winter-spring update 2019 - poonabacked sunbird nectarinia jugularis. see you all soon! -bree jashin...

CEP NEWSLETTER - WINTER-SPRING UPDATE 2019 page 1

WINTER-SPRING Update 2019 publ i shed October 2019

for more information or to join a CEP group contact

Tina Raveneau, Community Environment Program Officer

Phone: 1300 79 49 29 Email: [email protected]

“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience”. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hello and welcome to our humble and happy newsletter. CEP is a network of Fraser Coast residents taking action to care for their local environment. I hope you enjoy reading about our committed and passionate volunteers and how they are doing their bit – through bush-caring, propagating, tree-planting, botanising, fauna-watching and generally enjoying spending time in Nature. They inspire me every day! Regards, Tina

CITIZEN SCIENCE

In the week of 21-27 October some of our groups participated in the Aussie Backyard Bird Count. We were part of hundreds of individuals and groups who recorded seeing 3,657,956 birds. The counts were conducted in 20 minute surveys. Go to https://aussiebirdcount.org.au. for more information. You can also download the app which has a field guide that can be used anytime.

But now it’s time to count our pollinators!

The European Honey Bee is well known as a pollinator but there are thousands of native insects which also contribute to pollination in crops and gardens. Over 2,000 native bee species are known as well as thousands of species of butterflies wasps, flies, moths, beetles, ants and so on. Little is really known about the ecology of these insects - so get in and do some observations in the Spring Wild Pollinator Count 10-17 November to help science. All the information you need is on the website https://wildpollinatorcount.com/

Happy workers at Happy Valley, June 2019


Pioneer Park, Tinana, Maryborough

National Tree Day 2019

Sunday 28th July was our community planting event for National Tree Day 2019. We had a fantastic turnout from the community with a total of 147 participants helping to plant and water in 816 trees and shrubs, converting the large mown area into a future forest. It is always a rewarding event to be involved in, and is especially popular with families.

Our super-hero (FCRC’s) Natural Areas Team did much of the site preparation including pre-digging and marking the holes for planting. Despite the unusually hot and dry conditions, the plants (supplied by Jen and the volunteers from our CEP Nursery) are doing extremely well. They’ll need ongoing watering until we get rain, and hopefully this isn’t too far away.

It was a thrill to see how much our 2014 and 2015 Tree Day plantings at Pioneer Park have grown in just a few short years. Birdwatchers of Hervey Bay recently visited the Park on their weekly outing and recorded 73 different bird species. Tina

https://treeday.planetark.org

Greater Mary Association members demonstrate a spear planter

Urangan Girls Academy helped on the day

children made “bug hotels”


Fraser Coast Community Nursery

The past months have been a very busy time for the nursery with various events and activities. June saw the delivery of four water tanks to help us become a bit more water wise especially as the rainy season looks like being unpredictable. A big thankyou to Darryl who installed them while I was on leave. Two of them are nearly full after the recent showers.

July's calendar was the busiest with four events scheduled. First was a trip to the Noosa Landcare nurseries to observe and gain some insight to the management methods used by a similar, but larger scale, organisation. The day started with a tour of their wholesale nursery followed by a visit to their retail nursery and lunch in Cooroora Creek Park.

The second event was a morning tea held to thank the volunteers for all their hard work at the nursery with catering kindly donated by an anonymous member of the community. Mayor George Seymour attended as a surprise guest of honour.

Next we headed off to the Tiaro Landcare Field Day to team up with the Council's biosecurity crew for "Weed Swap". Our stall was quite popular with many people visiting to ask questions, to purchase our books and plants and swapping their weeds for a native replacement.

Throughout the winter months there were preparations for the biggest event of the CEP year; National Tree Day. The Nursery supplied nearly one thousand trees and shrubs for the main planting event at Pioneer Park, as well as to five schools and kindergarten sites across the Fraser Coast.

August was business as usual with lots of seeds planted and seedlings potted to replenish our stock. It was also time to visit the CEP garden near the Surf Life Saving Club and add a few extra plants. The Endeavour crew helped out with planting and pruning and we discovered the first sign of wildlife for the area; a Meadow Argus butterfly sunning itself amongst the Boobialla. Jen Robin

Mayor visits Nursery visit to Noosa Landcare

Left: Suzie and Emma planting at

the Surf Club CEP garden

Below: A Meadow Argus butterfly

Below: At Citizenship Ceremonies- such as this one in

Maryborough in September, each person is given a native

plant which is provided by our Community Nursery.


Zero Chemical K’gari CEP - K’gari Urban Biodiversity Project

There is a fauna survey currently being completed at the Nursery and so far the discoveries have been quite surprising. More information in the next CEP Update.

Meanwhile here is a photo of a Spiny Leaf Insect that was spotted at the Nursery.

Other Nursery news

Can you spot the animal?

Following on from our earlier 2019 workshops, mentioned in the previous CEP newsletter, the year has continued on with further intense and extensive restoration work - carried out by our teams of volunteers and FCRC staff in June, August and September. Having FCRC Parks staff work alongside us as well as their extra volunteering over three days has been a real treat. Thank you Dario!

The Happy Valley Waste Transfer Station site saw some very solid follow up of removal of Painted Spurge Euphorbia cyathophora remo, Mile-a-minute Ipomoea cairica, and Abrus precatorius subsp africanus. The site has responded remarkably well to our zero chemical methodology within the short time we have worked there. Below the helipad site and Warry St there was a finely tuned follow up of Abrus precatorius subsp africanus, Brazilian nightshade Solanum seaforthianum, Corky passion flower Passiflora suberosa and Mile-a-minute Ipomoea cairica.

At each workshop the boardwalk was swept, rubbish collect-ed from along boardwalk and car park, Green panic Panicum maximum var. trichoglume trimmed and strategically re-moved and Painted Spurge Euphorbia cyathophora re-moved. As always the Happy Valley Drive drainage area was intensely followed up and we continue to collect Abrus precatorius subsp africanus seed and pods and move into the areas of regrown gnarly Easter cassia Senna pendula var.glabrata that has been previously treated with chemi-cals and exposed to fire.

Despite the extreme dry conditions we are experiencing it’s been awe inspiring to see established native vegetation as well as seedlings thriving on our sites. We have all had a great year, very much enjoyed each other’s company and to top it all off we had a special visit from a female Olive-backed Sunbird Nectarinia jugularis.

See you all soon! Bree Jashin

Glochidion ferdinandi - commonly called

Cheese Tree because of the shape of its fruit

Out of its usual northern range this vagrant Olive-backed

(or Yellow-breasted) Sunbird was seen in Happy Valley.

Dodonea viscosa subsp viscosa - Sticky Hop Bush

- female plant with seed pods


Friends of Parraweena Park

Botany Group

The Botany group recently completed a Spring survey of the Tinnanbar Wildflower Reserve which is locat-ed in the Tuan Forest near Tinnanbar. Due to the dry weather the flower display was not as spectacular as would normally be expected. However there were many interesting plants to be found. The pink Boronia falcifolia was in full bloom and in large numbers.

Of the hundreds of pink Boronias flowering on the day there was one white one growing in the middle of a previously slashed roadside drain.

Another notable species was Thelymitra pauciflora. This is the first time that members of our group have photographed this lovely blue ground orchid. Tony van Kampen

left to right: Boronia falcifolia photographed by Andrea Van Kampen; the orchid, Thelymitra pauciflora,

photographed by Scott Gavins; the lone white Boronia plant photographed by Ruby Rosenfield

Numbers at our working bees in the second half of this year continue to be good. The focus of our work has moved to the southern end of the park, in particular the infestation of the Basket Asparagus Fern. The northern end of the park where we initially concentrated is certainly displaying the fruits of our labours with superb regen and little weed intrusion, although the latter has been helped by the extended dry.

At the last meet we participated in the Aussie Backyard Bird Count. In a 20 minute survey, three separate teams returned a total count of 30 species and 83 birds.

A Parraweena Gully sub-group has also started up and are working one Friday a month. This small patrol of Julie, Rae, Neville, Jenni, Peter, Mark and Sergeant-Major Kris has made significant inroads into the linear area which feeds into Parraweena Park from the east. Main weeds in this area are Basket Asparagus Fern, Ochna and Syngonium.

Another helpful development is the installation of substantial bollards by the Council’s Natural Areas Team. These structures serve to clearly delineate the paths from regenerating areas, limiting mowing and making it more effective. Thanks to our great team of volunteers and special thanks to Tina for the untiring support and wonderful advice she gives us. Peter Duck & Jenni Watts

Wendy photographed this Clearwing

Swallowtail (aka Big Greasy) in her garden

opposite Parraweena Park. This species has

also been seen in the Park recently.

Deanne caught a brilliant flash of cyan-blue

colour. Once at rest most of the colour was

hidden by the dull grey/brown pattern on the

undersides of the wings. She photographed

the Satin Azure on its host plant - a mistletoe.


Friends of Arkarra

Although most of the back lagoons have

dried up in recent months the area is still

managing to stay reasonably green. The

large area we concentrated on removing the

Barleria from is remaining weed free at the

moment. Hopefully when we get rain there

will not be too much of a resurgence in that

section and the new native plants that have

now been exposed are just managing to

hang on in the dry.

Council’s Natural Areas team has done a lot

of work in the back section of Arkarra,

widening the path from the main walking

track taking the path through to Chiquita

Court. The entry from Chiquita Court has

had a large area cleared and lots of trees

planted. These are being watered and are

all starting to settle in well.

Our group has had two working bees in the

back area, mostly removing Ardisia, which

has been hard work but we certainly have

made inroads into the worst area there.

Unfortunately there are a lot of ticks there

and when we finished up our last morning

we were all taking a few ticks out of the area

on our clothes.

Now that the days are warming up our

starting time is back to 7.30am.

Dawn Williams

Poona CEP - Poona Ecological Restoration Project

the reveg area near Chiquita Court

clearing Ardisia

the native raspberry, Rubus moluccanus is a welcome scrambler at Arkarra

The August working bee concentrated on removing Groundsel and Broad-leaf Pepper trees.

photo by Judy Sumner


Hillyard Street National Tree Day site update

Fay Smith Bush Care Group

before planting 2012 same site July 2019

The wetland is in a dire state of desiccation with only the end of the creek closest to the hockey field carrying a deep pool of water. The (FCRC’s) Natural Areas team replaced panic grass with a lot of trees which they have tended to with regular watering, but they may have to keep doing this for some time.

The area we have been working has in the past been fairly wet and muddy and we have been working intensively in there to remove the smothering heart shape leaved vine, which has yellow flowers, from an expanding area. The vine smothers small trees and herbs and aggressively winds its way up ma-ture trees. We are making progress with our concerted effort, which involves cutting back the vine and digging out the tubers (photo right). The tubers look a bit like a root vegetable and Lyndall wondered if they would make a ready food source. No one has been game to try them yet!

In the process of removing this weed we have rescued several small gum trees and herbs such as willow primrose (Ludwigia octovalvis) and Lesser Joyweed (Alternanthera denticulata). Although we have removed ageratum and panic grass from this same area this has been placed on a lower priority. If it rains we will continue on with gumboots.

Numerous species of birds are still hanging in there but I don’t know what dragonflies do when their larvae take years to develop under water and the wetland is dry. All I know is that they do return when the water is replenished.

Ruby Rosenfield

Scarlet Honeyeater

Brazillian Glory Vine Stigmaphyllon ciliatum

This is the vine Ruby refers to in her article. The Botany CEP group first saw and identified the vine in the Faye Smith Wet-lands in December 2017. This is the only recorded occurrence in the Fraser Coast region. It has been reported around Brisbane and Northern Queensland. It has the potential to become a serious weed species. All our groups need to be on the lookout for this species. Jenni, with photo by Tony van Kampen


Other News

The CEP GROUPS

Fraser Coast Community Nursery

Birdwatchers of Hervey Bay

River Heads Food Forest

Friends of Arkarra

Fay Smith Bush Care Group

Zero Chemical K’gari (Happy Valley)

Botany Group

Kingfisher Lakes Bushwackys

Toogoom Foreshore CEP

Kingfisher Park CEP (River Heads)

Poona CEP

Friends of Woocoo Park (Tinana)

Friends of Parraweena (Pt. Vernon)

Plant Sales at the Nursery First Thursday of the month 9am-11am

(Also some Nursery plants for sale at the Orchid House, daily.)

“Birds of the Fraser Coast” by the Birdwatchers of Hervey Bay and

Fraser Coast Regional Council. On sale at Council Customer Service

Offices and Visitor Information Centres.

Students learn Conservation & Land Management

During term 3, a group of students studying CLM at Carinity Education –

Glendyne joined the CEP for 6 sessions of practical work experience.

The group’s activities included plant propagation from cuttings and seed,

native species identification, tree planting and bush regeneration.

“We can only hope that we have planted a "seed of interest" (pardon

the pun) in these young people which may blossom and grow in the fu-

ture!! After all, they are our future....”

Justyn Burnham, VET Trainer and student supervisor

Recently the Council’s Natural Areas Team travelled to Maroom to meet with Cécile Espigolé and Will Price (local members of Queensland Wader Study Group) to take a closer look at the migratory waders and shorebirds that the team are trying to protect. Identification of these species is very specialised and the team had firsthand experience identifying them and learned of their migratory habits and ecology. This information is invaluable for council staff to know when passing on information to the public and educating dog owners as to why they can’t walk their dogs in certain areas, as well as the joy of learning more about the natural environment! The kangaroos where very amused at our antics.

Students working in the Nursery’s greenhouse

CEP Newsletter Editor: Tina Raveneau / contributors: team leaders / layout and design: Jenni Watts

winter-spring update 2019 - poonabacked sunbird nectarinia jugularis. see you all soon! -bree jashin...

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