Reefcare update for Saturday 7 September 2024
The magpie family forage for worms after we remove the non-native pigs face – Des Mullen
It was a very warm day with just a slight breeze – a change from the seriously windy weather we have been experiencing when we met up before 9:00am with two new volunteers; Mary and Leila, so we had a 8 volunteers plus our great supervisor Kathy from Dragonfly Environmental – a great turn out.
Julie and Merrilyn worked in two areas around the fence line of Reefcare’s area and the Council area continuing to remove Asparagus fern, just below the top paddock – which is just below the whale sculpture. Gen worked on the top southern slope which had a lot of numerous types of thistles, bromus and erharta, whilst Lisa worked just below on bromus – it was a great time to get this weed, as it is just coming up and most had not yet formed seed heads – some had a few about to come out and only one (a huge one!), had lots which were about 2/3rds the way in maturity. Des scouted the high southern slope for asparagus and bitou bush and felt overwhelmed; as if anything on this site that needs to be done, isn’t overwhelming – we need an army!
Spiders like this huntsman are commonly found in the vegetation that supports a rich variety of food items for them.
Mary worked on the Turkey Rhubarb in the Acacia bushes – a continuing effort which Alex spent on one Saturday then Brad, Gen the next month and the following month, Lisa. It is a bad infestation and will take several more months of work, such as we had to do on The Flat (which took 2 years to clear) and in what we call The Nest area. After morning tea Mary had had enough of doing the Turkey Rhubarb and then worked on removal of the pigs face as the group continue to move slowly westward with it’s removal – with Lisa joining her after finishing with the Bromus.
The two photos above are before-and-after shots of the removal of the non-native pigs-face from around native Themeda, Westringia, Correas, Acacias and beautiful Leucopogon parviflorus (or coastal bearded heath), which is in flower right now – Kathy Shields
Josh, Alex and Leila worked non-stop on the non-native pig’s face, continuing to clear westward – they rolled a big section of pigs face and then our resident magpies came in looking for worms – smart birds for sure. They hung around us for some time singing, I am sure they know our group now and feel safe – and they love Alex who finds worms for them. The birds come within a metre of you and sing – oh to learn magpie language. After afternoon tea, Josh, Alex and Leila moved to a patch of non native pigs face near the fence line and did an amazing job of clearing.
Inquisitive magpies at morning tea
It was so hot several of us stopped about 10am for a rest and water, and after this Kathy undertook the Council required introduction to our 2 new volunteers. Alex and Leila had been down to The Nest and got a few Turkey Rhubarb bulbs – which proves it will need follow up for a few months yet before we can plant out this area. The group had a later morning tea about 11 with all of us. Alex had Anzac biscuits and mandarins for the group. While we sat chatting we were watching for the whale spout near a white and red boat, which was a bit of fun. “Ohh, there it is”, a cry would call out. Always exciting to see.
Happy morning tea group – Kathy Shields
After 11am Kathy and I organised the 15 plants I had brought along as to where they were to be planted – each has a bamboo pole so we can ensure they are watered next week by Des and I, and then when Reefcare meet again next month.
Lisa and Gen replanting the ground where the non-native pigs face was removed.
Hope to see you here next time!
Reefcare update for Saturday 3 August 2024
After a past week of rain, wind and cold weather we had a beautiful sunny Saturday upon which our aim was to target more of the non-native pigs face in which we made a huge difference last month. Unfortunately, we were thwarted constantly on this goal, with finding more sites of Turkey Rhubarb which was all seeding; thus this became our number one priority.
Lisa and Denise planted 10 Westringa on the flat where many of these plants have died having reached their life span – it took 2 hours, as we kept finding more Turkey Rhubarb and there was a lot of Kikuyu which needed to be removed. We met the others on the top of the slope for morning tea and then Lisa removed the rest of the non-native pigs face in the area she didn’t quite finish last month and then the rest of the time working on the Turkey Rhubarb in the Acacia bushes – a continuing effort which Alex, Brad and Gen have already spent a lot of time; it’s a bad infestation.
Alex worked on Turkey Rhubarb on the flat before moving up the slope and removing more where he worked last month and then went on to help removing non-native pigs face and then asparagus fern with Julie and Merrilyn.
Julie, Merrilyn and Kathy spent their whole time on removing Asparagus fern, together with Brad and Gen, much of it we think is out of our area of responsibility, but as the Council/Contractrors are not doing anything about the Asparagus fern in their area, and it is causing issues in our area, we have to spend time doing this for future benefit to reduce occurrences of Asparagus fern on our site, as the Asparagus fern in their area are huge and full of berries.
Maria arrived at morning tea and then she and Denise worked on removing more of the non-native pigs face on the western slope.
Reefcare update for Saturday 6 July 2024
When the five of us arrived on site at the western slope with 20 plants and a goal to remove more of the non-native pigs face we were serenaded by a delightful singing juvenile magpie who seemed to enjoy having us all around her, there were 3 or 4 other juveniles around which was nice to see, knowing that magpies[1] on the whole are in a significant decline of numbers on the east coast.
Then we got to work with Des going in to remove quite a patch of Bidens Pilosa which we didn’t know was in this spot and then further east he found Turkey Rhubarb – these weeds (Bidens and Turkey R) having only turned up in our site a few years ago with the Turkey rhubarb quite widely distributed – the seeds are probably blowing in from the back of Long Reef dunes, just south of our site, as that area is a real mess now – it was really good with just natives about 15 years ago, but since Reefcare have stopped moving around Long Reef and just concentrating on the headland, other areas have just ‘gone to seed’ such ashame.
Denise found a hairy caterpillar with some lovely colours (captured on camera) and then Lisa found one of the puff ball fungi, which Denise, Alex and Kathy had not seen before; so Lisa gave a squeeze so the dust-like spores spurted out, of which Denise filmed a video which you can view with this report. Meanwhile, Julie was up the top of our site, once again removing more Asparagus Fern. Lisa has asked NBC to ask their contractor if they can focus on this for awhile so we have the two teams working on the one weed, which should make a difference.
The crew continued to work westerly along the site pulling out the non-native pigs face, until Alex found a huge amount of Turkey Rhubarb in some Acacia which he then spent the rest of the morning digging in under these shrubs, The Rats of Tobruk would have been proud of him! It was a seriously good find as many of the plants were about to seed, so Lisa helped to collect the seeds whilst Alex went for the bulbs. We had some rain for about 10 minutes just after 10am, but we worked through that and the rest of the day was fine, except for a slight drizzle some time later for a minute of two later. We were surprised about the amount of grass under the pigs face which we removed, so there is no concern about erosion on this slope and we are hoping this grass is native couch. Further back where we started that area has an issue with Kikuyu – a problem for another day to which I have mentioned to Jock from NBC.
We had morning tea up on the slope which was lovely – to sit and see the view, but no whales that day unfortunately, but we did get a visit from a pretty light grey haired native rat, which came up to us, looked around for awhile and then hopped back up the slope. Denise thinks she got some of this native rate on video – hope so, that was a very special animal to see. Kathy contacted someone she knew about native marsupials and was advised they are around Long Reef, but considered rare. Lisa later found an area of digging/scratching under an Acacia (in the direction the rat headed off) when removing Pigs face, so this is probably near where the rat has it’s home. Lisa also found a live snail, so Denise took a couple of photos so we can send these off to Brad and see if it is the rare Maroubra snail or the Asian Trump Snail.
At the end of the day Alex got a worm and offered it to the juvenile magpie who flew across and was more than happy to take the worm off the trowel upon which is was offered – which then brought a couple of the other juvenile magpies to explore the recently disturbed ground for food. Magpies are certainly clever birds that should never be underestimated, apparently they can recognise people, so be kind to them.
On a sad note for the day, Julie picked up a tick. She reported to me it was “currently expiring under a blob of Lyclear. Thankfully overall, it was an absolutely fabulous day – and so worth working through that 10 mins of rain, with everyone finishing on such a high with all our wonderful wildlife encounters. Before Reefcare cleared this site of the invasive Bitou Bush there was no wildlife – and look now, so much to be found.
One of our volunteers, Denise has been for several months working hours and hours to update our Reefcare site and move it so a new platform. Once the move is complete, we can start to record our exciting finds at Long Reef on the new Web site platform.
[1] BirdLife Australia data shows that Australian magpies declined by 31 per cent in the East Coast region — including Sydney and Brisbane — between 1998 and 2013.