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.
Reefcare update for Saturday 1 June 2024
Five of us met at the carpark in very inclement weather together with our Dragonfly Supervisor for the day, Paul; plus 25 plants to get in the ground before the rain really came in – which we expected around 11:00am.
Long Reef on a rainy morning
Julie continued up the top removing more Asparagus Fern whilst Des and Brad headed to the high western slope where previous non-native pigs face has been removed to plant 18 of the plants to add to previous plantings over the last few months. They then moved to the western area of the site cutting bitou and throwing onto previous cleared ground so that it can break down and be used for future mulch on site and cover exposed sand to keep moisture in and prevent any possible erosion.
Bitou bush that was poisoned in last month’s bushcare session is dying, but the native plants (Myoporum) are thriving! Great outcome!
Alex with mattock and weed bag in hand, headed back to the nest area as unfortunately more turkey rhubarb has appeared within a number of black berry nightshade (Solanum nigrum) with green berries which have appeared on mass in this area as well as Hydrocotyl (Hydrocotyle ranunculoides) – which is also growing all around the site like it’s been fed steroids. Paul worked on the turkey rhubarb on the flat and other general site weeding, whilst Lisa headed to the eastern dunes to plant Lomandra along the tracks where the surfers are cutting through the Reefcare site of good Themeda, and general weeding – Burr Medic coming up but not yet burrs appearing – early for this weed, as it is usually around August.
Return to the nest: some minor turkey rhubarb plants were observed in the nest, some of which were seeding. These were promptly removed and bagged.
Turkey Rhubarb bagged and disposed of.
The rain started lightly sometime after 10:00am, but we put on rain jackets and kept working until 10:30 when it started to get heavier and looked like it was set in – so after meeting Maria in the carpark – great timing Maria! Des, Julie, Lisa and Maria when to a coffee shop and sat around a heater they had to dry out – whilst Paul our Dragonfly Supervisor decided to complete the Green Link walk around Long Reef, as he had not been in this area before – good on you Paul, hope you got back in time before it poured down about 11:15am!
Drowned rats Lisa & Alex working in the rain just before the session was canned.
We leave the site in peace as the rain comes in.
Reefcare update for Saturday 6 April 2024
Reefcare was cancelled for this month because of the heavy rain over the past few days, which was forecast to continue through the Saturday morning. We had planned on removing more non-native pigs-face, flea-bane and asparagus fern. We also had 8 Acacia Longifolia plants, ready to go into the ground, but these will have to wait until next month.