MUSINGS : After early
ANZAC Day musings reflecting on the world we have now as a bewildering contrast
to the future for which so many have sacrificed so much…I made a laminated
notice to the repeat-offenders who use Mt Rogers as a rubbish dump. Condensed,
this is the text:
FROM MT ROGERS TO DUMPERS
Please note that members of Mt Rogers
Landcare community object to your dumping garden rubbish in the reserve. THIS DUMPING IS ILLEGAL
Dumping is contributing to the destruction
of the last remnant of intact, natural bush on Mt Rogers.
Unusual and rare birds use this area.
There are unusual plant species including spring wildflowers which have
survived 145 years of change in ‘Fraser’.
Dead shrubs, rank non-Australian grasses,
prunings and weeds DO NOT BELONG HERE.
Take them FREE to the green-waste
recycling site at the west end of Parkwood Road, Macgregor between 07.30 &
16.45 daily.
Mt Rogers Landcare volunteers spend
hours protecting the reserve from invasive species. Don’t make this work even
harder by dumping weed seeds, diseased plants & other rubbish in a place we
love.
I then installed the notice near the decaying piles of
the disrespectful gardener’s waste and continued a stroll through the wonderful
nature ‘behind’ Woodger Place, Fraser. I took more photos of the Cranberry
Heath Astroloma humifusum that I found on 18th. It’s
delightful ground-hugging shrubby plant endemic to southern Australia and would
probably be classified as widespread but uncommon. It’s possible I knew the
plant was there but this is the first time it’s shown its identifying crimson-scarlet flowers. I expect
Eastern spinebills might take a quick dash to sip nectar from the flowers and
perhaps the Common Bronzewing pigeons would later harvest the berries.
These pigeons are the ones that make the “ooming”
calls around the reserve. They have only become more common in the last ten
years…we’ve noticed their calls around the reserve where previously they kept
closer to Wickens & Woodger places. Currawongs and Wattlebirds were active
and later I checked out several flocks of small birds. Some were honeyeaters,
gleaning insects as they moved through on their seasonal migration out of the
ACT and towards warmer, winter feeding places. Peter C had brilliant
bird-watcher’s luck 3-4 weeks ago, identifying a Regent Honeyeater moving through Mt Rogers with a migrating but
feeding flock of Red Wattlebirds.
There’s nothing like a wander through the reserve for
restoring equilibrium. Until the storm grumbled through it was a perfect autumn
morning with people and dogs enjoying the sunshine.
This newsletter was really to be about the inspiring Wander
and Wonder walk we had on 7th April but writer’s block and Weed Swap
intervened….so here’s a resumption:
RUBBISH: Eight
of us gathered at Wickens Place for Tuesday 7th’s WANDER AND WONDER
WALK. On arrival Anne and I noticed a pile of party left-overs near the
burnt-out car that (like the one in Scullin) still awaits removal. We collected
the bottles and cans into a bag. I found, later, that the two black plastic
bags were also filled with similar recyclables. Let’s hope the NO DUMPING signs
I’ve requested come soon.
The valiant Litter Patrol people are not directed to
separate the rubbish they collect from recyclables so we thought it best to
take away the lazies’ left-overs. At the sorting point, plastic bags are not
opened by the operators as the bags’ contents could pose risks to their safety.
This applies around the suburban collections as well as for the Litter Patrols’
finds in public open spaces.
LERPS &
EUCALYPTS: As we signed-on I dealt out some useful reference
books. The Field Guides were no match for the first observations when we paused
to examine eucalypts with pinkish leaves. On some trees near the car-park and
around the region it’s hard to find any remaining green, functioning leaves.
Searching for Number_6 Lerps_Insects
leads to a South Australian Primary Industries article on lerps and the small
to minute psyllid insects which make their marks on millions of hapless leaves.
Under a hand-lens or a good microscope the lerps are seen to be shelters which
the sap-sucking insects secrete to cover themselves. Some can seem like
filigree, miniature palaces. Insectivorous birds forage for the lerps’ sugary
secretions but the sheer density of the 2015 infestation seems to have
overwhelmed the gleaning birds.
LICHENS: After
yesterday’s rain the lichens we found beside the narrow dirt track looked
subtly colourful and almost lush. Like mosses they absorb water quickly. Here,
as in the drier parts of the continent, lichens play a vital role by colonising
bare soil and holding the soil’s particles together prior to vascular plants
establishing themselves from seeds. Erosion of Australia’s soils has increased
dramatically since hard-hooved stock were brought in to graze ancient land
where soft-footed macropods didn’t break up the surface or displace lichens and
mosses. Damage to lichens and surface-hugging alpine plants and the highly
adapted Alpine flora is the main reason for keeping horses and cattle out of
the High Country.
WATTLES &
SHELTER: We stopped to check the deep amber-coloured sap oozing
from a wattle’s trunk. Tyronne said the Ngunawal people would heat the sap and
use as glue for, for example binding shaped stones to wooden hafts for axes.
Mixed with ash the sap made a sore-healing poultice. Maybe the 15ml rain had
softened the sap as it was malleable but, as Rosalie & Tony noted, not
sweet for those contemplating eating it.
Nearby there was a partly broken-down, dead wattle. It
already looked like a ‘cubby’. This reminded us of the cubbies we’ve seen young
people build on Mt Rogers. Usually they collect branches and arrange them
tepee-like. Great to realise that the being-outdoors-adventure isn’t completely
lacking in the current youngest generation.
Indigenous people knew, by ancient trial and error,
which trees yielded bark for shelters. Pause
to consider, as we reach for the central heating’s switches, how the people
would have sheltered from the recent days’ stormy weather and sudden cold after
the summer’s warmth. More details on plant-use are illustrated and explained in
Ngunnawal Plant use: a traditional
Aboriginal plant use guide for the ACT region.
MORE TREES : Kirsty
pointed out the tunnels laid bare on a bark-less, fallen branch. Borers had
eaten their way under the bark, writing hieroglyphic messages until death took
over the tree, its bark was shed and the ‘script’ was revealed in a range of
subtle colours. Near some stumps, piles of powdered dust showed where beetles
had attacked them and reduced their timber cells to rich nutrients for younger
plants. Timber, which looks rotten and useless to us hosts a range of insects,
beetles, larvae and bugs that are essential food for birds especially in
winter.
Barbara related bird-calls to species we came across, sharing
the messages about the distinguishing features and the honeyeaters’ migration. Tony
found the Golden Whistler illustration as custodian of the McComas Taylor local
bird Field Guide. On several occasions autumn colour drew our attention but, on
Mt Rogers, this is for the wrong reasons. Usually the colourful leaves were
found under a branch where bird’s droppings had left Chinese pistachio,
Cotoneaster or Pyracantha berries’ seeds to develop into saplings. Fortunately
Anne specialises in seeking out these environmental weeds and cutting &
daubing them before they’re mature enough to have their own berries. Angharad,
Ann and I found our first Chinese Rain Tree on Mt Rogers during our March 22nd
working-bee. Watch this space as the deciduous trees produce thousands of
black, fertile, ball-shaped seeds! The seedlings form a mini-forest in gardens.
Take care when buying invasives from nurseries!
GRASSES: Olga
has an artistic interest in native grasses. We were able to find a range of
species, albeit rather autumny, near the Cryptandra Patch. Quite close by is a
residual grouping of Barbed Wire Grass. The number of tussocks is increasing
steadily. Mt Rogers probably has at least 20 different native grass species and
some are scattered throughout the reserve in small patches and probably where
the soil is shallowest. Chris D has worked on bagging Verbascum seeds and then
cutting down the 1m tall flowering spikes. Often this also involves searching
amongst the grasses for the newly germinated plants with their soft greeny-grey
leaves.
OBSERVATIONS: So many
people help with the working-bees and with our monitoring of plant and animal
activities on Mt Rogers. This all feeds into knowing where the next efforts are
needed. And observations build into a valuable record of the natural world of
Mt Rogers.
Rosemary, Mt Rogers Landcare….6258 4724……25.04.15.
