Yesterday I again sighted the Brush Turkey that I saw for the first time on our property in April, however it moved away before I could get a photo. I could see in the gardens where it has scratched away mulch in its search for grubs,beetles and any other edibles and of course scratched out any plants that just happened to be in the way. This habit and their collection of the mulch for their nest mounds are why they're not too popular with gardeners. Today at about the same time it again was wandering around checking the lay of the land and I did manage to get a photo before it disappeared off into the bush.
Mulch is the common link between the turkey and a fungus that bursts out of the rich mulch after a period of wet weather and today there were a couple examples of the Star Fungus
Aseroe rubra. This is quite a striking looking fungus with it's colouring and it's form but it is one of the foetid fungi which give off a smell of rotten meat or faeces to attract flies to be the carriers of the spores so not particularly attractive. It is found through the eastern states of Australia and is reasonably common.
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