii) is, in my opinion, one of the most spectacular spider orchids:

There were others I spotted at Capel, which I was equally excited about but I am also trying to refrain from repeating the use of the same orchids in too many posts.  So onto Friday when I popped out for my first wander of the season round Crooked Brook.  Josh, also from work, had been here last weekend and reported that there wasn’t heaps to see yet.  It is however in many ways a different landscape to the places I visit more regularly on the more sandy coastal plain, plus a fair bit more had come out at Capel in a relatively short period, so I was keen to give it a go.  The lower storey vegetation was certainly full of colour:

I’ve popped the next image in now even though it was the last species I spotted.  Having confessed previously that I struggle with identifying White Spider Orchids, based on the very long petals and sepals I’d suggest this find was a Splendid White Spider Orchid (Caladenia splendens).  While they tend to prefer winter wet areas, they are also found at the fringe of granite outcrops were water seepages can occur.  So its presence in this more rocky and granitic landscape is plausible.  It was the only White Spider Orchid I found, and I didn’t even spot any spikes to indicate more may be coming up:

The reason I went out of sequence with my images was because of what was on one of the flowers.  Called Flower or Crab Spider, there are three Australian subfamilies and I was able to get good enough images to narrow this one down to the Thomisinae subfamily.  The eight eyes that are in two rows of four, are raised above the head on tubercles, and can rotate independently of each other.  This subfamily is more drab in colours than the other two being Stephanopis and Tharpyna, but this usually aids with their camouflage, with some species able to change colour to match their home:

They are territorial creatures and you will generally only find one spider on a flower, other than when they are mating.  They will normally remain on their chosen flower until it has wilted, and then find another one to claim as home.  The colour of this one obviously did not match its chosen home, which may be why I was lucky enough to spot it.  At night they hide on the underside of the flower out of sight from their own predators, and by day they becoming the predator.  Sitting patiently waiting for prey, they are known as ambush hunters.  Using their spiny front legs to grab their prey and then quickly bitting into its head to deliver its venom:

This one had managed to catch a bee.  From the shrivelled appearance of the bees abdomen and swollen abdomen of the spider it is fair to say the feeding process was well underway.  Comprising the injection of digestive juices to liquefy the bees internal tissues, that can then be sucked up like a soup.  So the name Flower Spider is obvious, but why a Crab Spider you may ask.  Two reasons, the legs curve forward in a crab-like fashion but also due to the much smaller back legs they are able to, and do, move sideways.  I think I’ve managed to narrow this one down, at first thinking it was Diaea cruentata, however it looks like this species was transferred from the genus of Diaea to Australomisidia in 2014.  Making it Blood Spattered Diaea(Australomisidia cruentata):

There were of course quite a few other orchids out and I managed to spot two Leaping Spider Orchids (Caladenia macrostylis), easily identified by the cluster of deep purple calli in the middle of the flower.  I’m not aware of another spider orchid that has this feature.  Above I kept the Jug Orchids (Pterostylis recurva) as the hero of the image, to allow people to get an idea of the angle I was taking images of the inside of a Jug Orchid during my walk in Capel.  However, also captured in the above image are five Bird Orchids (Pterostylis barbata), if you can spot them all, which were the most prolific orchid in flower of which I found as many as twenty:

I also spotted a few Little Pink Fairy Orchids (Caladenia reptans), which can be found in clumps but I wasn’t that lucky today.  They are often up against the trunks of live or fallen tree, maybe as there is more moisture available.  Although there is also a theory it is because of the protection these locations provide the small delicate flower.  While I had tempered my expectations this week, I was certainly not disappointed and it is fair to say I was more than pleasantly surprised.  Then to top things off, just as I got near the car, a male Splendid Fairywren (Malurus splendens) that would normally not stay still for more than a few seconds sat atop a post for ages:

Driving round

A damp forecast resulted in me bailing on a trip to Perth to climb with Mario.  The five to six hour round trip for a possibly wet rock experience simply didn’t seem appealing.  Instead of the excitement of going somewhere new, and as there was the promise of a dry’ish morning locally, Wilyabrup seemed a good plan.  With a front edging our way I left Lisa to head to the beach for a plunge in the two plus meter swell, which I hear was “entertaining”.  And I drove down preparing for the fresh to strong north westerlies, with gusts of up to 50km/hr.  Some may consider standing at the top of a cliff in those conditions is not particularly safe.  But I am sure that was not the reason I found myself going solo once more:

Being physced by the fingery crimping we enjoyed last weekend at Eaglestone Rock, I was keen for something similar.  The only face that I felt could compare was Steel Wall, which conveniently also has a bunch of bolts along the top to set up anchors.  And being as atmospheric as it was today, I made good use of these being tied in the whole time as I moved about along the edge setting up the ropes.  I didn’t have much success with throwing the rope down, it blew horizontally and ended up resting on top of the crag to my left.  So the raps down included needing to coil the rope, carry it down with me, and feed it out as I abseiled down:

It was a great choice, I love the lines on Steel Wall and the windy day resulted in the rock being super dry.  While the rain fell out to sea, the humidity seemed to be really low resulting in every hold, including the small slopers, felling very grippy.  I wonder if a couple of the images I have included might have people wondering why.  The car keys were on the post as I arrived and reminded me of when I lost mine at The Roaches in England.  It seems I made no reference to that unfortunate incident in my ditty about all my visits to that magical place.  So below is a brief recount and I still don’t understand the logic of a certain individual:

My keys had a tag on them, so it was possible to get them back to me.  Bear in mind this was decades back, so the tag was not electronic and mobile phones were yet to be a thing for the common folk.  The individual who found them decided it would be better to take the keys home and then trace me, instead of leaving them somewhere obvious like happened today at Wilyabrup, or at café, pub, or police station just down the road.  This decision resulted in hours of hunting all over the crag and eventually needing to have my car towed 300 plus kilometres home.  I hope the owner of the keys in the first image has a less arduous and frustrating experience:

As I was wrapping up for the morning Mick rocked up with a couple of clients, so for convenience he made use of me to ensure the abseil line and top ropes actually got to the deck.  It is always nice to catch up with Mick and I was of course happy to help.  Other than seeing them I had the place to myself, which didn’t surprise me and suited me fine.  If you look above I left Mick and his clients to it, allowing them to enjoy having the place all to themselves as I had.  And now I should explain the image of the gloves.  These had been left either by a group or some abseilers, I’ve never seen the need to use gloves myself so offered them to Mick.  He was not interested so unlike the car keys I took these home where they ended up in the bin:

Heading out solo I generally climb pretty quickly, and it was only coming up to ten as I walked out.  There have been a few news articles to suggest that the wildflower season in some more inland areas has been disappointing.  So seeing I had finished early and would be driving past a couple of potential orchid sites, I thought well why not and I could check to see if spring had sprung into action at our local spots.  I didn’t come across any first time sightings but as Elspeth from work said, when we spotted our first Cowslip (Caladenia flava) of the year, you have to celebrate the first sighting of the new season.  That said I haven’t included any images of that Cowslip, nor the others of that species that I spotted today:

My first two images were taken at Ambergate, where I found a few orchids that were getting ready to flower.  So for something different I have included images of the orchids I found that were just about to open up, as opposed to orchids I found in flower.  The first image is an easy one to identify and there is nothing else like it, being a Rattle Beak Orchid (Lyperanthus serratus).  However, the above one is not as straight forward.  Definitely a Spider Orchid (Caladenia), but there are close to 140 species in the south west of Western Australia.  Taking an punt, based on what I have found at this reserve before, I’d hazard a guess that it may have been a Swamp or Rusty Spider Orchid:

My next stop was way more mosquito ridden, and I do need to be careful as there are reports of Ross River Virus having been detected this year.  At Ruabon Nature Reserve I had more luck with orchids in flower, finding both the Yalgorup Donkey Orchid (Diuris porphyrochila) and Kemerton Donkey Orchid (Diuris cruenta).  Differentiated by the colours, with the former flower having generally less, if any, yellow and including a deep purple labellum mid-lobe.  The flower of the latter is not as darkly coloured being more of a rust brown in colour, other than the yellow “ears” that are tinged rust brown.  The colour and pattern of the back of the petals of the above orchid also gave the above one away, being a Purple Enamel Orchid (Elythranthera brunonis):

The bud of the above orchid looks a little like life rafts, but when opened up will become the very distinctive Flying Duck Orchid (Paracaleana nigrita).  Duck orchids are often found alongside hammer orchids, this place is no different and below with its much taller stem is the King-in-his-Carriage Orchid (Drakaea glyptodon).  So tall that I didn’t get a decent image with the bud and small heart shaped basal leaf.  Last weekend when Howsie recounted details from a book he was reading, I suggested that the elbow orchids mentioned may have been hammer orchids as they have an “elbow” joint in them.  That was the case, but since my find at Eaglestone Rock I now know there is an actual and completely different Elbow Orchid, and I am still wondering if I’ll drive all the way back to see it in flower in summer: