I was trying to tell myself not to send another post of my orchid hunting this weekend, but as you can tell I didn’t listen to myself.  Today I went to two spots, the first being a small patch of bush called the Katherine Chauhan Reserve.  No more than 10 acres (4 hectares), surrounded by suburbia in Bunbury, and managed by the local community.  Rongy cycles past this place and has often told me he has seen a fair few orchids here, so after dropping Lisa off for her Pilates class I went for a wander to check it out.  And I was not disappointed finding areas of the land covered in hundreds of Pink Fairy Orchid (Caladenia latifolia), Sandplain White Spider Orchid (Caladenia speciosa), Sandplain Donkey Orchid (Diuris tinctoria), and Cowslip Orchid (Caladenia flava):

I also stumbled across a Zamia Palm (Macrozamia riedlei) a true prehistoric plant from the division Cycadophyta, from which some plants existed 250 to 60 odd million years ago.  This species is endemic to southwest Australia, and like some orchids has an interesting relationship with a specific insect.  Similar to some orchids it uses deception by releasing an aroma, this time to attract the male Cycad Weevil (Rhopalotria mollis).  However, it goes step further, and once the weevil’s job is done the plant then changes its scent to one that results in the male weevil feeling unwelcome.  Resulting it leaving before it can start to do any real damage:

The large cones of this palm have edible seeds.  However, for human consumption they need to be prepared correctly, as the plant has bacteria in it that both fixes nitrogen and creates a toxin.  There are tales from 1829 of passing sailors eating the seeds and likening the taste to roast potatoes.  Waking the next morning with symptoms of poisoning, but also recovering within a day or two.  While I saw no sailors there was something in this reserve that was hungry, with lots of the Sandplain White Spider Orchids having been nibbled.  In all cases it was just the long white petals that had been taken with the main flower remaining:

With so many orchids about, I was treading extra carefully and only just in time spotted this Bobtail Lizard (Tiliqua rugose) hidden under the grass.  Bobtail Lizards have a head and tail of a similar shape, no doubt to confuse predators who will then have a 50-50 chance of attacking the head.  However, unlike many other lizards this one cannot escape by shedding its tail should a predator takes hold of it.  As I did a bit of research into these lizards I also found that the females are in charge of mating choices, and are attracted to more attentive males:

The males are made to follow the female round for a few weeks to prove their attentiveness, before sealing the deal.  And while I’ve read that they are monogamous, research has also suggested that if a male becomes to inattentive the female will find another more “new-age” guy.  It seemed that the Earth Balls, like the orchids here, also seemed to believe in safety in numbers.  My wander in this small reserve was on a time limit.  And it was now my turn to be attentive and get back in time to pick Lisa up, after which we had to hit a few shops:

Once the town stuff was done we went to Manea Park to see what might be out.  I can confirm that, just like at the small reserve today, the mosquitoes were not out.  At least not in force like I had experienced on Friday.  Not too far down the track I spotted a single flower of a Blue Lady Orchid (Thelymitra crinita).  The name of the genus comes from two Greek words, thelys and mitra meaning “belonging to women” and “headdress” or “turban”.  This reference was chosen to describe the hooded column in the middle of the flower, which will often have wings or glands atop.  And it is this feature that can be used to identify the different species:

The Blue Lady is the most common of some 130 species of Sun Orchids, and like others it can have up to fifteen brightly coloured flowers providing a spectacular show.  However, individually the flowers tend to be rather plain compared to other orchids.  Not being as intricate, nor having a labellum that is at times the spectacular centre piece of orchid flowers.  Also unlike other orchids they also will close up in cloudy weather and at night.  Another common orchid is also starting to make an appearance, being the Common Mignonette Orchid (Microtis media):

The Common Mignonette Orchid is extremely widespread, so much so that it is not unusual to see them forming colonies in urban areas.  I have even seen the odd one or two in our garden beds.  We of course saw many other orchids, which I have over the last week been spotting in a number of other locations.  One of them being the Sandplain White Spider Orchid, but for the one below you may notice the brilliant white appearance that is lacking much of any other colour.  I was intrigued by this so contacted Noel Hoffman to check it out:

He confirmed my identification was correct, and the lack of colour was due to it being an albino form.  I also told him about my next find, which I was very excited about.  This is the first time I have seen a Warty Hammer Orchid (Drakaea livida), of the same genus that includes the King-in-his-Carriage (Drakaea glyptodon) that I have seen a bit this season.  While I am still very chuffed Noel outdid me in style, as he had just found a Hairy Warty Hammer Orchid (Drakaea andrewsiae).  A species that has not been seen for some forty years, and being so rare he had not even included it his book:

The King-in-his-Carriage is the most common of the Hammer Orchids, while the Warty Hammer Orchid is the more regularly found from the remaining species of Hammer Orchids.  I was intrigued by the scientific names of these two, with livida coming from a Latin word meaning “bluish” or “black and blue”.  This resembles the blotchiness of the labellum or hammer.  While the name glyptodon is due to the likeness, of the hammer of the King-in-his-Carriage, to the head of the namesake extinct giant mammal that is related to the modern armadillo.  This cattle sized creature roamed the earth as recently as approx. 12,000 year ago:

This post is short and sweet, a bit like my quick scoot round a community managed reserve found just off the highway on the way to Bunbury.  The reason for the dash to this spot, which I had previously never been too, will be revealed later.  But what drew my attention was again receiving images while working.  Josh had been out and about having, like the majority of the population of Australia, taken today off to make it a five day weekend.  And seeing I was up and working bright and early I was able to go for a quick look mid-afternoon.  As I drove towards Bunbury I could see the traffic on the other side of the highway, coming down from Perth, was already building up:

The southerly migration of caravans, trailers, and cars packed to the roof with holiday gear had begun.  The aim being to enjoy getting away for the long weekend, or possibly a week or two of school holidays.  But before they can do that and for a short window of time the road becomes unbearable with impatient drivers, made all the worse with perfectly timed roadworks that would result in queues kilometres long.  Something I didn’t want to get caught up in, even for the short trip I had to get home.  That too wasn’t the reason for making this wander through the bush a bit like a speed hunt.  Keeping a relatively brisk pace and when spotting what I was looking for not hanging about too long.  For the sharp eyed below you’ll spot a Cowslip Orchid or two, of which I saw hundreds:

But what I was after was a slight and slender orchid with relatively small petals, and in the above image they look a bit like a very small horseshoes.  It can  flower in large colonies, but today I never saw more than five or so plants in any one cluster.  I’ve only seen Rabbit Orchids (Leptoceras menziesii) once before, so when I was told they were at this location I couldn’t resist and had to see them.  These orchids are a little special for several reasons.  They are one of the first species described and named in Western Australia by Archibald Menzies in 1791, who originally called them Caladenia menziesii.  Then in 1840 for reasons unbeknown to me the name was changed to Leptoceras menziesii by John Lindley, which seems to have stuck:

Another reason they are a little unusual is that they are the only species in the genus Leptoceras.  Most other orchid genus have several if not many species, such as the White Spider Orchid of which I only spotted one today on my rather fast walk.  Having inspected the images with care, I am coming to the conclusion that down at Meelup Regional Park and probably at the Capel Nature Reserve I had indeed spotted the Splendid Spider Orchid (Caladenia splendens).  This one however I feel is a Sandplain White Spider Orchids (Caladenia speciosa).  Overall a shorter plant and notably smaller flower, although the labellum is larger relative to the overall flower:

Also a key distinguishing feature, as I read more about them, is the fringes of the labellum that are more pink’ish, ragged, and often have spilt ends.  Plus it is also the most common white spider orchid between Mandurah and the Bunbury region, indicating it does not extend any further southwards, i.e. to Capel and certainly not the Meelup Regional Park.  The angle of the image below is one I should take of all orchids when I am unsure of what it is, as it does provide that bit more detail to interrogate.  However, the reason for including it today was more due to the unfriendly photo-bomber.  Within seconds of standing still I was surrounded by a cloud of mosquitos:

Even as I walked I would feel them, piercing any skin that was foolishly exposed which included my hands, feet, and head.  I can normally tolerate mosquitos but today in this reserve it was truly horrendous.  As such I didn’t take the normal care with images, nor inspecting my finds.  Walking quickly, stopping briefly, on occasion cursing loudly, and being very relieved when I got back in the car.  Just before I did get back to the car I stumbled across large patches of a familiar looing orchid, so only took a couple of hasty snaps of what I feel may be Sandplain Donkey Orchids (Diuris tinctoria).  I then drove home observing the multiple welts on the back of my hands:

This week it didn’t look like I was going to get out for a single weekday wander, a stark contrast from the week before.  In part I had not received any images from ‘work’ Josh, as oppose to ‘climbing’ Josh, to get me all enthused; also the weather was a bit hit and miss; and to add to that lot I was a bit snowed under at work leading to longer days than usual.  Then came Friday and encouraged by the sun I seized the opportunity for a quick trip out to the Ambergate Nature Reserve.  A place where I have seen so much in previous years:

One reason for choosing this spot, is it has been a month and a half since I’d been here.  I was also curious as ‘work’ Josh had been here the week before and said there was nothing to see, which I found a little surprising.  It has in the last been a floral and orchid haven, so with things starting to appear in other locations I really expected to see something.  A few usual suspects were about, as above and below.  But sadly Josh was right and for the most part there was very little colour, and very few orchids to be seen.  Still it felt good to focus my eyes on something other than a computer screen for a while:

I only walked one for the four quadrants, taking my time and looking carefully.  Scouring the bush on both sides of the meandering path, willing for something to appear.  Which it didn’t, although there was at least one small area where there was a bit more colour.  Here one of the pea flowering plants was coming into bloom.  The family and sub-family classification of these plants being Fabaceae and Faboideae, with about 140 genera and 1,100 species to be found in Australia.  Not surprisingly trying to pin down these delicate flowers can be a huge timewasting exercise, but I took some close up images just in case:

The image have led me to narrow it down to the genus of Daviesia, a small to medium sized shrub mainly found Western Australian, and comprising approx. 120 species.  Digging a bit deeper it looked a lot like the Thorny Bitter-pea (Daviesia incrassata), of which the range and soils types it is found in matches quite well.  Also on my last trip here I found some cool looking seedpods (https://sandbagged.blog/2022/08/03/a-bit-of-encouragement/), and one of Howsie’s guesses had been Daviesia.  I have now confirmed that they do indeed look very much like the seedpods of the Thorny Bitter-pea:

While there were no new orchids to be spotted I did enjoy my time in the sun, and was also serenaded by the Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus latirostris).  Their song can carry a long way across the landscape, but today it was loud and clear as they were perched right above me munching on gumnuts.  And in the distance I could also make out the call of the Forest Red-tailed Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus banksii).  The respective songs are quite distinct, with the former sounding like a drawn out and relatively high pitched ‘wa-EEE-lah’, and the later a deeper and more guttural ‘karak’:

My last image from Ambergate Nature Reserve was the close up of the hairy green and maroon flower bud.  Due to the long looking nature of the petals, I’ll guess is a spider orchid and it is likely to be different to any I have seen this season.  It should come into flower within the week if not before, although I doubt I will remember where I found it and I only spotted one specimen.  It did at least give me hope that more is to be found at Ambergate in the coming months, and I’ll probably head back in a few weeks.  This morning, fancying a second trip out without too much of a drive, I popped out to the Capel Nature Reserve:

The first image from here being two flowers of a Purple Enamel Orchid (Elythranthera brunonis) both of which are yet to open.  There were load of these all over the place in full flower, and while these are beautiful to see I also feel, like the unknown spider orchid, the patterned bud is equally pretty.  Above is one of the Snail Orchids and the image also includes a specimen that is in seed formation stage of life, as proven by the engorged ovary at the top of the stem.  Insects pollinate the majority of Greenhood orchids, which are nearly always tiny flies or mosquitoes.  And like the Hammer and Duck orchids they use deception created by a chemical attractant:

However, once the fly or mosquito has been attracted to the flower there is a second stage of the process that uses entrapment to seal the deal.  The insect is encouraged to enter the flower to the point it loses balance and falls in, but in some Greenhoods the labellum will detect it’s presence and move forward to trapping the unsuspecting insect.  Just long enough for process of pollination to be more likely to be successful, before allowing the insect to be released.  Even though Capel Nature Reserve is less than 30km away from Ambergate, as the crow flies, the floor was littered with orchids including hammers, ducks, cowslips, enamels, greenhoods, and spiders:

There were also, like at Ambergate lots of also the Rattle Beak Orchid (Lyperanthus serratus) yet to flower, but I did spot the above one that was ahead of all its colleagues.  Being dull green and brown some feel this orchid can be hard to spot, but to counter this they are relatively big; have a tall, upright and distinct base leaf; and have multiple flowers on a thick stem.  I haven’t tested the theory but the flowers are supposed to rattle if shaken, I am however unable to find out how or why this happens.  In looking into this I did find out the scientific name serratus is derived from the Latin word ‘to saw’, serrare.  This has been used to refer to the prominent white teeth like calli, spread on the end of the labellum:

Unlike Ambergate, the Capel Nature Reserve has no formal paths.  There are wide sandy tracks that criss-cross each other, although vehicular access is also restricted so I am not sure how these have not become over grown.  At times they peter out and this leads to needing to tread carefully through the scrub, as above.  Looking both down for what may lie underfoot, as some orchids and other plants are very small and inconspicuous, but also looking up to make sure you don’t end up destroying a spiders web.  While you’d think the below spider would be easy to spot, the image is deceptive as it is a mere half a centimetre long:

I found lots and lots of Splendid White Spider Orchids (Caladenia splendens), which were only just starting to come out here a week back.  But I also came across just as many if not more Chapman’s Spider Orchids (Caladenia chapmanii).  This is considered to be one of the most attractive of the Caladenia, i.e. spider, species and is commonly found with multiple flowers clumped together that enhances the visual display.  What strikes me about this species is the huge variety of colouring and patterning, including white, cream, pale green, red and deep maroon.  This is shown below and is why I have included four images, and I will leave them to do the talking:

I feel like I’ve been wandering about a fair bit weeks… and in part blame Josh for it.  Not the Josh I climb with, but someone from work.  Unlike me his job takes him out in the field a fair bit, to secluded spots where we have stream flow and groundwater level measurement infrastructure.  For the sites that in areas of native vegetation, at this time of the year, they are conveniently also places that, as we say to each other, orchidy looking.  As such he has been sending me images of his finds, which in turn has enthused me to get out hunting:

Tuesday was my first trip out.  And seeing I practically drive past it on the way home, I stopped in at Manea Park.  I didn’t stay too long, and the only new find was a common orchid being the Cowslip Orchid (Caladenia flava).  As the season progresses this orchid will, like the Pink Fairy Orchid (Caladenia latifolia) and Dwarf Pink Fairy Orchid (Caladenia reptans), litter the ground.  I was however interested to learn more about where the rather dull common name of the poor old Cowslip Orchid came from, but have been unable to find anything:

I did however discover the genus name, Caladenia, originates from two Greek words, calos and aden, meaning beautiful and gland.  This large genus represents over 350 species of orchids.  And the scientific name of the plain old Cowslip species, flava, simply means yellow and is derived from the Latin word flavus.  Meanwhile the species name of the above Clubbed Spider Orchid (Caladenia longiclavata), which I found on my Wednesday after work trip to Crooked Brook, not surprisingly means long club based on the Latin words of longus and clavus:

It was the only species of spider orchid I found at Crooked Brook, and I was unable to locate the other one Josh had spotted.  But unlike Lisa and my hike in Wellington National Park last weekend there were plenty of other flowers out here.  One of the more striking ones being the above Heart-leaf Flame Pea (Chorizema cordatum).  This is a plant that helps gardeners due to its ability to extract nitrogen from air and ’fix’ is in nodules of their roots, making it a living fertiliser.  There were plenty of other orchids about, but only one other new one for this season:

I was very excited when I spotted a Bird Orchid (Pterostylis barbata), and better still I later found the above specimen.  These orchids generally will only have one flower, and it is rare to find a plant with two flowers as the above one had.  I haven’t narrowed down where the genus name of pterostylis originates, which covers some 300 species of greenhood orchids.  But the species name barbata is a Latin word meaning bearded, and what I didn’t know is that the Bird Orchid is also commonly known as a Western Bearded Greenhood:

Thursday and Friday arrived and these are great days for me as I work from home.  Being an early bird I usual start work at 6am and sometimes before that, meaning that I can wrap up a bit earlier than most.  So on Thursday I snuck out mid-afternoon to the Ruabon Nature Reserve, a place that Josh had put me onto last year.  Although last year I visited this area a little late in the season.  And this year I am hoping to find some cool spider orchids here, but it seems that it is still a bit early for them.  I did however find a couple of species I found last year:

The taller and green stemmed King In-His-Carriage Orchid (Drakaea glyptodon), is approx. 350mm high.  It is the most common of the hammer orchids, and I’m yet to find any of the other ones.  The unusually shape of this orchid has a very specific purpose, which is to trick a single species of male thynnid wasp.  The dark red flower is both shaped like, and has a pheromone like scent that mimics, a female wasp.  The male wasp tries to carry the flower off but is pulled back hitting the top of the stem where the ovary is located:

This process is repeated for each flower the male wasp is lured to, and this results in the flowers being pollinated.  It may sound unbelievable but here is a link to a BBC Green Planet Video to prove it: https://youtu.be/6yLnKfhmUzg.  The video is of a Warty Hammer Orchid, as opposed to a King In-His-Carriage Orchid, but the process is the same.  In the image of the full plant, you may have noticed another small orchid with a brown stem that is a mere 50mm high, being a Flying Duck Orchid (Paracaleana nigrita):

Both of the above orchids have tiny flowers, and the above image gives an indication of scale.  This will in part justify why some of my walks with Lisa have to be a bit slow.  Although it is amazing that once you tune your eye into what to look for, it becomes quite a bit easier to see even the smallest specimens.  Similar to the King In-His-Carriage Orchid the Flying Duck Orchid also uses deception to become fertilized, this one relying on the male sawfly.  Pollination results in the ovary forming a capsule that can contain as many as 500 seeds:

I included the above image to show the quite different landscape and vegetation makeup of the Ruabon Nature Reserve, as opposed to Crooked Brook that is shown in the image with the water.  Ruabon having sandy soils, while Crooked Brook is underlain by lateritic and granite deposits.  We have quite diverse soils and landscapes in close proximity, which provides an opportunity to find a wide variety of species of orchids as well as other plants.  The other orchid of note that I found, en masse, on this trip to Ruabon was the Common Donkey Orchid (Diuris corymbosa):

However, the above specimen is rather special as it has three labellums.  These look like the bottom lip of the flower.  If you check back through previous posts, every other Donkey Orchid, regardless of species, only has one labellum.  I checked this find with Noel Hoffman, one of the authors of Orchids of South-west Australia of which I have the fourth edition.  Bearing in mind he lives and breathes orchids, he advised me that he hadn’t come across this before for in a Donkey Orchid, but had seen a White Spider Orchid with 3 labellums some 15 years ago.  So I feel it is fair to say it was a very rare and lucky find:

I was quite taken by the above peas, but have been unable to identify this species.  It is worth including the image, as looking it and the image above it you can see why some people might confuse the two very different flowers.  Friday came and as I worked, a message popped up with more images from Josh.  This time he had the day off and was on a serious hunt.  So I decided on a fourth trip out making it four days of orchid hunting in a row.  This time it was to the closest spot to home the Capel Nature Reserve:

I think the above is a Splendid White Spider Orchid (Caladenia splendens), and you’ll see in the previous post that I have and will struggle with narrowing these down: https://sandbagged.blog/2022/08/27/time-for-a-cuppa/.  To add to my quandary the above specimen had no red or pink colouring in the flower, something you would normally expect as shown in the linked post and the below image.  It is possible that it is a pale form, similar to an albino, and after way too much time trying to figure it out if it is another species I have given up:

The reason for including the above image was to show the colouration variation, but also because I had a lot of fun watching the spider.  There was previously a beetle on the flower, but that flew away as the spider closed in.  I also found a similar beetle on the flower below.  Not on an orchid, but a Jewel Rainbow Sundew (Drosera neesii) that is easily distinguished by the pink flowers.  This can form both a free standing plant, but is also known to act like a vine using the sticky pads, usually used to trap insects, to attach itself to another plant or object:

I was quite taken by the sundew flowers, which were out in force.  The other prominent one being the Pale Rainbow Creeper (Drosera pallida), this one having white flowers and the image below shows beautifully how it is making use of the tree trunk.  Both of these sundews are endemic to Western Australia, and can be found in a wide variety of land forms and soils types. From sandplains to heathlands, and deep sands or lateritic deposits, so I’m likely to see a lot more of them a bit like the Cowslip Orchids.  I wonder if I’ll be as well travelled next week:

It seems that there is always something on to stop us from dragging the camper trailer out of the shed.  Which is where it has been stashed since April this year, but this weekend the stars aligned and we finally got away.  The last time, despite it being glorious weather at home, we drove straight into some pretty bad weather that stayed with us for the two day trip.  It felt like this might become a bit of a trait, and again left home only to drive through the rain.  Fortunately, our destination was dry so we popped the trailer up straight away in case it changed:

It felt wintry and cold and was hard to read the sky.  So to warm up we took a gamble and headed out for a hike, which had been our original intention.  However, Lisa wasn’t feeling like she had much energy so put a limit of 5km on the walk.  We followed the Sika trail, a walk we have done before but neither of us could recall the length.  No matter, as Lisa would simply track our progress on her Fitbit and we would do a 180, heading back from where we came when we hit the magical 2.5km.  My recent walks looking for orchids have been through bush with flowers starting to burst into life:

And while there were some flowers out today the landscape, like the weather, had that wintry feel to it.  We mostly saw browns and greens, with the occasional splash of yellow that was predominantly a result of two plants.  The first being the below Yellow Buttercups (Hibbertia hypericoides), which is one of the most common understorey shrubs to be found both in Jarrah forest and coastal plain alike, all the way from Geraldton down to Albany.  But today it wasn’t these flowers that caught my eye as I took this image:

I was of course looking for orchids, and there is a Pink Fairy Orchid (Caladenia latifolia) nestled underneath the protective covering of this common shrub.  What with Lisa not having her usual energy, I could take advantage of the slightly slower pace and look about a bit more.  And whether to reduce the pace further or not Lisa was also on the hunt.  Unlike the banksia woodlands on the coastal plains, the orchids here look to be a little slower in making an appearance.  And we only spotted two other variety being the below Silky Blue Orchid (Caladenia sericea), and Slender Snail Orchid (Pterostylis crispula):

The other thing that slowed us down, was all the up slopes.  This became a bit of a joke as we walked round, and came about from a group of four not so serious mountain bikers.  They had just been round this loop, and the one at the tail end had said while it was a lovely trail it was marred by the fact that there was way too much uphill than downhill.  Despite the slower than normal pace, which was not due to the orchid hunting for a change, we both enjoyed being out and the need to check for the 2.5km mark was forgotten:

I’m sure Lisa was aware of this, but made no mention of it and I was more than happy to keep walking.  As a result we ended up completing double the nominated distance, by finishing the 10km circuit.  In addition to the wintery feel and lack of flowers, we also noticed that there wasn’t much chatter in the forest.  We only heard a solitary Red-tailed Black Cockatoo, and there were very few other birds out and about.  Maybe they were huddled away to keep warm.  We eventually caught sight of the reservoir, and then we knew we were close:

Our chosen campsite being Potters Gorge, on the edge of the Wellington Dam reservoir.  As we walked the last section the ground looked to be lit up once more by thousands of little light bulbs.  Being the bright yellow pompom flowers of an acacia, and the second yellow flower that seemed to be out in force.  With so many species of acacia, I am not game to narrow this one down.  Back at camp we had a snack and made a cuppa, but once the food was gone we started to feel cold and decided it was time to have a lie down in the camper:

We never came back out, and by the time we thought about it darkness had descended and neither of us were hungry enough to make the effort.  And instead stayed warm and cosy inside the trailer.  And in the morning, as light crept into the sky beyond the tops of the trees that towered above us, Lisa stayed continued to stay put.  Nothing new there from whenever we head out for a camp, and I made a brew for each of us before going on a solo wander as she read her book drifting in and out of sleep:

I walked a short couple of kilometres to the quarry.  Knowing that I would have a few hours to kill I the morning, I had brought my climbing shoes just in case the chance came up.  the lack of orchids out at the moment resulted in the opportunity indeed presenting itself.  Being by myself and only having my shoes, I endeavoured to boulder up to and back down from the first bolt on every line.  It may not sound like a lot but resulted in approx. 240m of climbing if I counted both going up and back down.  Arriving back at the campsite right on time Lisa had just finished her cuppa and was keen for a second:

The intention was to allow Lisa to continue stay in bed reading until she had finished the second cuppa, but sadly this didn’t happen.  It started to drizzle and the clouds were rolling in across the reservoir.  And rather than deal with a soggy trailer when we got home, we both agreed it was worth packing it away quickly.  Something that takes no more than a couple of minutes.  We could still make breakfast in the dry due to the camp shelter conveniently located next to our campsite, which we did before hitting the road.  And as we had the day before we drove in the rain.  I’m not sure the trip out energised Lisa’s batteries, but we both thoroughly enjoyed and felt better for the short getaway:

I’ve stumbled across a new local spot to hunt orchids, and it is the closest one to where we live yet.  In fact it is an even shorter distance from where we lived for seven years, and we never checked it out.  That might be because it isn’t publicised, has no parking areas, and there are no formal walk paths.  There are however plenty of tracks that seem to crisscross through the Capel Nature reserve.  I’ve heard that not too many people head out here, so it is a great quiet spot to explore.  Working from home and being a mere 10-15min drive away, today was my first trip here to have a quick look to see if was any cop:

The reserve seemed to be mostly weed free.  A good sign as the orchids, as well as other native plants, wouldn’t be competing against faster growing and usually bigger invasive species.  There were immediately signs of orchids, and the first one to mention is the above Hort’s Duck Orchid (Paracaleana hortiorum).  I was super excited last year when I found my first Duck Orchid (https://sandbagged.blog/2021/10/15/the-tipoff/), but those were the Flying Duck Orchids (Paracaleana nigrita) making todays a first time sighting for me.  The difference is subtle but the labellum of this species, the bit that looks like the head, is flatter and the glands that look like purple bubbles don’t extend as far back on the labellum:

Next and above, I thought I had found an unusual orchid.  Possibly a hybrid of some sort due to the pale nature of the petals with the patterning showing through, and also the column wing almost looking white.  At best it may be a pale form, but is still “just” a Purple Enamel Orchid (Elythranthera brunonis).  To give you an idea of why I was getting a bit excited, the image below is a classic looking specimen.  It made me get up close and personal, capturing some reasonable images of the finer details.  This is relevant, as I have in previous years tried to convince myself that I have spotted the Pink Enamel Orchid (Elythranthera emarginata):

The above linked post being one example.  However, armed with my more detailed book, the images from today, and having checked past images it has dawned on me that I have never seen one.  The obvious sign, now that I am aware, being the centre of the flower.  Unlike the Duck Orchid in which the labellum is prominent; in Enamel Orchids it is small and almost inconspicuous being the white looking tongue between the two very dark calli.  This part is quite different between the purple and pink species, and should I ever come across the pink species I’ll include an image to show how:

There were lots of other orchids popping up, but yet to flower.  Such as the above spider orchid and I’ll have to head back next week to see if any are blooming.  I’m not brave enough to try and guess what species they are until they open up.  And even then it may be tricky especially if they are one of the white variety.  I also saw heaps of withering greenhoods as well as healthy jugs and snails.  Again maybe being overly hopeful of a new find, due to the long backward pointing sepals.  But there is nothing in my book to indicate I found a different species of Snail Orchids:

It was a reasonably quick visit, so there is only one more image and that is of course of a Donkey Orchid.  I’ll guess that I found three species, but I’ll only include this one because it is different to what I recently found at Manea Park.  If you are really keen to see if you agree with me check out the previous post: https://sandbagged.blog/2022/08/26/sitting-on-the-fence/.  The giveaway being the labellum.  A part that is yet again very different to that of both the Duck and Enamel Orchids.  For this orchid it is the noticeable pink part that looks like a bottom lip, indicating it is likely to be the Dunsborough Donkey Orchid (Diuris jonesii).  As for whether this place is worth coming back to, I think the images speak for themselves: