a load of rubbish (and a big smile)

It was smiles all around on Saturday 23rd October, when we had completed our first Big Spring Clean Up.  Some of our bushland and parks are now a lot tidier.

Seven volunteers at Moulton Wetland Park worked tirelessly for over an hour and a half to collect this modest haul of rubbish (photo below).  Don't be deceived - there are a lot of bottle caps and tiny pieces of paper and plastic in those bags!  And some weeds...

Here's what they collected from Woodlake Park.  There were twice as many volunteers at this site, so naturally they collected twice as much rubbish...or did they actually work twice as hard for half the time??  But they certainly found some interesting litter, including a cheque book and an electric drill.

Not to be outdone, the volunteers at The Vines decided to clean up their whole neighbourhood...I heard that Ailsa Park became a rubbish collection depot rather than a mere clean up site.  

Volunteers enjoyed a sausage sizzle afterwards, and there were various awards and prizes given out for their wonderful cleaning work.  A good effort, everyone!  I'm looking forward to the Big Spring Clean Up in 2011. (Keep your eye on this website!)

one healthy lizard

After five weeks of treatment and specialist care at Kanyana Wildlife hospital, this bobtail came home looking like a different lizard.  Instead of the lethargy of a typical bobtail 'flu victim, it was alert, active and showing a good defensive response.  The eyes were clear and bright.  And look at those glossy scales and that lovely fat tail!

                     AFTER TREATMENT

                     AFTER TREATMENT

Here's the photo from the original post "one sick bobtail" (28th September), plus a close-up of the tail in its emaciated state, so you can see the difference that treatment made to this reptile.

                     BEFORE TREATMENT

                     BEFORE TREATMENT

Kudos to Kanyana Wildlife for brilliant work in their treatment and care of native animals.  You too can help out our native animals by following Kanyana's first aid for wildlife guidelines, becoming a volunteer carer, or by donation.

counting the days to the Big Spring Clean Up

Conservation Week 2010 starts next weekend.  As part of the "you in the environment" theme, we will be holding the Big Spring Clean Up on Saturday, October 23rd!  (Only six more sleeps!)

The Big Spring Clean Up aims to tidy up some of our local parks and bushland around Ellenbrook, The Vines, Henley Brook and Aveley.  Many community groups and associations are participating, with the support of City of Swan and Clean Up Australia. We hope to raise awareness in our local community about the impact of rubbish on the environment, and work together to make our local area a cleaner and greener place to live. 

All participants are invited to attend a sausage sizzle afterwards, where we will be giving out awards and prizes to celebrate our achievements.

Want to join in?  Just turn up to one of the three sites on the day at 8am, with protective clothing, a hat, gloves and bring a water bottle.  You can click on one of the three sites below to register on-line, or to find out more.

Ailsa Park in The Vines

Moulton Wetland Park in Charlotte's Vineyard

Woodlake Park in Woodlake

The Big Spring Clean Up is only one of the many events happening for Conservation Week 2010.  If you would like more information about the talks, walks, wildlife surveys and other events, please check out the Conservation Council of WA website.

If you live in the area, you may have seen a poster like this in newspapers or on noticeboards.

"Scary swamp" not so bad

Our most recent walk explored a dark and mysterious wetland in Malvern Springs.  It was an overcast and misty-wet morning.  I pointed to our destination; a large group of paperbarks, with a thick green canopy.  Some of the walkers looked a bit nervous as we left the sandy track and headed towards the heavily-shaded wetland.

During our walk, I talked about how animals and plants survive in their environment.  The paperbark trees (Melaleuca preissiana) in this place grow tall and thin, competing for light. 

I wanted the walkers to imagine the place we were in, what it would look like with water lapping around the base of the trees.  In the past, this wetland may have had as much as 50 cm of water in it.  Here's a photo I took in September 2008, after heavy rain.  This is what the wetland should always look like in winter.  (In summer, it dries out and the soil becomes hard.)  On the day of our walk, the ground was quite hard and only slightly damp, because the rain was so light.

The children were excited, and found many interesting things to share; a broken eggshell, perhaps from an owl's nest, some Pink Fountain Triggerplants (Stylidium brunonianum), a small Wolf spider, a butterfly hanging upside-down to avoid the raindrops, grasshoppers, kangaroo scats, a mantis egg-case. To them, it was a magical place - so many things to see, and lots of questions to ask!  

I had given the children some rubbish bags, gloves and tongs, and they burnt off their excess energy pouncing on drink cans and odd pieces of food wrapper that had somehow made their way into the wetland.  (What a great way to tidy up a bush reserve!)  The adults had relaxed; one even commented that the wetland had looked scary from outside, but was ok after all. One keen photographer found a Purple Enamel Orchid (Elythranthera brunonis), and someone else found Cowslip Orchids (Caladenia flava). 

We discussed the need to look, listen and be aware of surroundings, including being careful where to walk.  We talked about snakes and spiders, about the antlions waiting in the bottom of their sand pit traps to catch and eat ants.  We admired the drifts of White Myrtle (Hypocalymma angustifolium).  We looked at the vandalism of the paperbarks, and decided that vandalism is not the best way to interact with our wetlands.  

I'm sure that these walkers will be good custodians of their local wetland treasure.  

Petition for our cockatoos

If you're a resident of Ellenbrook, you'll have seen our big beautiful squawky cockatoos flying over.  They are Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus latirostris).  They are an iconic species, once numbering in thousands of birds.  But now they are in trouble.  Because so many hectares of the trees they feed on have been cleared, their numbers have plummetted.

Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo are listed as Endangered under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.  

Let's act now to stop more trees being cleared, and give the birds a chance at survival.  Please click on the website below, and sign the petition.

http://cockatoosneedyou.org.au/

Wildflower photos from our Photography Safari

I was so busy talking with the large group of people that turned up for our Wildflower Photography Safari (12th September) that I didn't take many photos.  But here are some of the photos I did take...

Devil's Pins (Hovea pungens) has purple flowers and stiff leaves with sharp points.  It is in the pea family (Fabaceae), and like other peas, produces succulent pods.  Unfortunately the pods aren't edible!

Acacia sessilis is a low-growing wattle with little yellow pom-pom flowers.  As you can see, it has very similar foliage to Hovea pungens; short spiny leaves.

This is the kind of scenery we were surrounded by during our walk.  It's called "open woodland"; small trees that are not too close together, with lots of little shrubs and other interesting plants growing underneath.  It's very easy country to walk through.  The tree in the middle of the photo is Pricklybark (Eucalyptus todtiana), one of my favourite local trees because of its multiple sculptural trunks.  The yellow-flowering shrubs around it are Prickly Moses (Acacia pulchella), another small wattle with pom-poms.

Some sharp-eyed bushwalker found this beautiful spider orchid (Caladenia species).  I haven't decided which species it is yet.  

There are at least eight species of Caladenia around Ellenbrook, with many subspecies.  The most common is the yellow Cowslip (Caladenia flava), of which we saw many during our walk.  The Catspaw (Anigozanthos humilis) were starting to come into flower, too.

We all enjoyed our walk, since the weather was cool and there were few ticks.  We're hoping to do this again soon!