Williams Nature Reserve is a high hill on 230 hectares of bushland vested in the DBCA approximately 6km by road north of Williams. To get there turn off Albany Highway at Mckenzie Road and follow signs to the parking area. Facilities include picnic tables, an information bay, a 1.5km walk trail, and a lookout. There is no toilet. Fires and dogs are not permitted.
The Grade 3 walk trail suits moderately fit walkers as it has steep sections, and low ironstone outcrops adjoining the breakaway. The best time to visit is from June and November with peak flowering from August to October.

The Echidna walk trail leads to a breakaway lookout then loops down from the ironstone plateau through underlying rock/soil layers, which can be recognised by characteristic vegetation.

• Jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) / Powderbark (E. accedens) woodland on ironstone ridges and gravelly upper slopes.
• Powderbark open woodland with almost no understorey on underlying 'pallid zone' pale to hard setting reddish sand / loam soil.
• Wandoo - Rock Sheoak (Allocasuarina huegeliana) woodland on weathered bedrock soil.
• Rock Sheoak, Wandoo (sandy surfaced), York gum (Eucalyptus loxophleba, loam) on flatter surrounding farmland soils.​

Unlike nearby reserves, there is little Brown Mallet (E. astringens - breakaway slopes) or Marri (Corymbia calophylla - deep sand, sandy gravel soil) here on the upland.

Echidna Walk Trail 1.5km
​( approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour)
​
1. Walk upslope on the Jarrah  ironstone mesa to a lookout at a breakaway.

​The trail continues north near the breakaway edge. This section is very uneven with ironstone outcrops on the trail.

2. The trail turns downhill  to Powderbark woodland on reddish pallid zone soil below the ironstone gravel layer.

3. Further downhill  the soil changes to to open Wandoo woodland on reddish soil overlying bedrock

4. Further downhill the soil becomes rockier as you enter Rock Sheoak woodland with winter ferns and low scrub and  annual herbs. Many annuals are weeds, but I found a Blue Lady Orchid Thelymitra crinita flower one October.

5. The trail becomes rocky and weaves through small wandoos and Calothamnus quadrifidus bushes as it crosses a small gully and ascends the other side.

6. The trail gently climbs an upland saddle/valley with vegetation that varies from Powderbark and Wandoo overlooking the Calothamnus gully, and then below the lookout plateau.


7. The trail becomes sandy as it weaves through granite rocks under rock sheoaks.
Check for orchids here in August- September.

8. Vegetation becomes sparse as you ascend through  powderbarks on red brown 'pallid zone' soil to the gravelly plateau.
​
9. The last stage of the trail is through Jarrah / Powderbark woodland with a dense understorey of Pingle Banksia/Dryandra squarrosa.

Yesterday I found an attractive fungus attached to the base of a dead shrub at the Marri Picnic Area. Alas it is Favolascia calocera var. claudopis (Orange Pore Fungus, Orange Ping Pong Bat), an invasive fungal weed that originated in Madagascar. Foxes Lair has the dubious distinction of being way north of any other report in WA for the Atlas of Living Australia. A number of groups from the south west (where it is established) have visited the Lair in the last few years, so this may be a downside of successful tourism.

Favolascia calocera​ is a wood rotting fungus, which apparently spreads in disturbed areas. It is not edible (humans)  but not poisonous, so it shouldn't affect animals. The main risk is to other native wood rotting fungi of which there are many, particularly polypore bracket, and resupinate fungi. Following images show some.

Time will tell whether it poses a real problem, but introduced fungi are not new. Phytophera cinnamomi a devastating dieback fungus is wreaking havoc in some national parks (but not Foxes Lair so far). Almost all of our edible mushrooms are introduced and have established on fertile soil. I  found the funky Schizopora leather fungus  fruiting bodies rotting treated pine furniture in Foxes Lair, 

​A bolete Suillus luteus / Slippery Jack has been introduced as a mycorrizal fungus for pines. The slippery yellow bolete looks distinctly unappetising to me, but there is a bunch of local Ukranians eagerly awaiting it's appearance.

Rich Road Reserve Location 14733 is a 35 hectare gravel pit reserve which is 30 kilometres east of Wickepin and 63 kilometres east of Narrogin. To get there drive east from Wickepin on the Williams-Kondinin Road and turn north up 10 Mile Road. The remaining 15 kms up to 86 Gate road then right to the Rich Road intersection is gravel road. 

​The whole area is underlain by granite bedrock. Lower silica granite in most of the reserve has produced soils with well-structured orange brown subsoils with frequent large termite mounds ("ant hill country'), and there is a northwest / southeast  band of grey sandy soils from high silica granite.
​Eastern and western sides of the reserve are lateritic soil slopes which adjoin the central waterway.

Areas 1 and 2 are hard setting soils formed on mottled zone below the gravel layer. 1 denotes slight gravelly loam rises with allocasuarina shrubs (Tammar) with proteaceae shrub and some Rock Sheoak vegetation. I found Caladenia falcata orchids in woodland gravel 1 in September.

​Areas 2 are broad depressions supporting Inland Wandoo (Eucalyptus capillosa) trees with sparse ground cover.

​Area 3 is a sandy gravel/ sand over gravel kwongan rise with occasional Eucalyptus albida mallees. This was particularly attractive in late June due to a number of flowering Acacias, Daviesias, and proteaceae plants

Area 4 is the broad valley floor and gentle side slopes with open wandoo woodland dotted with large termite mounds. This is pleasant easy walking country with several orchid species and everlasting in years with good spring rain. 

Area 5 forms the edge of the main trunk valley, and has a range of soil types ranging from wandoo sand over clay to York Gum loam and Salmon gum clay. This area is very weedy and mildly salt affected.

Area 6 on the north east corner is wandoo woodland, which grades to wandoo and shrubs where the soil has more sand or gravel. The loamy pure wandoo patch is choked  with weeds and dead trees, which make it difficult to walk through. This is a clue that this part of the reserve has not carried a fire for decades. Other parts of this area have attractive flowering shrubs. 

Area 7 in the centre-east is reclaimed gravel pit and prickly shrubland with attractive winter-spring flowers.
Area 8 is deep sand over clay soil with open wandoo woodland, which grades to rock sheoak woodland adjoining 86 Gate road.

An earlier Malyalling and Rich Road vegetation survey can be dowloaded here.

To get to Ockley Reserve drive east on the Narrogin-Kulin Road for about 25km and turn right on to Armstrong Road (eastern edge of North Yillminning Nature Reserve). There is only single paddock between Ockley and North Yilliminning reserves, but they have many differences. Most of North Yilliminning Reserve is upland sand and stony gravel plain, with an extraordinary number of Cowslip Orchid/ Little Pink Fairy Orchid hybrids. Ockley is hillier due to a large south east/north west ridge with breakways with a northerly slope down to the road

​Ockley Reserve also has  more variable soils. Cowslip orchids are common on pale sandy soils, but I found no hybrids. The landscape is dominated by a high ridge on the southern side, which is associated with a mafic dyke (red brown loams and ironstone gravel), and north-west /south-east trending granite dykes (sandy and sandy gravel soils), which are fringed by breakaways
Water from the long slope flowing down to Armstrong Road from the ridge becomes part of the headwaters of the Yilliminning River.
The 145 hectare reserve has a triangle of uncleared private property containing a farm dam intruding on the road side, which is now effectively a part of the reserve. There are no roads or trails in the reserve.

I was unimpressed with this reserve when I visited it in 2020, because it hadn't had a burnt for decades and was very weedy.
There has been a dramatic change after the devastating February 2022 fire. Most weeds were cleaned out and there has been massive post-fire regrowth. I expect a great wildflower show for the next 5 to 10 years.

Number and range of regrowth has varied greatly with soil type, and I have set up photo monitoring points to record the changes in future years. I regret not keeping any images before the fire. Examples shown below show variable regrowth across the reserve.
Numbers on the map indicate locations of following photographs taken seven and sixteen months after the fire.

Reference Point 1 is a gravelly grass tree-Proteaceae gravel ridge. The sparse growth is mainly resprouting shrubs and germinating seedlings.

Reference point 3 is a red-brown loam valley adjoining a gravelly rise. Before the fire this area was an open mallee- red morrel woodland, with an understorey of bark litter and a sparse shrubs. Trees and mallees have now resprouted, and there has been a huge germination of fast growing shrubs, which depend on fire for seed germination. Thomasia foliosa, which is only occasionally seen in unburnt country predominates on red clay loams, with Gastrolobium poison plants more common on lighter soils

Reference point 4 is a potassium felspar granite outcrop with rock sheoak and wattle trees, which was infested with wild oats before the fire. Unfortunately weeds are rapidly coming back.

​Reference point 5 is a steep mafic breakaway with red morrell and brown mallet open forest.  Trees have resprouted with germinated Thomasia foliosa and Gastrolobium poison  plants below the breakaway.

​Reference point 7 is a low slope leading from a mafic gravel plateau. Before the fire this was red morrel (Eucalyptus longicornis) / brown mallet (E. astringens) open forest with no understorey. After the fire the red morrels have resprouted, dead brown mallets have lost their bark, and numerous brown mallet seedlings have emerged.

​Reference point 9 is a steep bowl shaped breakaway with brown mallet on the upper slope and wandoo- brown mallet below. As with other gravel areas, regrowth is limited to resprouting plants and small seedlings

​​Reference point 10 is a white sand upland plain with sandy kwongan deep sand and rock sheoak on sand over gravel. Before the fire, sand-loving low shrubs such as Banksia sphaerocarpa with the occasional Nuytsia floribunda Christmas Tree predominated. In the 2022 growing season, growth consisted of colonising native annuals, resprouting shrubs, Cowslip orchids, occasonal Red Beak, Caldenia varians and Caladenia discoidea spider orchids.
Interestingly There has been a widespread growth of Austrostipa (mollis?) native grass. This was surprising, because I associated native grass meadows with indigenous firestick farming on valley soils. I also noticed the same grass growth this year on grey sandy soil at Birdwhistle Rock.

​​Reference point 12 is situated on the northern woodland slope, consisting of wandoos on sand over clay soil, with small patches of red morrel/ mallee/ brown mallet on loamier soil. It was open woodland before the fire.
Most trees have resprouted and there has been a large germination of shrubs, particularly poisons and other pea plants.
​In a few years this slope will have a mass of pea flowers in spring. Last year there was a fine patch of Blue China Orchids in a waterway.

The European Honeybee is needed to pollinate canola and farmed legumes in Australia and I love honey.
​Unfortunately feral honeybees have damaged biodiversity in our bush. Honeybee hives have displaced native birds and animals from their nesting places in trees and outcompete many native bees. Following images show a feral bee nest, which was exposed when a wandoo limb fell. This hollow was used by nesting galahs before the bees moved in. I also found a pair of overlapping bee wedges in the bush one drizzly morning formed from overlapping workers in a swarm protecting the queen from the rain. Tough critters!

​There are about 800 native bee species in WA and over 100 in the Narrogin area. I have a huge melaleuca paperbark tree in my Narrogin garden, which is a major nectar source. When it flowers in autumn, we call it a 'humming tree' because of the huge number of visiting honey bees. It is also popular with honeyeaters, but I haven't seen any native bees.  
Our native bees are all solitary, with a single generation life cycle each year. Each adult bees usually lives for about 4-5 weeks each year, with the bulk of its life spent in its nest as a larva/pupa or being dormant. The adult population peaks in (mostly) spring/ summer, or autumn/winter. Some native bees are specialist, which depend on a certain group of native plants. These are the most threatened by generalist competitors and fragmented reserves.
​Unfortunately honeybees are much more competitive, and much uncleared land is too small and fragmented for  native bees to thrive.

Honeybees compete in a number of ways.
1. The communal hive enables them to maintain large numbers of foraging adults in all seasons.
​2. They are efficient and aggressive colonisers.
2. Adults can be active at lower temperatures than native bees, which are most active in the middle of the day (after honeybees have been there).
3 The honeybee 'waggle dance' communication system enables them direct large numbers to scattered flowering plants.
4 Many native plant species have plant shapes, which have evolved to direct native pollinators to land on them in ways that pollinate them. Native pea plants are examples. Honeybees often bypass plant stamens and pistils to steal nectar and pollen

Plants such as Hibbertias lack nectar and rely on generalist native bees to pollinate them using 'buzz pollination'.
​Honeybees can't do this, but can potentially affect pollination by outcompeting these native bees. I have also seen honeybees harvesting pollen from male sheoak and hop bush plants, which use wind pollination. 

In May, I came across flowering Daviesia plants, which are important for native bees as there are relatively few species flowering at this time. The flowers were covered in honeybees. Looking closely I was alarmed to see that the bees were concentrating on unopened flowers, which they effectively destroyed for other pollinators. This is shown in the following video.

Further reading
Native bees in Western Australia