We drove back from Tilba Tilba around the edge of Mogo State Forest on a road I had not seen before.
Tilba Valley
That gave me a route idea for some cycling and orchid spotting. The route works along the beach for a while from Surf Beach and then turns inland and joins The Ridge Road. This starts with a biggish climb with a few steep sections. At the top of the climb I did the first walk section (labelled 1).
The eucalyptus forest looked quite promising for orchids - very classic dry schlerophyl forest similar to the area I had seen orchids at Mackenzies Beach. I walked all the way down to the river bed and back up and along the bridle path alongside the road - nothing. The road then runs along the ridge line with the forest on the right and open pasture land on the left. Then it drops away to the creek which I had walked down to. I walked into the creek area and followed that for a while - quite different vegetation here and probably a bit too much undergrowth for orchids. Back to the road and running past the zoo area and found another likely spot on the edge of the forest following a fire trail track. No orchids here either (labelled 3). I was determined to find orchids and took the Trig Road to the right - rode that for a bit until it became too steep and slippery to ride (labelled 4). I was hopeful of finding orchids here as the botanic gardens are on the lower side of this hillside. I walked up towards the trig beacon and then followed a single track MTB path down the hillside until I got back to the fire trail.
I kept walking down the fire trail for quite some distance - it was getting warm now and there was not an orchid to be seen - no leaves either. I reached a section of the trail where there were a few puddles of water lying - and hiding on the roadside under the undergrowth was this orchid. Now I have learned the hard lesson for this particular orchid - it withdraws its labellum if one gets a bit too close.
Tall Greenhood - Pterostylis longifolia
http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Pterostylis~longifolia
Taken at f/8, 1/125 sec, ISO-400
I am always amazed to see how many of the orchid photos contain a spider's web.
Nice side on photo - I did consider doing some Photoshop work to take away the distraction of the twig behind.
Zoomed in one can see the fine hairs on the labellum.
A little further on I found another specimen - this one was a little easier to photograph as it was not in full sunlight. This flower has more translucent hood.
I also found a few mosquito orchids in this section. These were fully in shade.
Pixie Caps orchid - Acianthus fornicatus
http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Acianthus~fornicatus
Taken at f/4.5 1/40 sec, ISO-800
Photographing this orchid remains a challenge. As the light was low I had to increase the ISO speed (from 400 to 800), increase the aperture (from f/8 to f/4.5 and 5.6) and increase exposure from 1/125 sec to 1/40 sec. Even so, I just do not seem to be able to get a good focal point - the flower is such an extreme 3D form
The cluster of flowers makes for a better picture - taken from further away
Taken at f/5.6 1/30 sec, ISO-800
A solid day for some orchids rewards and 29 kms ridden and 459 metres climbed.
Photos taken with Canon Powershot G16 on August 8, 2017. Tilba photo taken with Canon EOS60D