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Monday, 16 May 2022

Going for a walk? - take your camera!

 Hi everyone. I hope you are all doing well. Just a short post from me today and a reminder - going for a walk? take your camera! as you never know what you might see that you want to photograph. Your phone might be as good as a camera, but mine is not, but it is better than nothing!

We try to walk every day - and I particularly like walking in the bush. I have always said there is something always flowering in the Australian bush. Did I forget that? Because on Sunday when we went out to one of our favourite walks during spring, Manea Reserve - but it is autumn here now and I only took my small point and shoot camera not expecting to see much other than tall flowering trees. 

Well at least I had a camera, and even though there wasn't much flowering we happened upon a couple of clumps of bunny orchids - Eriochilus.  Looking in my orchid book I think this is the Common bunny orchid - Eriochilus dilatatus - subspecies multiflorus. Particularly as it matches with the month of flowering, the location in jarrah and banksia bushland, and the small single leaf. There are over 1,700 species of orchids found in Australia! 

There are six species and six sub-species of bunny orchids found in the south west of Western Australia. The bunny orchids are the earlliest flowering of the native orchids.  As I didn't have my camera I use for wildflowers, I have had to crop this image. 


As with the majority of Australian native orchids, these are tiny - flowers are 10-15mm long, so you need to have to be looking closely to find them. especially as they blend in so well to the surrounds. 

The other only flowering plant of note which we saw was the Swamp Banksia - Banksia littoralis - which flowers from March to August. The bees were certainly enjoying them, burrowing deep within the flower cones. 


Here you can see some of the stages of the banksia - just starting to flower, flowering, and the cone (nut). I have blogged about them a few times before:
Celebration of the Australian Banksia
Candlestick Banksia - it must be November


When you are in Manea Reserve, please use the foot cleaning station to help curb the spread of dieback which is a sygnificant threat to our native bushland. 


I hope you have enjoyed this little visit to the Manea Reserve today. I have blogged about it before - especially the spring flowering orchids. 

Manea Reserve - December 2021
In search of wild orchids - Manea - September 2011

Thank you so much for stopping by. I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week. 


Hello there! I love reading your comments. If you scroll down to the bottom you can comment too! I would love to hear from you.
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17 comments:

  1. likeschocolate16 May 2022 at 22:57

    The 4th set of images are so interesting. I have never seen anything like that!

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  2. Rose L17 May 2022 at 01:03

    I always take a camera with me as it focuses me on the beauty and not on my worries.

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  3. Joanne 17 May 2022 at 01:43

    I try to always remember my camera when we go out walking too and figure if I forget I at least have my phone camera in a pinch.

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    1. Jill Harrison21 May 2022 at 19:34

      Yes I usually have my phone too, but it takes poor photos. But better than nothing!

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  4. Anonymous17 May 2022 at 07:37

    Beautiful Jill. You are becoming such a treasured authority on the WA bush and flowers.

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  5. Angie17 May 2022 at 12:21

    Jill - you know how much I love orchids, so this was GREAT! Thank you for including the collage, which gave us a perspective on the small size of the bunny orchid! Thanks for linking to Mosaic Monday!

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  6. Coastal Ripples17 May 2022 at 15:16

    I totally agree. Always the case when I forget that I will see the best things to photograph. Love the orchids :) B x

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  7. NCSue17 May 2022 at 20:32

    What a fascinating walk you took! Thanks for sharing at http://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2022/05/yowzah.html

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  8. Pia19 May 2022 at 16:43

    schöne bilder und ja eine kamera habe ich fast immer dabei und wenn es nur das telefon ist.
    L G Pia

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    1. Jill Harrison22 May 2022 at 17:05

      nice pictures and yes, i almost always have a camera with me, even if it's just my phone.
      L G Pia

      Delete
  9. lesh Stgermain20 May 2022 at 06:24

    The first orchids are so beautiful! Am always amazed at the flowers you find! Enjoy your weekend:) Emille (Jesh)

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  10. Sallie (FullTime-Life)21 May 2022 at 00:18

    The bunny orchid is so delicate (all orchids are or seem to be, but this one -- so petite (and you did a great job with cropping the photo). I do carry my point and shoot everywhere I go because the phone doesn't usually do at all well with the kind of pictures I want to take. My "real" camera is too heavy and bulky to carry unless I am *specifically* on a photo hunt (and that is not very usual these days). Most of mine are accidental which is fine. Because they're amateur photos no matter what instrument I use. But it's all fun.

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    1. Jill Harrison22 May 2022 at 17:05

      we have a lot of very delicate small orchids in Australia not at att like the outlandish large Asian orchids.

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  11. Jill21 May 2022 at 23:03

    I'm with you, Jill - always have a camera with you. Unfortunately, I just took a trip to Costa Rica and realized on the airplane that I forgot my camera. (Hand to forehead - oh no!) So phone pictures it was!

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    Replies
    1. Jill Harrison22 May 2022 at 17:07

      oh no! My camera is always on the top of my list! Luckily for us we always seem to have a mobile phone, so not all is lost. Some phones take brilliant photos :)

      Delete

I hope you have enjoyed your visit to my blog. Thank you for stopping by and for taking the time to comment. I read and very much appreciate every comment and love hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return.