On Sunday, a beautiful clear day dawned with a light wind, making it a slightly chilly morning. Thirteen club members (from all our branches) and five visitors met at 10 am at the carpark on Old Plains Road where our eyes were immediately drawn to the Common White Spider Orchid (Caladenia longicauda subsp. Eminens), as it was standing tall and bright white against the low heath understory of the surrounding open tall Wandoo woodland (Eucalyptus accedens).
As excursion leader, I explained that Rica Erickson was instrumental in saving this patch of bush in the 1960s, when she was living in Bolgart and frequently visited this area. The area set aside for ‘Ecological purposes and Flora’ is triangular in shape and approximately 124 hectares. It was classified an ‘A’ class reserve on 4 June 1965. The Bolgart Country Women’s Association proposed the naming of the reserve, and the Shire of Victoria Plains supported the proposal and submitted their proposal to the Geographic Names Committee. The Committee approved the name’ Rica Erickson Nature Reserve’ (despite their policy of not naming reserves after living people). A ceremony at the site on 12 September 1996, honoured Dr Erickson with a gathering of over 150 people.
From the carpark we crossed the road into the reserve looking for anything flowering, moving or singing. We walked a narrow track where many of the Banksia polycephala (Many-headed Dryandra) sadly had perished, but there were still a few clinging on and in full flower. Under a Diplopeltis huegelii shrub a large bobtail was spotted and then we went up a gentle slope and rapidly lost count of the number of plants we encountered: six different trigger plants (Stylidium), six orchids in full flower, one large daisy (Olearia rudis) and several small daisies, three sundews (Drosera) and two Hibbertias.
Several of us were chasing a small Bee Fly that didn’t want to have its photo taken but we finally managed to snap one and tentatively identified it as Meomyia sericas
Photo , J Keeble
On top of the hill, we saw a Western Grey Kangaroo fleeing our noisy presence. Of the bird species, we identified a lone Carnaby’s Cockatoo, weebills and a raven. I suppose we were too busy checking out the plants and didn’t take much notice of the birds.
When we turned around, we walked down the hill, across the road and then back to the carpark through the bushland, which had different plant communities as it was a wetter area. We found leaves of the Red Beaked Orchid, and a Snail Orchid in flower and, luckily, the Sugar Orchid, which was named for Rica Erickson (Ericksonella saccharata). Back at the carpark we enjoyed our morning tea/lunch break before heading home. Afterwards, I listed all the plants seen in flower (48), and as the reserve is known to have around 70 different plant species this was a very good count (see page 2 for full list). An enjoyable morning well spent!
Jolanda Keeble