Author: dradma

Working Bee – 23.12.2024

A very productive working bee. First step was to get some more plants into the ground. I put the lomandras in the top level after pushing back the fishbone fern. A Hibbertia scandens (Guinea Flower) went beside the creek, just before fern wall. I neglected to take photos but all the planted plants are looking healthy for now.

I had barely taken a step on the track down to site A when I was drawn to a very loud but unseen bird in the fishbone fern. I didn’t recognise what type of bird it was but it was going crazy which made me curious enough to stop and see what it was concerned about. Only because I had stopped, I saw this guy:

A small snake

A snake on the track. Not sure what type it was but I’m glad I saw it before I was on top of it. It didn’t move despite me trying to make some extra noise, stomping on the ground etc. However, I threw a stick nearby and it moved into the ferns then. I saw it go but I still didn’t want to walk on the track. I made a large detour via the alternative track. Spotting a snake is a first for me at Dick’s creek.

I notice this shrub each time I walk near site A and a few have popped up elsewhere as well.

I finally asked for identification via the facebook group ‘NSW plant identification’. Best guess appears to be: Claoxylon australe (Brittlewood)

It’s not part of the Hunter Valley Moist Forest profile but it is endemic to the East coast of Australia so it gets to stay.

I got back to the target site where I have been working for the past few weeks. It was sad to see the bower bird’s bower had been flattened.

Flattened bower bird bower

I am not sure if that is their normal behaviour or if something interrupted them but I have been seeing the female bower bird a lot lately so I think they have moved onto raising some young.

It has been quite dry and warm for the past few weeks. It made it easy to spot any lantana that was missed previously.

Lantana with some remaining roots can be spotted easily via the sprouting leaves.

On the down side, the dry soil does make it a bit harder to pull out plants with the roots attached.

I started from where I left off last week…

Before…

I believe the clump of trees & shrubs is on the mound which I remember from years ago when it was just a few instances of false bracken fern battling against the lantana. The false bracken fern is still there but so is a lot of other plants… Privet (of course), lantana still, tobacco trees, poison peach, bleeding hearts, sandpaper figs, lilly pilly, a tree fern and some others I am less sure of. I freed up most of the natives so it should all be heading in the right direction once again.

After…

A lot of the plants lean on each other and so take a while to straighten up after the exotic species are removed. You can see that here with the bleeding hearts and the false bracken fern.

With the exotic species gone, the remaining natives are going to be getting a lot more sun. I am hoping for some rain to help them transition.

There is still much more to be done so it will be a similar working bee next week.

 

 

 

Working Bee – 14.12.2024

It was a quick one today. Between Flaggy creek working bee and the Flaggy creek christmas get together, I was able to get in an hour long working bee.

No.1 priority was to get the ground cover plants that the Landcare nursery had given us a few weeks back. They really weren’t liking there current situation.

There were a few spots along the creek edge that were suitable. This spot was just buffalo grass:

I am hoping this native ground cover is as resilient as the buffalo grass I replaced it with. It will need to set root fairly quickly as this spot does get flooded when we get solid rain.

The other location I chose was on the other side but it was in much worse shape as palm grass was taking over.

Pile of dispatched palm grass

I dug that out but left most other plants… which included some bleeding hearts, some young lilly pillies and a few other undesirables which I had to correctly identify before dispatching.

Here is an image of the ground cover after just being planted.

Ground cover in after clearing away the palm grass

 

UPDATE (01.03.2025): It has now been over three months since these were planted and I can confirm that both plantings have prospered. As long as I can keep the weeds back for a while, they should extend their coverage.

 

 

 

Working Bee – 08.12.2024

Another productive working bee today. I was originally thinking of removing the lantana in  a linear fashion but I noticed the bower bird fly off when I arrived at the site so I decided to keep a distance from it’s bower (the structure on the ground). Strangely, it was a female that flew off while I would of expected it to be a male considering it has no notable decorations around the bower. After googling, I have now discovered that the bower birds bower is not a  nest like I thought it was. Shows how much I know!

I had barely started when I noticed this tree poking out from the lantana along the creek:

A Bolwarra tree (Eupomatia Laurina) I believe…

A good place to start. If I see a native being crowded out, it makes sense to free it up. Upon clearing the lantana away from this Bolwarra tree I found multiple other natives in the same spot. It’s hard to spot but the after photo shows bleeding hearts and sandpaper figs amongst others…

Bolwarra tree without lantana draped over it.

Unfortunately, the privet behind the Bolwarra tree was too big to deal with today. Those have been put on the to-do list.

With that done, I returned my attention to the edge of the clearing we made last week. It was not like I expected it. There was numerous natives hidden underneath the lantana. It was great to see but it did make progress a fair bit slower. Amongst the usual natives of bleeding heart and sandpaper figs was some poison peach, lilly pilly and also what I believe is murrogun, even though I have never had it definitely identified. It is well worth removing the lantana but it also makes it clear that this area needs more attention fairly urgently to ensure the natives survive.

Results from my efforts:

Lantana free

It doesn’t look like much but the rafts of lantana show I was doing something…

There is a lot more to do. I believe I will be doing similar work for at least a month or so…

Working Bee – 01.12.2024

A very productive working bee today. It felt like I got three times as much done than usual…. maybe because there were three times more people than usual?

Fred and Sandra Anderson joined the group on Sunday for a spot of lantana bashing. I had a clear idea of the area I wanted to work on but we had to get there first. So the direct track down to site A got a little work:

A track through the fishbone fern down to Site A.

There are some used railway ties near this location. If I can cut them down to size somewhat, I might be able to make decent stairs over the slippery parts.

We made our way down the cleared lane-way  at the rear of the reserve to get to the large patch of lantana between the ol’ fallen fig tree and the creek. Before we reach this location, we need to penetrate the wall of privet that lines the lane-way.

A small hole in the privet wall to access the field of lantana

At this location, there is at least 100m2 of this:

Lantana living its life to its best

I had previously cleared most of this location but then left it alone for far too long. While it is once again dominating the scene, it still has not gotten to the point it was at before I first cleared it. It’s younger and easier to pull up. Still a job though…

Here and there were a few plants that had obviously taken root when the lantana was previously pushed back. For example, this tree fern:

Tree fern found underneath the lantana

Hopefully the shock of all the extra light won’t be too much for it.

Another interesting find was this bower bird nest:

Bower bird nest

I had only cleared this area a few weeks back so I know it is new but no obvious decorations yet. I hope we did not disturb it too much…

After a few hours, I believe we had cleared a solid third of the field of lantana.

Results of the day

We left it at that but with Saturday’s weather forecast looking good, I should be able to push on further at this location on the next working bee.

Water dragons being rough

I saw a bigger water dragon chase down and bite onto a smaller dragon. There had been the head bobbing and hand waving actions they do before fighting so I originally thought this was a bigger dragon picking on a smaller dragon but after watching the film, I now think it is a male holding onto a female. They seemed to separate amicably after this interaction.

The smaller dragon did not race off afterwards either. They seemed to have arrived at some sort of arrangement.

Working Bee – 23.11.2024

Today’s working bee was all about preparation for the new plants we will be picking up in the coming week (plant list).

At the top level, the grass stops most other plants from spreading or getting going. So that appears to be the best location for the smaller plants such as grasses and ground cover. I pulled out grass from various spots to make way:

Should be suitable for lomandra and/or some of the ground covers

I had planned on planting some of the trees at the rear section of the reserve so I headed there to find suitable spots. On my way to the desired spot, I walked down my old route which was informative. I had cleared this area previously and various trees took the opportunity to grow but lantana was once again reclaiming the area.

I remember saving a Clerodendrum tree in this area. At the time it was bent right over due to the weight of the lantana. Now it is prospering:

Clerodendrum I saved years ago and one of the first poison peach trees I discovered in the reserve

In front of it is also a poison peach tree which started growing not long after I cleared the area.

I took some film at this location as well…

After this spot, it got much worse. I was shocked by the condition of the bush. Lantana is back in a big way. I struggled to make my way through so I forgot about taking some photos. Along the creek, palm grass has also taken off.

There were some positives. Lots of sandpaper figs and other desirable plants but it is all under threat by lantana at present.

I will not be able to plant the trees in that location next weekend. I will have to keep some of the new trees in their pots until I can improve the condition of the area. It is going to take some time…