From balmy autumn to winter chill - Mt Rogers May 2011

WORKING BEES: Thanks to the enthusiastic response to my possibly-weird berry-harvesting in recent weeks there’s been a move to institute a monthly working-bee on Mt Rogers. These will be held on the FOURTH SUNDAY of each month. We’ll probably aim for 10 am in the cooler months and 8.30 am whenever summer happens and work for 2-3 hours.

Given the busyness and complexities of our lives there were at least two preferences so Sunday was chosen to avoid the clash younger people might have with ‘Saturday sport’. Having a ‘mid-week’ regular day has also been suggested though this might be a Tuesday as there are other opportunities to be close to nature through the Wednesday walks of the Canberra Ornithologists’ Group and the Australian Native Plants Society and the weekly, lunchtime presentation series at the ANB Gardens.

BERRIES: The berry-gathering has continued-on from the work of the Conservation Volunteers Australia (CVA) crew on April 10^th. Additionally a few stoic members of Mt Rogers Landcare Group have been cutting-off and bagging berries to reduce the number of berries birds can take elsewhere from Mt Rogers’ woody weeds. Parks, Conservation and Lands personnel worked on privet and cotoneaster along the south and eastern edge of Mt Rogers about five years ago but this spring-summer’s exceptional rainfall has encouraged lush new growth and increased berry-production both here and in numerous suburban gardens.

MANAGING WEEDS: Mt Rogers folk know that if we’re to retain the unique Australian flora and have enough water, space and nutrients for desirable plants we can’t afford to host these berry-producers in gardens just because they’re decorative and colourful. There are several fine examples of well-kept hedges of pyracantha and cotoneaster around. Their owners cut them back before the insignificant flowers have a chance to produce berries. The plants’ screening attributes are retained but the berries available for dispersal by hungry birds are significantly reduced. Most people know they have ivy and periwinkle problems as these super-durable plants sprawl over other plants and the ground in numerous gardens. Conversely there are also local residents who don’t know they’re hosting privets, brooms and honeysuckle which are other major invasive weeds. It’s been suggested that “offending gardeners” are letterboxed with explanatory brochures. This may be o.k. for those who are in a financial or physical position to solve the problem but eradication of established environmental weeds is a major undertaking. As a result of Floriade displays and ten years of WEED SWAP many more people are aware of what’s in or what shouldn’t be left in their gardens. In other words progress is being made!

VOLUNTEERS: Denis and Chris brought their trailers to the April, CVA working-bee allowing the branches to be removed. Two more offers of trailer-use have come forward so there may be other occasions when the gravel path is shared. This generosity shows that, with our users’ community, observations, comments, even catering-for volunteers and occasional guided walks there’s an intricacy of ways to be stewards of Mt Rogers.

GANG GANGS: Using the term reserve for Mt Rogers is convenient and reflects how we feel about the area but it is actually Urban Open Space. It is managed by TAMS, Territory and Municipal Services rather than those we traditionally call rangers. In the Hawke Review of the ACT Public Service there is a recommendation that all government agencies have the same TAMS logo for uniform badges, vehicles and signs. Wouldn’t this be a retrograde step if we lost the 30-year-old Gang Gang cockatoo logo? It has been synonymous with ACT land management, nature reserves, caring for wildlife and ranger activities for all that time and has only recently been adopted by more general ‘city-services’ agencies. Let’s hope we can speak out against this proposed change and restore the Gang Gang logo as a symbol for the capital’s bush workers. Barbara recorded a few Gang Gangs in their Melba garden recently and there’s a group of them resident in the denser forest habitats of Gossan Hill not far from Radford College and the retirement village.

DOGS & SHARING: As the tall grass bends and breaks-down, some of the more cross-country paths and tracks feel a bit more open. The mowing regime appears to have caught-up at last. These two factors mean that walkers’ dogs have more freedom to burn off their energy. Aren’t we fortunate that Mt Rogers is a dogs-off-leash area! There are as many friendships amongst dogs as amongst our people. It’s probably become part of our daily routines to learn more about what makes each dog ‘tick’, their social leanings and how each will behave. We’re also good at accepting sharing as part of our daily challenges with fit bodies, cyclists, joggers, frail bodies, stroller-drivers, birdwatchers and all manner of walkers being in the multi-use mix for the gravel path and ‘our patch’. It’s encouraging that our dog-owners show respect towards others by supervising their dogs and picking up doggie-doos that are on the path.

KANGAROOS: In the course of our berry-gathering we’ve seen plenty of evidence that there are a few kangaroos around. Dare we say they’re residents? Scats are a give-away but often the grasses have been flattened by the roos’ resting bodies. They even seem to have ‘wriggled’ under bushes’ branches though I’m not sure I can imagine how a kangaroo wriggles. I felt a bit guilty removing their cover by taking off privet and cotoneaster branches so that the next CVA crew can easily reach the main stems or trunk with chain-saw and glyphosate.

SPECIALS! We are proposing hiring another CVA crew on 24^th or 25^th September. The $600 funding will come from Ginninderra Catchment Group. GCG is also keen to host a WELCOME or an awareness day for Mt Rogers. Holding that on 24^th or 25^th seems to be a good opportunity. Let’s hope we can create something of a Mt Rogers Festival and introduce more locals to nature, our recreational area and the nature we’re trying to conserve. We know how invaluable taking time outside and exercising is maybe we can persuade a few more people that there are different ways to be healthy.

SURVEY: Sarah Sharp has been commissioned to undertake a survey of the incidence of invasive weeds around the ACT and on local leased properties. African Lovegrass, Chilean Needle Grass, Serrated Tussock and St John’s Wort are the survey’s target weeds and all are present on Mt Rogers. I have submitted reports to the survey. We’ve worked on them at working-bees over the years. An efficient contractors’ team has sprayed the whole area in recent winters for ST finding and killing isolated specimens. Whether there’s funding for a round of their specialist spraying this winter I’m not sure. We will try to organise for SJW to be sprayed in September-October. ALG was sprayed in the carpark area but it and CNG are still being spread by mowers in spite of theoretical cleaning between mowing sites.

SIGHTINGS: In the course of weeding we’ve not only come across kangaroos but also wonderful orb-weaving spiders and their huge webs. In some areas there’s an encouraging flush of growth from the native Weeping grass or Microlaena. It’s gradually taking over…we hope! Elsewhere the introduced grasses are rank and the seed-heads are above my head. However in many places there are individual native plants surviving or persisting after germinating wherever their seed landed. And then there are the glorious lichens, mosses and the rocks they colonise, the textures, colours and patterns of trees’ barks to further endorse the wonder and tenacity of the ‘bush’.

 

Yesterday, when a bouncy dog went into the track-side grass, it put up a quail. The quail would have exploded away from me if I’d been that close. It was either a Stubble or a Brown Quail. Both have that reaction of flying away from danger and thereby making identification tricky! I wonder if these native birds are resident and just rarely sighted or whether they succumb to foxes and then re-establish themselves.

Keep an eye out for the make-up of mixed feeding flocks of fantails and thornbills as I saw a male Golden whistler yesterday and there will be Scarlet robins here during winter. Some honeyeaters may also over-winter. Some were calling as they flew over on their migration away from the cold earlier in the week. If you see a number of wattlebirds together they too may be a migrating group rather than residents. Outdoor exercise saves heating bills!!!

Rosemary