Encounters

 An unexpected sight early this morning:

It is a bird we haven't seen here before, an Australian king parrot.

Later in the day we visited a self-guided, pop-up wildflower walk in the Woowookarung Regional Park:

There were explanatory signs beside the various flowering plants, except for this one which I had never seen before:

I was able to find out through iNaturalist later that it is Comesperma ericinum, a plant with a few different common names, including heath milkwort, and pink matchheads.

 

As I was photographing the flower, a medium-sized ant gave me a very painful bite on the ankle. I didn't take the opportunity to do an iNaturalist observation of it, I was only interested in getting it off me! (Three days later my ankle is still swollen, red, and sore.)

Three new and interesting encounters with the natural world!