A group of thirteen Angair members set out on a chilly morning around the loop track on the cliff top Foreshore Reserve at Anglesea.
Our previous rambles in this area had been in summer and autumn when more of the colourful species are in flower. This was a good opportunity to identify many species based on their leaves and growth habit.
However there were flower-laden clumps of Common Heath, Epacris impressa, with light and dark pink and white forms represented.
Common Heath
Discussing the identification of a Drooping Sheoak, Allocasuarina verticillata, tree.
Drooping Sheoak
Flowering Propeller Plants, Spyridium vexilliferum, were abundant amongst the low-growing heathland vegetation.
Propeller Plants
Previously, the path had been very close to the cliff edge, but after engineers observed cracks in the sheer cliffs around Demons Bluff in August 2016, a 400m section of the track was shut down and replaced with a raised ‘boardwalk’ set well back from the cliff’s edge.
We crossed the windswept heathland on the recently installed ‘boardwalk’.
A short diversion took us eastward to see a patch of Common Correa, Correa reflexa, in flower.
Common Correa
Slender Dodder Laurel, Cassytha glabella, was tangled amongst Cryptandra tomentosa, Prickly Cryptandra, and other heathland species
Slender Dodder Laurel
Although this was primarily a flora excursion, Australasian Gannets were seen diving off-shore in the distance, and at one stage, a Nankeen Kestrel hovered overhead
Photos: John Lenagan, Ros Gibson