Just past Orbost and east of Mt Raymond is south-running Alexander Creek Road.  We found a fertile ground for birds, plants and reptiles at Newton Creek Road, where the powerlines and the gas pipeline travels through and the area above is free of trees and kept slashed.  Birds we either saw or heard their dulcet tones, were Pallid and Fantail Cuckoo, Shining and Horsfields Bronze-cuckoo, Superb Fairy-wren, Grey Fantail, Pied Currawong, Kookaburra, Olive-backed Oriole, Jacky Winter, Spotted Pardalote and a Treecreeper.  We avoided a Brown Snake and Andrew had a wonderful time on his tummy photographing a most compliant pregnant Jacky Dragon.  He moved about her to get different angles and came exceedingly close.  She only objected and ran off when he took the liberty of trying to rearrange her very long and splendid tail.  There was also an Australian Painted Lady butterfly. 

Two of the trees were White Stringybark (Eucalyptus globoidea) and Red Ironbark (E. tricarpa).  There were no end of plants in flower.  There was Spreading Wattle (Acacia genistifolia)with long thin pointed phyllodes, with balls of flowers held singly or double in the axils of the phyllodes at the ends of branches.  Peas were Golden Bush-pea (Pultenaea gunnii) with small ovate to lanceolate convex leaves; Leafless Globe-pea (Sphaerolobium vimineum), a slender rush-like shrub with mostly yellow flowers borne in clusters at the ends of the branchlets; red-flowered Running Postman (Kennedia prostrata); and Creeping Wedge-pea (Gompholobium inconspicuum) with a yellow and grey keel.    This was an extension of the range of the Creeping Wedge-pea, as it was previously only found in far East Gippsland.  Another showy pea creeping in places was Pultenaea sericea.  Orchids were Pink Fingers (Caladenia carnea), Brown-beaks (Lyperanthus suaveolens) (of which we found 39 plants flowering), Waxlip (Glossodia major) and Leopard Orchid (Diuris pardina).  Brown-beaks have a single lanceolate leaf to 20cm, and a flowering stalk to 45cm with up to 8 brown to green flowers.  The tepals are long and thin and the labellum has a yellow tip.  Some other plants were Hairy Pink-bells (Tetratheca pilosa),  Hop Goodenia (Goodenia ovata) and Blue Dampiera (Dampiera stricta).  Lilies were Nodding Blue Lily (Stypandra glauca) and Twining Fringe Lily (Thysanotus patersonii).  The Common Heath (Epacris impressa) here was a deep pink.  A daisy was Yellow Billy-buttons (Craspedia variabilis) which has its leaves mostly in a basal rosette and a spherical inflorescence.  A small she-oak was Scrub Sheoak (Allocasuarina paludosa) which is a shrub to 3m.  The only guinea-flower tall enough to get into Costerman‘s “Trees and Shrubs of SE Australia” is Rough Guinea-flower (Hibbertia aspera), a shrub to 2.5m which has minutely rough leaves with a dense whitish felt beneath.  Climbing Sundew (Drosera macrantha) has no basal rosette, but leaves are in alternate groups of 3 or 4 along the stem.  A climber shrub was Common Apple-berry (Billardiera scandens) with cream tubular flowers and large long berries.  The range of plants seemed endless with pink Heath Milkwort (Comesperma ericinum), Large-leaf Hop-bush (Dodonaea triquetra), pink Wiry Bauera (Bauera rubioides) and Thatch Saw-sedge (Gahnia radula).  An inconspicuous fern often found in this drier situation was Screw fern (Lindsaea linearis).  This tiny fern has almost prostrate sterile fronds with fan-shaped pinnae, and erect fertile fronds bearing the spores.

About 200m further along were more treasures beneath Box and Black She-oak (Allocasuarina littoralis).  The orchids were White Fingers (Caladenia catenata), a spider-orchid mantis Orchid (Caladenia tentaculata) with many flowers chewed, Wallflower Orchid (Diuris orientis),Wax-lip (Glossodia major), Cobra Greenhood (Pterostylis grandiflora) in fruit and finished Midge-orchid (Acianthus spectans).  Another guinea-flower was Grey Guinea-flower (Hibbertia obtusifolia).  There was the small Wattle Mat-rush (Lomandra filiformis) and Thyme Spurge (Phyllanthus hirtellus), a small erect shrub with male and female white starry flowers on different plants.  Beneath a Drooping Mistletoe (Amyema pendulum), the ground was littered with its red flowers.  Had parrots been gathering nectar?  As most parrots (except perhaps lorikeets) don’t have long tongues to reach the nectar at the base of the flower, they tend to nip off the petals to get at the sweet prize.  Crimson Rosella certainly demolish heaths and correas in this way at our house.  There were striped hoverflies on the Billy-buttons.  On the side of the road was a yabby tower about 20cm high.  A loud Yellow-faced Honeyeater sang.

About 200m further along just over a creek there was a Red Box (Eucalyptus polyathemos)with heavy bark damage.  There was old damage, but fresh wood shavings at the base of the tree.  The damage was caused by a Yellow-bellied Glider tapping into the nutritious sap of the tree on a regular basis.  Sap is obtained by biting out bark on the trunk and branches of the tree.  The sugary exudate is licked each night.  New excisions are made went the old ones become plugged, and a well-used tree can be heavily scarred after years of use.  The wounds were attended by small brown flies who must also have been able to access the sap.  There were many Black Sheoak whose bases were surrounded by eaten-out cones.  It seemed likely that some sort of parrot had been around - maybe Glossy Black Cockatoos!!!  The birds were Pied Currawong, Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike, Spotted Pardalote and Dusky Woodswallow.  A Red-bellied Black Snake was carefully skirted around.  A new wattle was Red Wattle (Acacia silvestris).  This wattle has feathery bipinnate foliage with globular flower heads in racemes.  Orchids again with Green-striped Greenhood (Pterostylis chlorogramma); Tall Greenhood (P. melagramma) whose labellum is brownish with a darker central stripe, and its lateral sepals are almost fused; Nodding Greenhood; Brown-beaks; and a green-comb spider-orchid Mantis Orchid (Caladenia tentaculata) with crimson stripes down the tepals, and the labellum has green lateral lobes with long marginal teeth. Two daisies were Twiggy Daisy-bush (Olearia ramulosa) with small narrow crowded leaves and flower-heads with white rays; and yellow Shiny Buttons (Leptorhynchos linearis).  Two mainly yellow (‘egg and bacon’) peas were the tiny Creeping Bossiaea (Bossiaea prostrata) with circular leaves; and scrambling Handsome Flat-pea (Platylobium formosum) which has opposite leathery heart-shaped (cordate) leaves.  There was a very light blue Nodding Blue Lily.  This also grows in New Caledonia!  A plant we rarely see except in the High Country was Purple Eyebright (Euphrasia collina) with white to pinky mauve flowers which have two petals forming a hood and the other three forming a trilobed lower lip.  This small herb is a root parasite and in the same family Scrophulariaceae as the snapdragon.  Up onto Mt Raymond for the view and afternoon tea, where there was another pea Austral Indigo (Indigofera australis) with mauve flowers; and Stinkwood (Zieria arborescens) whose leaves are opposite with three leaflets, and there are sprays of 4-petalled white flowers.  The foliage and timber are both odorous.  There was also some Rock fern (Cheilanthes sp.) amongst the boulders.

A very successful day.  Thank you James.