water dragon – Dick's Creek Bush Regeneration

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 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.

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…

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.

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 – 03.11.2024

Another productive working bee today. It’s been great to do bush regeneration lately. The ground gets regular soakings which makes removing plants like fishbone fern far easier and more effective as more of the roots are pulled up with the plant.

My focus is still on getting the tracks in better shape.

Monstera spreading along the boundary and climbing nearby trees

I started once again with the start of the track where the monstera has dominated for decades. I typically ignore this location but monstera is undeniably spreading and so needed some attention.

I have been clearing a bit of monstera and other exotics from this area each week. I don’t clear it completely as there are water dragons and land mullets that live in this area and I would not be surprised if they use the monstera as cover.

Monstera is relatively easy to control so it is still a low priority for now.

This guy loves to wait until I am right beside it before it takes off in a rush. Gets me almost every time! It was worst today as he was on a rock at eye level as I was moving past.

My daughter and I wanted to explore the ground under a nearby currawong nest as I had seen a Channel billed cuckoo near the nest and I was wondering if the currawong’s egg had been evicted. Unfortunately, the area under the nest was just too messy and boggy to search. On the way there and back though, I noticed more Gahnia and young pittosporums struggling against the fishbone fern. Hence, that turned into the next spot to work on. The image below shows my efforts.

After clearing the fishbone fern the pittosporum, Gahnia and false bracken can now be seen

This ‘track’ down the hill leads to the Gahnia. I want to avoid this situation as it is not obvious how people would walk through that Gahnia without causing too much damage.

So, to avoid this issue, I cleared the fishbone fern from between trees before the Gahnia. Now people will be able to walk onto the rocks at that level and will be able to cross the creek easily.

Doing this lead me to discover a new instance of a native grass (name?) I have seen near Second fall. I cleared around that, around the swamp lilly I found last week and around the native olive tree at the same location.

I was then able to use my newly created track to find my way down to Second fall and up the track towards Site A where I found more natives that needed freeing from fishbone fern. This is the track at present:

I was out of gas at this point but there is quite a bit to do at this location.This image shows (not clearly) many small sandpaper figs and a Clerodendrum that are struggling against the fishbone fern. This will be a priority for upcoming working bees.

A number of sandpaper figs starting growing after this area was previously cleared but since then, it is struggling against the fishbone fern.

Site A is also in a bad way. Not much can grow here until the fishbone fern makes way…

So much to do!

Reptiles loving the heat

As the weather warms up, the reptiles are seen more often. We often have multiple water dragons at the front of the reserve and throughout. They have probably always been there but for the last few years, the land mullets have become more comfortable and at least one is seen regularly.

I don’t see the two species fight but they do appear to keep a distance from each other so I assume they must fight every now and again.

Here is a short video that was taken on a day when I could easily see a few from my balcony…

Young water dragon 12.02.2023

A young water dragon was hanging out near the top of first falls today. I was not sure what it was as it was much smaller than the usual water dragons that we get to see. However, once I saw the footage on my computer, it’s markings made it clear it was a young dragon.

Here is some crap quality video footage of it: