Mount Misery | Still Not Miserable

What a marvellous Sunday was spent wandering the tracks at Mount Misery with an equally marvellous group of people. The Field Nats last visited Mount Misery in 2018, you can read about it here. That post will give you some info on the walks and how to get there. I won’t bother repeating myself. I’m efficient like that…

Back in 2018 I was going through a pretty strong fungi phase. Can’t remember if that was before or after my orchid one. Potentially could have been the same time. It was also when I was obsessively photographing all the things. After a couple of years of ‘all or nothing’, I settled down into a ‘on and off’ kind of pattern. Which means I don’t need to stop at every single fungus I come across. I now only tend to stop at the ones that I really like the look of. Because of my new found ability to walk past things, I managed to make it through the wet forests and up to the heath land at the top. Still didn’t get all the way to the top of Mount Misery, maybe next time…

Here is some fungi though… and a little Histiopteris incisa

After a ‘quick’ stop at the Summer Kitchen Bakery (Best friggin pies in the damn universe) in Ranelagh, we sorted out some car pooling and got on our way. Good thing, because we weren’t the only group who decided it was a good day to not be miserable. The Eastern Shore Ramblers were also up there for a wander, so it made for some tight car parking! Eventually we had gotten ourselves organised, boots disinfected, cameras in the ready and we were off!

As per usual, it wasn’t long before we were all scattered along the track. Everyone off on their own little quest to find fungi, mosses, plants, weevils, snails, spiders, moths or virtually anything interesting one can find in the nature. Which isn’t hard, because nature is full of interesting! Although it sounds like we are all off on our own adventures, which we kind of are, we seem to do it in a very sociable way.

It’s the kind of sociable that isn’t hard. Which is what I really enjoy about Field Nats. You move along in a ‘group’, but with no pressure to keep in a group. You can wander along in silence (not my strong point) or wander along have a chat, with also no pressure to do either of those. There are people from all different walks of life, with all kinds of fascinating backgrounds and knowledge to share.

You should come…

Well, it isn’t, but it still is, at least until the Tasmanian Herbarium accept the change and add it to the Census of Vascular Plants Tasmania. Not all Leptospermum though… I missed this change, and only figured it out when I added Leptospermum glaucescens to iNaturalist and it got changed to Gaudium glaucescens. My trusty iNat using, Field Nat friend Annabel then pointed me to this nice summary of the paper on iNaturalist here by thebeachcomber (Thomas Mesaglio).

Aside from Leptospermum glaucenscens, I think the only other change to our Tassie species is Leptospermum laevigatum to Gaudium laevigatum. But it is late and that was just a quick scan through. So there might be more, or changes to other genus within the Leptospermeae tribe. The paper is titled ‘Revised taxonomy of the tribe Leptospermeae (Myrtaceae) based on morphological and DNA data‘ by Peter G. Wilson & Margaret M. Heslewood after all.

See. You learn something new everyday!

All up another successful adventure with the Tasmanian Field Naturalists Club. If you are keen to come along to one of our next walks or talks then check out the website. We recently got a brand new one built, and I am now the boss of keeping it updated. There is still some fine tuning to be done, but one of the latest additions is an easy to navigate events page – https://tasfieldnats.org.au/events/

We also have a Facebook and Instagram presence now, so head on over and check those out.

If you aren’t an official member of the club, you are still welcome to come along. We don’t have a strict ‘three free events then you must join’ or anything like that. We just work on the basis that people who would be attracted to the club will join up if it is a good fit for them. Annual membership is ridiculously cheap and all funds go toward keeping the club running (website costs, venue hire that kind of thing).

So open your diary and add in Dr Bob Mesibov and the wonderful world of milipedes for July!

Important Tips

Dogs are NOT allowed on Mount Misery. Make sure you leave them at home. Not locked in the car with a bowl of water, because that would be bad.

Our natural areas are precious, and we need to ensure they are cared for and looked after to the best of our abilities, which means…

• Leave the plants as you find them – don’t pick flowers or take home a sprig of foliage (unless you have a permit)
• Clean your boots before you go! It’s super important to keep diseases out of our natural areas
• Take your rubbish out – this includes tissues
• Leave the animals to be wild and don’t feed them or chase them with sticks or go poking around looking for them. Just enjoy seeing their poo on the tracks, and if you happen to see a real live animal then be excited!
• Stay to the formed tracks (even if they are muddy). Don’t just head off scrub bashing through the bush unless you have a really good reason. There is plenty to appreciate and enjoy from the track (including the fungi which line it).
• Most importantly, enjoy it and remember to drop a little donation into the box to help the Huon Bush Retreats keep up with the track maintenance.

The link to my Ramblr trip to Mount Misery – https://www.ramblr.com/web/mymap/trip/105207/7112779