Exploring the Langwarrin Flora and Fauna Reserve

A visit to Langwarrin Flora and Fauna Reserve 

On Thursday night, I travelled to Seaford, Victoria (a suburb of Frankston), to house and dog-sit for my eldest daughter.  Of course, I thought, what a great opportunity to start doing some early exploring of the local nature reserves and keep building on my knowledge of the trees in the area. So, Friday morning, I packed my binoculars and camera and headed to this great little reserve in Langwarrin. As I used to live near this reserve, I knew it fairly well, but more as somewhere to ride my bike. This time, I was looking at it with new eyes - and in fact, I made a conscious decision to keep my sunglasses off for most of it. 

Walking quietly and fairly slowly is pretty new to me. I spent the last year running at every opportunity, but this year, my body is telling me it's time for a change. And the more I slow down, the more I realise how important it is that I do, for both me and for the environment around me, including the plants, animals, birds, insects, and micro-creatures that I am only now even becoming aware of. I feel like I have spent a lot of my life being an elephant in a china shop. Argh! 

But the past is the past. On this walk, I was very excited to see some absolutely gorgeous little birds, which I think were an Eastern yellow robin and the New Holland honeyeater. I don't have a photo, but for more information the website 'The Gap Year and Beyond' is a good one -  (don't forget to come back here though once you've had a look!)  https://maltpadaderson.com/2015/02/12/langwarrin-flora-and-fauna-reserve-a-small-bird-haven/

There were many silver banksias in flower, and plenty of Green Sheoaks, as well as various larger trees and a lot of undergrowth. The soil there is very sandy. Later, I did some research and found a terrific report that I'll be looking into more later, that lists the different plants that can be found in the reserve. 

When my partner came down later, I showed him the birds and then we went to the Frankston Botanical Garden and explored the awesome trees there, in particular the banksia collection at the back is well worth a look, but there are some absolutely stunning trees. I'm frying my brain trying to learn the names of things, but, I'm not going to pretend to be very scientific. Please be kind to me. It was a lovely couple of days in the lead up to Easter.