The woodpiles are treasure troves packed full of interesting 'stuff' and sometimes I spend more time taking photos than doing work.
Slime moulds and
lichens come in lots of different shapes and colours and often there are critters feeding on them. Here are some photos of things that took my fancy...
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| Spot the 'wrigglers' swimming in the primeval soup |
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| This one looks like a small Christmas pudding |
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| Multi-coloured tree round |
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| Close-up of above |
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| Purple goo with close-ups below |
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| More 'wrigglers' on gooey gum branches |
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| A white mite |
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| Is this a newly-hatched mosquito? |
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| Close-up of a brown and white wriggler |
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| Lots of life amongst the white fungi |
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| Slime mould on gum branch |
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| Close-up of white slime mould |
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| Orange critters |
With so many critters around it's no wonder that many birds are interested in the woodpile. The two piwakawaka (fantails) are a joy to watch as they perform their aerial ballet. A beautifully-speckled thrush and two blackbirds are often around as well as the ngirungiru who often flies within a couple of inches of where I'm working. I also came across this wee chappie as I got near the bottom of one pile of wood...
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| Can you spot it? |
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| The introduced Whistling frog, Litoria ewingii |
The cooler temperatures mean less fungi on the forest floor but I've found a number of colonies of Snowy porebracket,
Gloeoporus phlebophorus, their bright white colour standing out in the gloom. The following pics have the porebracket on one side of a dead trunk and a green fungi with a similar shape on the other side. Will have to search online for more information.
Finally a lacy wee moth on the Mikroclima cloth had me scratching my head for an identification. I posted it on
NatureWatch as it had similarities to the Australian moth
Uraba lugens, Gum-leaf Skeletoniser which is a notifiable organism. I only took a couple of photos and am kicking myself that I didn't study it in more detail - it would make it a lot easier to identify!
