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

Free gift for all Mums at Love Mary Day

Love Mary Day now has a new date - Sunday 12 May 2013. Entry via 34 Vandoorn Rd, Tiaro.

We've had to postpone due to the floods - All the fabulous activities we have planned are still going ahead.
AND.....
Because it's Mother's Day we've added some special Mother's Day activities including a free gift for all Mums!

It will be a great day out for Mum's Dad's and the whole family. Hope you can make it!

To find out more about what's on go to:
greatermary.wix.com/riverlovers 

and like GMA on facebook here