Excursion to Gellibrand Point,  8 Aug 2009
  Gellibrand Point is the northern tip of South Arm in southern Tasmania.
This former grazing land is now a reserve.
 

Studying a shrub near Gellibrand Point.
'The Spit' and Betsy Island are beyond.

GF

Crested terns on The Spit, and a Silver gull in the foreground.

JD

Black-faced cormorants and a couple of Great cormorants on The Spit; a Pied oyster-catcher in the foreground.

JD

    GF
Gellibrand Point.
Waves and currents have formed a shingle levee enclosing a freshwater lagoon.
 

Remains of crabs, including Pie-crust Cancer novaezealandiae and Decorator Naxia aurita.

GF

Horehound stink bugs Agonoscelis rutila clustering on horehound, an introduced weed, near the dam behind The Spit.

GF

Flame robin, near Mitchells Beach.

JD

Also near Mitchells Beach, we came across an echidna burrowing into the soil. This is its tail, showing some damaged quills.

Robyn Gates informed us that the pattern of broken tail quills can be used as a means of identifying individual animals.

GF

Kelp gulls off the windward western shore of the peninsular.

JD

Coast hounds-tongue, Cynoglossum australe,
growing in small dunes behind Mitchells Beach.
Flowers ~5mm across.

It is officially listed as 'rare' though club members have found it in many coastal areas of Tasmania.

GF

A microscope view, where it looked as though some individuals were semi-upside-down and stationary, spinning web, while others dragged the silk line and stretched it across the plant.

GF

LF

Amblyopone australis.
These ants had nests in sand above the high tide mark.

LF

Beach jumping spider (Salticidae) well camouflaged among grains of sand.

LF

Labidura truncata, a native earwig - 15mm long.

They are found under rocks in the grass and on the shore at high tide level, and have pale sides in coastal areas but darker inland 

They feed on crickets and caterpillars held in their ceri (large posterior pincers).

LF

Photos by John Dargue, Geoff Fenton, Lynne Forster