This page has some great links to identification resources for various insects including moths, jumping spiders, nematodes and flies.
Geology of the Flinders Ranges map
A print resolution map of the Geology of the Flinders Ranges, including geological notes, drives and walking trails, can be downloaded here.
Butterfly Conservation SA online ID tool
Discover the Flinders Ranges App
Discover the Flinders Ranges is a free app designed by Friends of Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park. The app contains tours and around 500 photos of places of interest, as well as some plants and birds.
While the ‘Flora of the Central Flinders Ranges’ tour is not comprehensive, it is novel in that it is arranged by colour of flower. A handy little offline app to have in the field.
Seeds of South Australia database
The Seeds of South Australia database is actively being grown.
The goal is to provide images and data for South Australia’s approximately 3,500 native plant species.
Birds in Backyards Winter Survey 2019
Once you have registered your free Birdata account, read the instructions or watch the video. Download the Birdata app and take your smartphone or tablet outside with you and just record all the birds you seen in your space in 20 mins.
Free offline GPS
When you are out and about in the wilds of the Flinders Ranges, more often than not you are out of range of mobile network signals. Having a GPS app that works offline means that you can record the location of your discovery, whether it be echidna scats to report to EchidnaCSI or an interesting geological outcrop.
We’ve found a free, simple offline GPS app called My GPS Coordinates. It will give you a GPS reading within seconds no matter where you are. From here you can record your location by either simply taking a screenshot, or emailing yourself the geolocation data via the app.
Echidna spotting – get involved via Echidna CSI app
According to a wave of anecdotal evidence from Beltana, Leigh Creek, Warraweena, Copley and across the district, Echidnas are being sighted in surprising numbers. The number of echidna sightings in the Northern Flinders Ranges is rapidly rising, but not much is known about the populations of these elusive little monotremes in our area. The following information and links come from the Atlas of Living Australia who are hosting the citizen science project Echidna CSI. This exciting project invites you to contribute reports of your echidna sightings – past, present and future!
“Although an iconic native Australian animal, we do not know much about echidnas’ wild populations, as they are extremely hard to find (when you’re actually looking for them). However, we know that there are many of you that have seen wild echidnas (sometimes even in your own backyard!) and taken photos or videos of them. With your help and photo taking abilities we can start filling in the gaps about wild echidnas in Australia.
What we also need help with is collecting echidna scats (which is a nicer way of saying poo). Why? Because we can get a lot of information about echidnas through the molecules in their scats. We can get out DNA and hormones to tell us who that echidna is, if it’s healthy, stressed or reproductively active. And so we can learn more about these wild populations without having to track or capture any of these animals.”
Get Involved! There are a couple of options for submitting data
Use EchidnaCSI app to record and submit sighting on the spot:
Download the app and have it ready to take a photo at your next sighting.
Or make a manual online submission of your echidna sighting :
Sign up to the Atlas of Living Australia website and lodge your sighting. Even if you didn’t get a chance to take a photo, you can still submit a date and map marker of your Echidna sighting.
Bird Finder online
Millions of birds were spotted in around 70,000 bird counts this year in the Aussie Backyard Bird Count during National Bird Week. To help out backyard ornithologists, a useful Bird Finder page is hosted on the Birds in Backyards site.
Brachina Gorge Geological Trail
Download PDF:
Published by the Geological Society of Australia, South Australian Division.
Excerpt:
One of the best records in the world of sedimentary deposition in the period of geological time between about 800 million and 500 million years ago is exposed in the Flinders Ranges, Mount Lofty Ranges and the Olary region in South Australia. Sandy and silty sediments derived from erosion of older rocks of the Gawler Craton in the hinterland to the west, and island masses of this basement rock rising from an undersea ridge over 200 km to the east, were deposited into an extensive marine basin called the Adelaide Geosyncline in which the seafloor was slowly subsiding along a series of elongated north-south step or graben faults.
During the 300 million years of continuing but intermittent subsidence of the basin floor, a thick pile of sediment accumulated in the geosyncline. This sequence was then compressed and hardened by deep burial and later folded into a high mountain range by a new regime of earth movements.
Subsequent erosion has reduced these highlands to their present form and deposited huge amounts of sediment to the east into younger sedimentary basins formed by later crustal down warping. Continue reading “Brachina Gorge Geological Trail”