Today I was working on St John's Wort (SJW) that has infiltrated the Cryptandra patch. It's not a good idea
to disturb the soil but we'll see what is left and what responds by September
and then, hopefully, spray with a cone attachment to focus the herbicide. Apart
from Plantain there are very few weeds until you reach the edge nearest the
track. Something has germinated in hundreds but time will tell which species it
is. There's nothing much in flower but the Cryptandra
have tight, tiny, cream buds waiting for butterflies later on. Some grasses (Nine
Awn and Spear grasses) are in flower. Rocky, thin soiled native grassland as it
should be.
Up behind the single watertank I watched a Mixed Feeding Flock (MFF)
which included a Speckled Warbler. It perched, preening, in a shrub for a while
and it dawned on me that since it had been foraging around amongst the grasses
and leaf-litter its feathers were probably wet and in need of grooming!
Later amongst the SJW work I was joined by another MFF which included 3
or 4 Double-barred Finches and a White-eared Honeyeater. A Golden Whistler sat
above me for a few minutes. All sheer magic.
As I was leaving, Bob and Beau came through and we had a wonderful
conversation. It included some of his observations from 30 years of living here
and almost as many of walking Mt Rogers. Beau posed for a photo on the rocks.
He succeeded James after whom we named one of the cross-country tracks.
The other reason for this post is to thank Flemming and Ivan for a stoic
weed-bashing session on Sunday last. We worked near the southerly concrete
drain in amongst the dense Wattles. These and trees had been perching points
for many birds so there were Privets, Cotoneasters, Briar Roses, Pyracantha of
all ages and sizes. It's uneven ground as there's plenty of fallen timber over
which rank grasses have grown. It really felt good to have tackled this corner
at last. It needs to remain dense for the small birds but not dense with weed
species.
Anne's worked on the Chinese Pistachio reducing the numbers of their beacon-autumn
colours.
On Monday 5 May we'll meet at the Wickens Place Car-park at 9 am. There are
some large African Lovegrass tussocks in the good peninsula between Bird and
Oster Places so we'll walk over and tackle them. Steve has made a significant
impression on the Paterson’s Curse (PC) under the powerlines, but detailed
PC-weeding will be necessary there as there's some lovely flowering clusters of
Glycine there also.
Sunday 25 May will be the next weekend working-bee. Maybe colder
weather will mean that the sap's not running well enough to take up herbicide
but we'll know, closer to the time.
Reverting to Gardening.... Pamela and Noel are keen Mt Rogers supporters
and live in Rechner Place, Flynn. On Saturday 18th October their native garden
will be open to the public as part of the Open Garden scheme. Since they moved
in they have created a really diverse and significant garden after the removal
of Cotoneasters and other tree-symptoms of neglect. It would be a great
opportunity to see what can be done when gardening sensitively near a nature
reserve and to hear the garden's story.
Pamela also thought we, as a group, could offer visitors a glimpse of Mt
Rogers whilst they're in Flynn. If anyone would like to be a guide in taking
visitors up to the summit please let me know.
AND if anyone is able to spare a couple of hours to MEET & GREET the
garden's visitors that would be a very welcome contribution.
Rosemary.
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