Northern Suburbs Branch 22 Jan 2022
Despite it being the fifth day of over 40oC, twelve of our regular members turned up for our annual January BBQ and Social event. By the time we started around 5 pm, the temperature had dropped, and wafts of sea breeze occasionally found their way to the back of the Henderson Environment Centre.
The highlight of the evening was the appearance of an unexpected visitor. A two-metre dugite slithered down out of a White-stemmed Wattle (Acacia xanthina), just behind where several people were sitting.
Dugite, the unexpected visitor – Image by Marlene Madden
Due to the temperature, we decided to walk around Star Swamp after the barbecue instead of before. This resulted in an extremely pleasant walk which ended with torchlight. Although there was still water in the swamp, the frogs had also decided it was too hot to venture out, so we had to content ourselves with watching an Australian Coot (Fulica atra) swimming among the beautiful paperbarks.
Happy wanderers – Image by Willy Dadour
Don Poynton