MARCH 2018……. MT ROGERS NEWS

Hazard Reduction Burn

March came in with a rush of activity when there were several reports of ground being cleared, branches sawn off trees, trees cut down and several of ‘our’ most treasured, centuries old Eucalypts having ribbons round their trunks.

It took Brian Bathgate, Mt Rogers’ Land Manager for TCCS, an hour or two to find out what was happening. The Fire Management Unit had begun preparations for a Hazard Reduction Burn (HRB) in the reserve without alerting the Land Managers, much less the reserve’s community.

There is a Brett McNamara article in this week’s Chronicle on page 7. It does not seem to explain what HRBs in our reserves are designed to achieve other than “to enhance, protect and conserve our beautiful bush capital”.

There was a HRB on the eastern side of Mt Rogers in August 2011. The currently planned burn is part of the broad ACT-wide schedule of HRBs. I put a map of the target area on the seat by the notice box. It shows that the burn will affect the vegetation between the track up from Jacob Place (Flynn) and the rocky track up from the notice box. I placed some Living with Fire brochures in the notice box and in residents’ letterboxes in adjacent streets.

Rachel’s visit

Rachel Tokley is Urban Volunteer Group Co-ordinator for TCCS. On Wednesday 7 March Rachel visited Mt Rogers for the first time and heard about our concerns. More importantly, she was really impressed with the place, the sense of community that we have and what we have achieved with your decades-long landcaring, erosion management, stewardship and species observations.

Since she has an extensive network of contacts within and beyond the ACT Government’s agencies, Rachel encourages us to report management issues to her, rachel.tokley@act.gov.au and ph. 0478 404 999. This would include the state of the path, the dumping of rubbish (e.g. those mattresses), fallen trees or branches.

Fix My Street is another, though online, reporting option.

The Rock Sign & a ‘garden’?

The Rock Sign has been tagged. Rachel has organised for the Graffiti Unit to remove the vandalistic paint-job and cover the rock surface with a clear ‘paint’ that makes graffiti easier to remove. If we planted some native daisies around the sign’s boulders, would those of you who come up by car be able to bring bottles of water to help the little plants establish? It’s a very exposed position of course but it might have been native grassland there 50–60 years ago. 
Here's the Rock Sign again, after its installation in December, in case you've not seen the photos in one of the blog posts further below. 

Clare

For the first part of Rachel’s visit we were accompanied by Clare from the Fire Management Unit. Clare took photos and GPS co-ordinates of areas and rarer native species that are especially sensitive to fire damage and important to us. Her camera was busy because this HRB will affect the most extensive high-to- reasonable quality woodland zones in the reserve.

The HRB needs to be a series of cool patch-burns as there are very few places where damage to habitats and ground-dwelling species can be avoided. The ancient trees are marked for special care and the ground has been cleared around them. HRBs are done to “reduce fuel load” but there are differences of opinion between ecologists and fire management personnel especially surrounding the effects and frequency of burns. At least this target area hasn’t been burned officially for 40–50 years or more.

There have been visible HRBs in Namadgi in the past 10 days. Residents should be notified of the pending HRB with signs going up at entrances to Mt Rogers.

Weeding

The Sunday 25 February working bee against the Tree of Heaven infestation was rained out as the spectacular dump of 92+ mL hit the region. On Monday 5 March Phil and I moved through the bush east of the notice box pulling or cutting & daubing scores of young woody weeds. We ‘extrapolated’, from what we found, that there’s plenty of similar work throughout the reserve should anyone feel so motivated! As usual the weeds we found originated from berries carried into the reserve from garden plants. One stranger that I dug out turned out to be a young Asparagus Fern. The well watered ground made our work relatively easy.

Koels departing…less one from Fraser

This last week has been quiet in most areas of the ACT as the Koels begin their migration out of the region. Red Wattlebirds, Noisy Friarbirds and Honeyeaters also move away. April is the time of traditional Honeyeater migrations through the river corridors with thousands of several species passing through to warmer places. Small groups of these migrating species may pass through Mt Rogers.

One fledgling Koel won’t be migrating. Hayward found the injured chick on the edge of Mt Rogers and carefully took it home. It was after-hours. Ruth emailed a “what to do?" message but I didn’t receive it before they’d taken the little bird to the 24-hour Gungahlin Veterinary Hospital. The vet said it had ‘neurological damage’ and would need to be euthanased.

As Koels are still newcomers to ‘Canberra’ I thought the Australian National Wildlife Collection would be interested in the bird as a specimen. I phoned the clinic-hospital and the staff, understanding the situation, agreed to put the corpse in their freezer. I collected the surprisingly small bird and, a few days later, took it to the ANWC at Gungahlin.

The efforts of probable Wattlebird parents in raising the young cuckoo won’t be wasted as it is now in the research collection. The Injured Wildlife Hotline is 0432 300 033 and Website www.actwildlife.net.

Lyndon’s Red-Capped Robin

Mt Rogers bird- and wildlife-watching identity, Lyndon, made news on the COG (Ornithologists’ group) email line recently. He ended up with a Red-Capped Robin on his cap whilst photographing at Yerrabi Pond, Gungahlin. Steve W was on hand with a quick photo. The robins are also seasonal migrants. The story and photo are in the blog-post below this one, and the photo is repeated here.

Working Bees

The next working bee is on Sunday 25 March, meeting at the Wickens Place carpark at 09.00 am. We’ll try again for another assault on the Tree of Heaven. Monday 1 April’s a holiday.

Rosemary, Convenor
Mt Rogers Landcare Group  
6258 4724.    
16.03.18.

Where's that Red 'cap' Robin?

A short story about Mt Rogers folk, Lyndon, Maureen and, in recent years Doug the Blue Heeler.

These folk have walked on Mt Rogers for decades.

Lyndon’s interest in photography increased as Doug slowed down; with a huge telephoto lens being part of their daily equipment.

Mt Rogers gained substantially when Lyndon collated his photographs to produce Wildlife of Mt Rogers. 

A file celebrating Mt Rogers’ bird species followed and morphed into a photo-book. It illustrates all the species Lyndon has seen on and from Mt Rogers.

In the course of his Mt Rogers birdwatching, Lyndon met Steve W.
Steve specialises in videoing birds and their behaviour, with this passion taking him throughout our region and beyond. He has also provided countless valuable statistical analyses of birds’ abundance and movements to the COG (Canberra Ornithologists Group) email line.

Steve and Lyndon teamed up. Lyndon was introduced to the numerous birdwatching locations around the ACT by Steve and the pleasantly addictive pursuit of studying local avifauna. Lyndon has joined the scores of locals who record what their binoculars find and link their discoveries to Canberra Ornithologists’ Group, Canberra Nature Map and E-Bird. 

Here’s the delightful result of their being beside Ginninderra Creek at Gungahlin’s Yerrabi Pond on March 1st.

Today, at Yerrabi Pond, a Red-capped Robin became impossible for Lyndon to
photograph. It landed on his cap, on the peak first and then moved to the
back. I was not close enough nor quick enough to get a clear shot but you
get the idea from the photo. A special moment.

[Lyndon agreed to have his photo sent to the chatline]

Steve

At this time of the year several Robin species pass through the bush capital from breeding at higher altitudes.  Sighting the robins provides the classic case of "being in the right place at the right time".

We’re occasionally lucky in finding them on and around Mt Rogers. They usually join Mixed Feeding Flocks of other small foraging bird species.  

Rosemary 

MT ROGERS IN MID FEBRUARY 2018

NOTES FROM A WALK AROUND THE TRACK on Mon 19.02.18 after a 34 degree day

First, here is our 'Notice rock', in December 2017

Weather

It was blissfully cool after the previous days’ inescapable heat. Grey clouds brought hope of some rain. The easterly breeze refreshed walkers but probably extracted even more moisture from the summer-desiccated vegetation.

Agapanthus blooms

Landcarers’ compliments to those who have cut off the spent flower heads and taken them to the green waste site for mulching & composting.  The birds might discover the seeds are edible & begin taking them into the nature reserves in their droppings.

Grey Butcherbird

One was perched on the wires across Schwarz Place. It pecked an insect off the wire and was later heard carolling away; the equal of its magpie cousins.

Chinese Pistachio

In weed awareness hindsight, those of us who bought Chinese Pistachio trees for our gardens could have been labelled ‘gamblers’. The trees brighten our autumns with glorious northern-hemisphere colours. They are dioecious:  “plants where the male and female reproductive systems occur on separate plants.” The female plants produce berries, birds eat the berries and spread them into others’ gardens or the bush. We all see the Cockatoos at work in the trees. Their strong beaks and gizzards may not crush every berry. The seedlings grow up from under the larger trees that the cockatoos perched in, as privets and cotoneasters do. Chinese Pistachio is now a declared pest species.

Cockatoos

A few weeks ago Barbara J responded to a request for evidence of where Sulphur Crested Cockatoos roost. They’re familiar with & gave evidence of the roost site around the Flynn playground’s trees. Today the ground was littered with white feathers from the birds’ moulting & preening - if corroboration of Barbara’s long-term observations was needed.

Winds and branches

Winds have been tortuous at times this summer. Wind direction is influenced by topography and the presence of other trees. Thanks to those who have moved branches that have fallen across the main path. We’ve had success with the ACT’s Fix My Street in such situations provided we can show the nearest street or mark the location on a map. Mattresses and other dumped material were removed quickly as the result of Lyndon’s and Phil’s respective reporting.

Whipper Snipping

In recent weeks a major effort has seen rank grasses in the zone between the path and the houses whipper-snipped into neatness. Thank you TCCS for organising this. Wouldn’t it be great if the original wildflowers and shrubs were still dense around the zone’s clusters of boulders and able to crowd out the last 100 years’ windblown or animal dispersed seeds?

TCCS

Transport Canberra & City Services’ Rachel Tokley will be having a look round Mt Rogers on Wednesday 7 March. We’ll be able to raise any issues with her for liaising with the TCCS and broader networks. When Angharad mentioned the ‘tags’ on the engraved MT ROGERS rock Phil Nizette carved two months ago Rachel has arranged for the ACT Government’s Graffiti Unit to address the vandalism. 

Blackberry

It’s a pity ivy and honeysuckle don’t attract sufficient attention for removal by contractors. Blackberry attracts governments’ attention because it is a Weed of National Significance. The Ginninderra Catchment Group has a new funding stream for the treatment of blackberry clusters in the catchment of Ginninderra Creek. Are there any blackberry infestations that need spraying in the land parallel to Kuringa Drive, in the land between Fraser oval and Dunlop or around Lake Ginninderra? Please report sightings, with locations to: landcare@ginninderralandcare.org.au .

Green grass

When most of the vegetation is very beige it’s easy to see where hidden water sources are keeping grasses green. How does water drain down subterraneously from the higher levels of Mt Rogers? Perhaps as the lower slopes were moulded into the landscapers’ and engineers’ visions the directions of springs ‘ flows were changed? In the suburbs there are greened places that can be attributed to leaking swimming pools and sewer lines from houses. Fix My Street’s the place to report these too. Actual water flows can be reported to 13 11 93. We did this for a ‘no-man’s-land’ part of Redfern Street, Macquarie last week.

Notices

Thanks to Chris C for redoing the Snow Gum’s corner notice after the eddying wind blew the two A4 sheets apart. Chris has an A3 laminator and offered to redo that information sheet.

Bark’s brilliance

Before I’d even moved into the reserve I was awed by the glorious golden yellow hues of those Eucalypts that are shedding their bark. Some of them have the common name Yellow Box for the new bark that’s revealed when the bark’s age + rain + heat  + wind peel strips off trunks and branches.

The ground around each tree was littered with bark with some pieces having been blown several metres. Barks’ textures give clues when identifying eucalypts and would show their diversity if anyone indulged in the bark-rubbings we used to try 6 decades ago.  Photos achieve similar results nowadays. 

Negative:

The MT ROGERS sign being tagged left a decidedly nasty taste in our mouths even though a remedy will be forthcoming. Perhaps more official graffiti spaces would be acceptable to the artists but tagging is a different cult it would seem. 

Positive:

Hayward and Ruth initiated a sad but valuable Koel story. Hayward found an injured Koel fledgling and took it to the Canberra Veterinary Emergency Service at Gungahlin. The vet said it had ‘neurological damage’ and would have to be euthanised.

As the Koel is a relatively new species in our region I thought the Australian National Wildlife Collection (ANWC) might be interested in the body. A phone call or two later and the caring co-operation of the clinic’s vets, and the little corpse was frozen. It’s now been taken to ANWC. Here’s a link that explains the collection and its immeasurable value to researchers here and internationally.

https://www.csiro.au/en/Research/Collections/ANWC/About-ANWC/What-our-collection-holds

Rosemary, Mt Rogers Landcare.  6258 4724.