It is just one of many sedge plants found in this district.

Unlike most other sedges, it is not a plant of boggy or wet places, often being found where no surface water lies for more than a day or two.

The sedges are divided into several groups.

We call them club-sedges, bog-sedges, sword-sedges and so on.

Some are just 20mm tall, while others reach two metres or more. The smaller species are often annuals, while most of the larger ones are perennials.

The thatch saw-sedge is a tough rhizomatous (suckering) perennial. Its stems grow up to a metre tall. It grows both north and south of the Dividing Range, but its occurrence is rather patchy, often indicating sandier ground.

To botanists it is Gahnia radula. There are a few other local saw-sedge species.

Although handsome, and with floristry potential, it is not an easy plant to grow from seed, nor does it transplant readily.

How do we identify sedges from rushes?

This is not easy. In most cases "sedges have edges" and "rushes are round" ("rushes around"), but - like almost all rules made for nature - there are exceptions.

The best way to learn them is to accompany someone who knows.

The voice of the darter - a cormorant-like bird - does not appear to be well-known, but the call is not uncommon in this district.

While most books say that the darter is mostly silent, or that the usual call is "clicking", the bird sometimes gives a loud and distinctive almost-laughing call of up to about ten rather fast-repeated clanging notes, fading away in volume at the end.

This would be the call well-described by naturalist Graham Pizzey as a "brassy clanging". It is not a clicking call.

While the darter is not particularly vocal, the distinctive "brassy clanging" is often a useful clue to the presence of this unusual snake-necked waterbird.

An "exceptionally handsome" male darter was reported at Lake Wendouree a week ago, joining a pair of paler birds.

The loud call can sometimes now be heard at the lake.

The little black cormorant is one of the quietest of the cormorant-darter group, so a few weak clicking notes from a pair of these was an unexpected report earlier this month.

The great cormorant is more vocal, but it calls mostly when another of its kind comes in to roost nearby.

This croaking/coughing call is probably one of displeasure.