A SUNDAY AFTERNOON POTTER ON MT ROGERS: Spring 2016 sometimes

I walked up to Mt Rogers this afternoon taking some flyers to the Notice Box for those interested in the CSIRO development. In spite of the mostly overcast conditions there were quite a few walkers around and often the voices of playing children wafted through into the bush.

I checked out the Almond blossom behind the Schwarz Place house but there not was even a wattlebird at 14.15 hours. Even better though a, calling trio of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos flew into the eucalypts. I took a distant, almost silhouette, photo of one of the small party. I think they were foraging in that area for about ¾ hour but they were silent.

I went into the bush from the rough track up from the Notice Box, taking a kangaroo track to the right after about 50 m. I passed the pine tree Ted & I had tried frilling, and realised it didn’t look very healthy. There are oozes down the trunk so perhaps our cutting into the wood did have an effect. The needles didn’t look entirely green but perhaps that’s what Monterey Pines are like in August. 

The pine tree is a reminder that we occasionally come across quite large woody weeds that we’ve overlooked on past weeding journeys. A few smaller invasives have been marked with pink ribbons, but I didn’t have any ribbon with me this time. (The photo shows Clematis scrambling over woody debris.) I did find several pull-uppable cotoneasters, privets and Viburnum so made a token effort to continue the pulling-up that Phil, Angharad and Kirsty have done in this area. On the way up from mid-Flynn I pass a garden that had a privet tree full of berries so it’s no wonder the birds take the berries and therefore donate new seedlings to Mt Rogers and others’ gardens.

Along the kangaroo track I found a Hovea in glorious purple flower (photo below). There were other, smaller specimens around it amongst native grasses, Guinea flower shrubs that will have yellow blooms later, and a woody-grassland array of trees and Lomandras. There’s a 5 m tunnel from what may have been a fox den near here. The dug earth is reasonably fresh but it didn’t look as if it had been recently entered. 

There were 12 nearby clusters of lush lily leaves suggesting that the Blue Grass Lilies have multiple bulbs under the ground. Caesia calliantha will have blue flowers later on and they are a ‘species to protect’ according to ACT ecologists. I still couldn’t relocate the native violet I hoped to show Kirsty and Angharad on our working-bee walk on 1^st August.

Across the Lily track (up from the No Motorbikes sign) and into more bush I came across two more lilies’ clusters. I then stumbled on a scatter of Barbed Wire Grass plants. If you search on Barbed Wire Grass + images you’ll see that the grasses’ flower-heads look like the bent wire spikes of barbed wire. The flowers and seed heads are a bit like Kangaroo Grass at first glance but the species is far less common.

At about this point I realised I was being followed by mosquitoes so I was glad that the wind still suggested having gloves on. Butcherbird calls rang through the trees, and I also noticed foraging marks on trees’ lower trunks and even fallen timber. I guessed that the big cockatoos were silent because they were feeding on or close to the ground and therefore didn’t advertise their presence.

I crossed over the Fescue Gully – where water would rush down towards the Flynn ‘playground’ Frogmouths’ tree, were it not for Phil’s erosion-mitigation work – and went east into more bush on another kangaroo track. There are certainly scats as evidence of their presence in all the grassland sections of the reserve. There are even small droppings, suggesting that there’s at least one joey at-foot in the resident mob that several people have reported seeing.

In parts of the reserve, new green grass is sprouting. Most of this herbage is introduced grass species, including wild oats. The latter will be as tall as we are by summer, but for now there’s the illusion that the ground-layer is native vegetation. Clumps of native grasses and litter consisting of bark and leafy debris are preferred by the ground-feeding Speckled Warblers. Scarlet Robins perch on low branches watching for insects’ movement in the litter-layer. Angharad reported seeing the Scarlet Robins during last week. They are likely to migrate away to breed soon. Peter A reported the Robins and Double-barred Finches at the beginning of August as well as Bronzewing pigeons’ calls. The little finches have an almost mewing call and they’ll likely be with other small birds.

Small insectivorous birds will be enjoying the Cootamundra Wattles’ blooms as much as we do. This is especially true now, when winter is reducing the numbers of insects available at a time when pre-breeding birds need to access protein in their food.

I think the big birds begin breeding first: Ravens, Currawongs, Magpies and perhaps Wattlebirds. There are displays amongst the Crested Pigeons around Flynn, and numerous Magpie territorial flights, fights and calls around here where several territories intersect.

I went over to the eastern edge of the open space below the ‘Second Summit’ to see where Steve had been spraying Serrated Tussock and Chilean Needle Grass, and on the way back through the trees came across two Kookaburras. They were perched close together and photogenic. One, and then both, turned their backs – which I thought mildly annoying. (The top photo below shows them facing me at first.) Then I realised this was part of a sequence in which they took it in turns to fly into a niche between Eucalyptus branches. The second photo below shows the blur of feathers (top right) as the bird hits the tree.

They were doing excavations for a nest site amongst the loose bark and a cleft about 4 m above the ground. Kirsty once sent some photos of a similar activity and we’ve seen them trying to enlarge a nest-box’s entry. Literally ‘hard work’, unless you own a parrot-like beak, but the methods are different.

Eastern Rosellas were very interested in a small hollow in one of the Flynn ‘playground’ trees. It may have been used by Crimson Rosellas in previous springs. The muddiness around this same area will suit the Magpie-larks as they build or renovate their mud nests. Throughout my walk I kept a lookout for Frogmouths, but haven’t seen the makings of a nest for them yet. I heard a Noisy Friarbird from home last weekend.

From her place, 100 m from the Avery-Deasland Fraser edge of the reserve, Angharad reported 5 Satin Bowerbirds today. She reckons there could have been 8 late last week. This is an increase in numbers from the singles and pairs she’s seen previously. Steve reported a Bowerbird near the Bainton Crescent edge some months ago. It will be wonderful if numbers build up, but those of us with fruit & vegie gardens may not agree.

Butterflies are emerging in response to the fickle warmth of the ephemeral spring. They were enjoying the white bell-shaped flowers on the Cryptandra bushes just off the track behind the twin tanks. These two photos show Vanessa kershawi Australian Painted Lady on the Cryptandra recently.

The Cryptandra patch now numbers over 40 plants (photo below); there were once nine. If you walk that way it’s well worth a look, and check out the big tree for any Frogmouth activity as you pass by. 

We’ll be heading in that direction for the Sunday 28 August working-bee, meeting at 09.30 in Mildenhall Place, Fraser. On Monday 5 September our walk and weed session will begin from Rechner Place, Flynn … near the playground and also starting at 09.30. I’ll see some of you then, though there are a few apologies already.

Rosemary  

Convenor, Mt Rogers Landcare Group, 6258 4724