First off this morning I walked east until the day got too warm.
Before breakfast I decided to explore more of the hill to the north-west of camp.
Here I found two species of greenhood orchids and some more of those cicadas that were still out.
After breakfast I explored east and found some interesting dragonflies in the first place I checked out.
At the time I was quite excited, thinking they may have been something special,
but on examining my photos they turned out to be mere
Multi-spotted Darner
Austroaeschna multipunctata a moderately common species in Victoria's eastern hills.
Later I saw an interesting looking insect that,
when I first saw it fly away, thought it might have been an Evening Darner.
Getting a proper look at it I then thought it might be a Lacewing but
this was a bit too big and had the wrong body shape for any lacewing I've ever seen.
As the day warmed too much to do a lot of walking I headed back to NDF campground for lunch
and thought I'd dip my feet in the creek (which is actually the
headwaters of the Buchan River).
This place was swarming with odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) and I was kept busy for the remainder of the day.
I was especially surprised by the number of Powdered Flatwing
Austroargiolestes calcaris around, considering I had seen few in previous seasons
(mainly due to not being in the right places).
The one pictured was even kind enough to grab a pesky fly for me.
Late in the day I was pleased to get close to a Southern
Evening Darner Telephlebia brevicauda, a species I haven't seen much of.
Returning to camp I realized everybody else had left and I had the place to myself.
I think this area was burnt in the 2003 fires and, although at around 1200m elevation, is a relatively dry area
(at least compared with what I was expecting, something like Mt Donna Buang).
The Flat is also quite overrun with weeds, such as and
a lot of weed grasses, the latter attracting wild horses.
