One of the highlights of our early September outing was seeing the new identification technology recently installed and operating at the Musselroe Wind Farm at Cape Portland. This sophisticated tool enables the wind farm operators to protect bird species from colliding with the rotating turbine blades. The system consists of approximately 30 towers with cameras atop covering 360 degrees of vision and operating in a network across the farm. These cameras detect an eagle as far away as 1km and within seconds of identification, the relevant turbines are shut down.

In the case of the Musselroe Wind Farm, the target species are the Wedgetail Eagle and the White Bellied sea eagle. On previous visits we had seen people employed in “training” the radar to recognise the eagles. With the installation of the new system, a high degree of mitigation against eagle deaths is now possible. The group was lucky enough to see, in the distance, an eagle flying between two turbines and witness the turbines shutting down.

The managers of the farm have a very strong environmental ethic and right from the time when the first permits were issued in 2004, environmental matters were high on the agenda. Surveys of eagle nests, their flight paths and feeding patterns were considered and positions of turbines were changed as a result of these observations. Threatened plant species were surveyed and their habitats protected. Extant areas of coastal heath remained in their natural state; so too did the many and various types of wetlands. For many years Cape Portland was a hotspot for migratory shorebirds with annual counts contributing to a huge data set.

Field Nats have been so lucky to have access once a year to focus on one aspect or another of nature conservation and to hear about the plethora of research that is carried out there.

A bonus has been the attendance of Dig and Claudia who on this occasion organised the whole day. We are grateful.

The outing will also be remembered by everyone because of a phenomenal weather event. We were scouring the heathlands for the rabbit ears, a tiny yellow orchid, Thelymitra antennifera – which we suspected were there, but just hoping for them to be in flower. We were at least five minutes’ walk away from the cars and were caught by surprise without raincoats. What began as a light drizzle turned into small hail and drenched us through. We had, by that stage, found the rabbit ears though.

On a bit further to turbine D13 for lunch on a shelly beach facing northeast. We’d noticed and photographed the Furneaux Islands in the distance – Swan, Flinders and Cape Barren Islands, but hadn’t paid much attention to the dark grey clouds out to sea.

One more stop at D14 where, on a previous visit we had seen the blue fairies, Pheladenia deformis, once going by the name of Caladenia deformis. An “uncommon” orchid growing in heathy grasslands. In the orchid text, I counted 36 species in the genus Caladenia and I suspect the name change may have come about because of the ‘deformed’ labellum. That’s the lip or the modified third petal on the front of the flower. Anyway, it’s now in a genus of its own. It was the only specimen we found too. Both Jenny and Debbie, our orchid specialists, were especially looking out for this one, so finding it made their day. John noted the co-ordinates so it can be found again.

Safely back in the cars heading back to base and we were hit by an almighty hail storm. The landscape began to look like the summit of Ben Lomond with hail settling like snow all over the ground. The surface of the road became very slushy and slippery so the convoy of cars came to a standstill as the hail built up on windscreens and wipers went full time to clear it.

Who would have thought this weather could happen on such a calm sunny Spring day. A total surprise.