Hale Conservation Park, South Australia

Today went to this bit of wodland in the Adelaide Hills towards Barossa Valley with Luan and Ganesh. They wanted to take a few photos.

I was quite happy as we got very good views of a rather uncommon bird, a Square-tailed Kite. Notice the shape of the tail, the russety underparts, the stripes in its 'fingers' and a pale 'face'. Photo courtesy of Luan.

This is also the season for many orchids in the southern parts of Australia to bloom. Orchids in this part of the world are rather diminutive and unostentatious compared with their showy tropical cousins. They are barely a few inches tall and are mostly ground dwellers too, compared to the tropical orchids (many grow on other plants).

The ones in the photos are the Dwarf Greenhood Pterostylis nana with the 'horns', the Nodding Greenhood Pterostylis nutans and what I believe are somewhat wilted Red Banded Greenhoods Pterostylis sanguinea. They are all rather alien-like.