December working bee - tree planting and cats claw tuber collection

Another 70 trees were planted and about 150 plus Cats Claw tubers were collected at our working bee today. We also protected a number of trees with tree guards. The she oaks in particular have been very popular food for some of the local critters and many have been eaten off.

Well done everyone for persisting in the hot conditions!

Potting up Cats claw tubers to feed the biological controls - jewel beetles and tingids

Sand paper fig that has established itself since cattle have been removed from this part of the corridor.

Maintenance on trees in the corridor - a mixture of methods are being used.

Plantings under adverse conditions

Planting over the winter has been minimised because of the frost possibility and eventually a few frosts occurred late in the very warm winter but little damage was done to seedlings. Grazing damage by animals, probably hares is a problem though.

Some of our winter plantings in the corridor

 Because of the dry conditions in spring no normal plantings have been possible but we have experimented with strengthing the riparian vegetation by planting near the waters edge in areas of moist soil from seepage - which are often found below a bank slump as seepage is often associated with slumps. This planting was carried out from a dinghy. Species planted were Lomandra Longiflolia, Melaleuca Viminalis ( Weeping Bottlebrush), Casuarina Cunninghamiana (River She-oak) , Melaleuca Bracteata (Black Tea-tree) and a few Waterhousea Floribunda.

Ross and Terry, our regular volunteer, ready to start planting

A small slump with some Lomandra planted at the toe of the bank

One of our hopeful planted seedlings in the foreground but notice the number of naturally occurring ti tree seedlings above which have established in the hard clay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The value of Lomandra - the tuft in the mid top is still alive atop of an eroded root column about 500mm above the ground surface. It has withstood many floods and is still hanging on!

 Some pictures of the working bee held by GMA members on Sunday 7th July to clear the debris from one of the landholders riparian fence which had been damaged and covered with lots of sticks, grass and other rubbish. This will allow new plantings to take place on river to enhance the koala corridor.

A pedestrian crossing the Koala Corridor

Some of the team in action

Some damage to the river bank

 (with an infestation of cat's claw in the background)

Piles of debris like this were common in this area

Restanding a washed out fence post

Treating a "mature" Cat's Claw infestation on the Koala Corridor

One of the landholders on the Koala Corridor has an advanced infestation of Cat's Claw Creeper and while they are not prepared at this stage to increase their riparian fencing area they have allowed us to treat the infestation of CCC. These photos show just how massive cat's claw vines can get, unfortunately we can't get any images of the damage they are doing in the canopy.

I am sure these trees are very grateful for the Federal DAFF  and BMRG funding which make the Cat's Claw control efforts of GMA much more effective.

A bare sandy area covered with Cat's Claw pods from above

A small native tree with four cats claw vines climbing up it and it was still alive ! (Felt marker for scale)

 

A treated CCC stump

Some more vines treated by our contractor

More trees planted and tubers potted up

Another 60 trees were planted today. Lots of blue gums and some narrow leafed iron bark.
That brings our total number of trees planted to more than 400!

Walk along the corridor with MRCCC

Friday 19 April 2013 Brad Wedlock from MRCCC walked along the corridor with two of the landholders and other GMA members.

We surveyed the erosion, looked at species diversity and visited biological control release sites.

Unfortunately it got too dark and we had to head back early before we reached the end of the corridor.

It was a great afternoon!

Another great working bee

Interpretive River bank walked remapped post floods.
88 trees planted
100 tubers potted
More work on banner completed.

And Lawrie's 80th birthday celebrated!

Well done everyone.

Birds of the Mary River Koala Corridor

The Maryborough Bird Watches have undertaken two surveys of the corridor, one on the 26 March 2013 and one on the 14 January 2013

Thank you to Ruby, Coryn and Bill with encouragement from Juanita.

Here's the complete list - the names in black are from 14 Jan, the names in blue are new species on 26 March. Pictures to come!

Little black cormorants

Little Pied Cormorant

White-faced Heron

Jabirus

Cattle Egret

Nankeen Night Heron

Great egret

Straw-necked Ibis

Pacific Black Duck

Chestnut Teal

Spotted Turtledove

Peaceful Dove

Bar-shouldered Dove

Crested Pigeon

Rainbow Lorikeet

Indian Koel (h)

Channel-billed Cuckoo

Pheasant Coucal (h)

Laughing Kookaburra

Forest Kingfisher

Azure kingfisher

Rainbow Bee-eater

Dollar Bird

Welcome Swallow

Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike

Eastern Yellow Robin

Leaden Flycatcher (m)

Willie Wagtail

Lewin’s Honeyeater

White-throated Honeyeater

Brown Honeyeater

Mistletoe Bird (f)

Spotted Pardalote

Figbird (f)

Spangled Drongo

White-winged Choughs

Australian Mudlark (Peewit)

Noisy miner

Australian Magpie

Torresian Crow

Grey butcherbird

Little friarbird

Blue faced honeyeater

Striated pardalotes

White breasted sea eagle

Grey Shrike thrush

Black faced cuckoo shrike

Rufous whistler(m,h)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

(f) female  (m) male  (h) heard

Conditions: 

Bird list 14 Jan 2013 Smith Farm near Petrie Park, Tiaro 8am - 10.30am

Hot morning to 36C at 10.30 after six month drought.

Bird list 26 March 2013 Smith Farm near Petrie Park, Tiaro 8am - 10.30am (?)

Hot morning after two floods in January and February.

 

Wonderful Working Bee

We had a fantastic working bee on Sunday 24th March

Over 100 koala food trees planted, about 20 Cats Claw tubers potted up, background of the banner for Love Mary Day planted and lids made for tingid boxes!

Thanks everyone for your hard work.

Working Bee coming up 24 March...

The working bee this weekend will help us to prepare for Love Mary Day and enable us to deal with some of the damage caused by the recent floods.

Please bring along the usual working gear - sturdy shoes, long sleeves and pants, hat, sunscreen, water bottle.

We'll have a shared lunch, so please bring a plate to share.

Where: 34 Vandoorn Rd, Tiaro, Qld
When: 9am, Sunday 24th March

Making seed balls

Seed balls are a way of encouraging natural regeneration and working with the unpredictable weather patterns. Seeds appropriate for the location sit in the balls until a sufficient amount of rain falls to dissolve the clay surrounding the seed ball. Hopefully a few of the seeds germinate and then, depending on which are best suited to the prevailing conditions, one gets a great start on life and grows into a mature plant.

Seed balls are made up of finely ground clay and seeds. Compost may also be added to increase fertility. Another possible inclusion is diatomaceous earth to deter ants from carrying away the seeds.

Glenda Pitman, with help from Juanita and other GMA members has laboriously collected seeds from within the Koala corridor. Glenda and Juanita have also collected clay from the site and ground it finely. A mix of fast (eg wattles) and slow growing species are included in the seed ball.

Seed balls may well be a good way to speed up revegetation of eroded river banks. It's probably a tougher job for the seed balls to do their thing in a recovering riparian zone in amongst existing vegetation - in  our subtropical climate grasses (particularly introduced pasture grasses) grow like crazy during the wet season and can sometimes cover any bare ground especially where considerable light is getting through. Some groundcover is better than none, though the ideal would be native grasses and forbs. The rapid growing grasses make it harder for natural regeneration to happen because the seedlings have to compete with the grass. Careful management of grazing can help shift the balance toward natural regeneration.

Love Mary day will include a workshop to make the seed balls. This will be a great activity for kids and their parents to do together. Big kids also very welcome!

Individual piles of seeds from several species in the corridor ready to be made into more than a dozen seed balls - and yes the tiny specks are seed - from a eucalpyt!

Glenda explaining how to make a seed ball

The end product - these are left to dry, ready to be thrown or dropped into the riparian zone or bank