Since the last newsletter there have been several working-bees
and other inputs to tell you about.
1. Angharad, Flemming and I worked in the peninsula of land between Oster and Bird Places (Flynn). We sought out, bagged seeds and dug out tussocks of African Lovegrass (ALG) between the houses and the neat little patch of native vegetation in that area. The lovegrass has probably been walked-in but it hasn't helped that newer Bird place residents used 'beyond their fence' as a dump that wasn't very temporary. Fortunately a word to City Services about this being the worst back-fence-interface around Mt Rogers resulted in the residents being asked to clean up their act. Unfortunately people just don't realise that not all grasses are the same or desirable in nature reserves and that garden weeds usually drop seeds before the dumped plants break down as the naive dumpers expect.
2. On Sunday 25 May Ann, Flemming and Ivan met me at Mildenhall place (Fraser) and we again concentrated on ALG but this time alongside the track that most walkers use. In the past month City Services have employed contractors to spray ALG with herbicide and the green dye you may have seen. Their work was very detailed and sometimes included Chilean Needle Grass where they'd also worked along Ginninderra Creek. We assumed the role of beheading Tall Lovegrass and ALG in the areas they had missed and a shallow gully or two.
1. Angharad, Flemming and I worked in the peninsula of land between Oster and Bird Places (Flynn). We sought out, bagged seeds and dug out tussocks of African Lovegrass (ALG) between the houses and the neat little patch of native vegetation in that area. The lovegrass has probably been walked-in but it hasn't helped that newer Bird place residents used 'beyond their fence' as a dump that wasn't very temporary. Fortunately a word to City Services about this being the worst back-fence-interface around Mt Rogers resulted in the residents being asked to clean up their act. Unfortunately people just don't realise that not all grasses are the same or desirable in nature reserves and that garden weeds usually drop seeds before the dumped plants break down as the naive dumpers expect.
2. On Sunday 25 May Ann, Flemming and Ivan met me at Mildenhall place (Fraser) and we again concentrated on ALG but this time alongside the track that most walkers use. In the past month City Services have employed contractors to spray ALG with herbicide and the green dye you may have seen. Their work was very detailed and sometimes included Chilean Needle Grass where they'd also worked along Ginninderra Creek. We assumed the role of beheading Tall Lovegrass and ALG in the areas they had missed and a shallow gully or two.
The photos show a small clump of Kangaroo Grass (Themeda triandra) and a pretty fungus beside the main track above Spence.
3. On Monday 2 June I led Flemming, Lorraine and Phil on a bit of a wild goose chase at first as our route up to the Bench-Mark tree and down from Five-Ways was pleasingly clear of ALG. This shows the attention-to-detail that Steve brings to his volunteer-spraying. We found more work against Verbascum where we dug out the attractive woolly plants amongst some boulders which would make a wonderful native garden landscape if we had the energy (and weren't likely to be heading for drier weather again). Below this patch we began finding Serrated Tussock plants and dug these out one by one. There were probably 50-60 of them and often they were under shrubs and small eucalypts where the wind-borne seeds had come to rest. In previous years TAMS have organised contractors to walk Mt Rogers in search of the tussocks. Our targets would have been small or easily missed last winter.
We also noticed, with Phil's guidance, that very
effective drainage work Phil has done has been tampered with. Someone has
replaced the clods of earth or grass tussocks Phil had carefully placed near
his drainage channels to direct the flow of water sideways...effectively
blocking these channels which are designed to slow water, prevent erosion and
send the flow off into the bush rather than having it rush downhill. Perhaps
the anonymous worker thought he was rescuing the plants Phil had up-rooted.
4. Anne continues her solo work against Chinese pistachio and any privets or cotoneasters she comes on whilst walking and working cross-country. Claire, Sue, Kirsty, Chris & Barbara, Chris & Margaret, Lynn, Helen & Chris and Glen have sent respective apologies about not being able to currently give practical help for working-bees.
5. I had a call from Daniel Iglesias, Director of the Parks & Conservation Service yesterday asking whether we had received a response to our letter of concern over the track-maintenance situation.
To date I haven't, but he is organising for there to be an on-site meeting between Mt Rogers Landcarers and City Services staff to discuss the way the work was carried out.
6. Cliff commented on the lack of bird sightings around their home for a week or two in spite of the pleasantly warm autumn. There was plenty of small-bird activity on Mt Rogers itself with one mixed flock of small birds, watched by Bron, containing 16 species.
Arjen showed me where he and Jazz find rabbits, and one raced away whilst we were weeding on 2 June.
Peter & Morris emailed that they'd had a wonderful moment being entertained by a flock of 12 Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos (YTBCs) near the 'big stump' (presumably above Deasland Place). The YTBCs are doing the rounds of our Belconnen area seeking out and opening and cones they can find; it's still magic that we can record this visit to Mt Rogers.
Kevin D was busy with binoculars as we began working on Sunday 25th.
Lucy has sent over photos of the 3 Kookaburras she was delighted to find near Waterman Place (Fraser) whilst exercising C & M's Cayenne & Pepper.
7. I read somewhere recently that someone from the Bureau of Meteorology is asking for records of unusual bird activity for the time of year. Given the warm autumn that's only recently turned to winter both plants and animals may be being caught out.
I saw two magpies defending their old nest from an over-assertive Currawong at Wickens Place yesterday. Was the currawong being annoying or was it really trying to steal nesting material?
Lorraine, in particular, had noted several eucalypts in flower including some of the Snow gums.
4. Anne continues her solo work against Chinese pistachio and any privets or cotoneasters she comes on whilst walking and working cross-country. Claire, Sue, Kirsty, Chris & Barbara, Chris & Margaret, Lynn, Helen & Chris and Glen have sent respective apologies about not being able to currently give practical help for working-bees.
5. I had a call from Daniel Iglesias, Director of the Parks & Conservation Service yesterday asking whether we had received a response to our letter of concern over the track-maintenance situation.
To date I haven't, but he is organising for there to be an on-site meeting between Mt Rogers Landcarers and City Services staff to discuss the way the work was carried out.
6. Cliff commented on the lack of bird sightings around their home for a week or two in spite of the pleasantly warm autumn. There was plenty of small-bird activity on Mt Rogers itself with one mixed flock of small birds, watched by Bron, containing 16 species.
Arjen showed me where he and Jazz find rabbits, and one raced away whilst we were weeding on 2 June.
Peter & Morris emailed that they'd had a wonderful moment being entertained by a flock of 12 Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos (YTBCs) near the 'big stump' (presumably above Deasland Place). The YTBCs are doing the rounds of our Belconnen area seeking out and opening and cones they can find; it's still magic that we can record this visit to Mt Rogers.
Kevin D was busy with binoculars as we began working on Sunday 25th.
Lucy has sent over photos of the 3 Kookaburras she was delighted to find near Waterman Place (Fraser) whilst exercising C & M's Cayenne & Pepper.
7. I read somewhere recently that someone from the Bureau of Meteorology is asking for records of unusual bird activity for the time of year. Given the warm autumn that's only recently turned to winter both plants and animals may be being caught out.
I saw two magpies defending their old nest from an over-assertive Currawong at Wickens Place yesterday. Was the currawong being annoying or was it really trying to steal nesting material?
Lorraine, in particular, had noted several eucalypts in flower including some of the Snow gums.
Will this mean honeyeaters will stay here longer
than usual if nectar is still available? Will insect eggs hatch before they
should and then not be around in spring for birds to feed to their young? There
are already many very concerning mis-timings happening around the world as the
result of the climate changing. This causes population crashes when hungry
animals higher up food chains just can't survive and when migration schedules
are changed.
8. Karissa, the Ginninderra Catchment Co-ordinator, has helped with our grant application for Natural Resources Management funding to reprint/create a new brochure for Mt Rogers. Ann and I have spent about 6 hours on the new text and Pamela sent over a magnificent photograph taken from the second summit towards Belconnen & Lake G.
8. Karissa, the Ginninderra Catchment Co-ordinator, has helped with our grant application for Natural Resources Management funding to reprint/create a new brochure for Mt Rogers. Ann and I have spent about 6 hours on the new text and Pamela sent over a magnificent photograph taken from the second summit towards Belconnen & Lake G.
9. Steve D had several paintings accepted for the
recent Wildlife & Botanical Artists (WABA) Exhibition at CSIRO. It is a
tremendous accolade to have work accepted for this Australia-wide display where
the theme was bringing art, conservation and science together.
And for an even greater accolade, Steve’s delightful painting of a Crested Tern won the People’s Choice Award at the exhibition! Well deserved, Steve!
And for an even greater accolade, Steve’s delightful painting of a Crested Tern won the People’s Choice Award at the exhibition! Well deserved, Steve!
10. At the WABA event's dinner David Lindenmayer spoke passionately about the criminal lunacy of logging ancient forests in Victoria for paper. Felling these forests with 300-400 year old trees is sending the Victorian state faunal emblem to extinction, increasing atmospheric carbon when the living trees could absorb it and disturbing the water-filtering properties of the forests' vegetation for Melbourne's water supply. Not buying Reflex paper produced by Australian Paper Mills is one way we can help. APM has yet to sign up to the Ethical paper Campaign & I don't think Office Works has either.
As you'd know from overseas, clear-felling forests
causes even more damage and loss of species like Orang Utans and Sumatran
tigers. When the debris is burnt carbon is released into the atmosphere as well
as the toxins and carcinogens that are emitted whenever timber, wood or logs
are burnt.
Thank you all for your contributions of reports, muscle-power, awareness and appreciation. Keeping our conversations going and fostering sharing communities in all our facets of life is the only way we'll come through these threatening times.
Thank you all for your contributions of reports, muscle-power, awareness and appreciation. Keeping our conversations going and fostering sharing communities in all our facets of life is the only way we'll come through these threatening times.
