New video about our local woodlands

Please have a look at this wonderful video, published by PadburyMedia on Youtube.  It is an overview of why Perth's banksia woodlands are so important, and why they should be protected from the relentless clearing for urban development that has occurred over the last decade.  

Many of the plants and animals in the video are ones that we commonly see on our bushwalks around Ellenbrook.  See how many you recognise...

Did you get them all?  Here is a short list of some of those flora and fauna.
Click on the links for more information about each one.

Menzies Banksia (Banksia menziesii)
Candlestick Banksia (Banksia attenuata)
Holly-leafed Banksia (Banksia ilicifolia)
Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus latirostris)
Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus banksii)
Red and Green Kangaroo Paw (Anigozanthos manglesii)
Bobtail (Tiliqua rugosa)
Western Bearded Dragon (Pogona minor)
Tawny Frogmouth (Podargus strigoides)
Western Spinebill (Acanthorhynchus superciliosus)

A day of flowers and trees

Last week, my friend M. and I decided to go exploring in some banksia woodland to the north of Charlotte's Vineyard in Ellenbrook.  This is an area I have visited many times, but there's always something new and interesting to see.  The weather couldn't have been better for a winter walk - clear blue skies, warm sunshine; no sign of the rain typical for this time of the year.

Our first find was an adult Bobtail (Tiliqua rugosa) out sunning itself.  It's not uncommon to spot baby bobtails making the best of the sometimes-patchy winter sunshine, but adults are not usually out and about in winter because they take longer to warm up.  A cold slow adult is a dead adult if there are predators around.  This adult scooted away as quickly as it could, while still appearing nonchalant.  We had time to take a few photos before bobbie was under cover.

Bobtail (Tiliqua rugosa) in the sun

Once we were in the banksia woodland proper, we found that the Acacias (wattle) were flowering.  Acacias in this part of the world are either small woody trees, or delicate open shrubby affairs, and in this case it was the latter.  Masses of small yellow pom-pom flowers of Acacia pulchella and Acacia sessilis dotted the grey-green landscape. 

Acacia pulchella (commonly called Prickly Moses) in flower

A close-up of Acacia pulchella pom-poms

The Acacias weren't the only flowers around.  As we picked our way through the trees, down the hill towards the wetlands, we saw small soft-leaved Hibbertias growing in shrubby clumps, their yellow flowers almost the same shade and intensity as the Acacia blooms.  We found Hibbertia subvaginata and Hibbertia hypericoides in flower.  It seems that yellow is the colour of August!

Hibbertia subvaginata growing in a small clump (one plant)

Close-up of Hibbertia subvaginata flowers and leaves

Onward to the wetlands!  It was dry enough underfoot to wonder why on earth these are called wetlands, a question M. put to me during our meandering.  Shouldn't there be ponds, lakes or a creek somewhere? 
 
The area retains its typical wetland vegetation of Stout Paperbark (Melaleuca preissiana) and Swamp Sheoak (Casuarina obesa) trees, with various sedges and other water-appreciating understorey plants, despite not having had a decent winter's rain in thirty years.  It will be interesting to see what it looks like in fifty years' time.  The substrate is quick-draining sand, so even after a night of heavy downpours, we would have to get up early to see any water lying on the surface.

Wetland edge with Stout Paperbarks and Swamp Sheoaks, sedges and Hibbertias

One particularly spectacular individual of Stout Paperbark was featured in an earlier blog - see The Grandmother Tree.

About a kilometre further into the bushland, we found an area where some of the paperbarks had died.  These are the big twisty trees in the centre and right of the photo below; they were Stout Paperbarks (Melaleuca preissiana).  The whole patch seemed to be suffering, perhaps from the lack of rain.  However, I was heartened to see that Holly-leaved Banksia (Banksia ilicifolia) were growing there, so this may be just a case of natural succession.

Dead Stout Paperbarks (Melaleuca preissiana) with new growth of Holly-leaved Banksia (Banksia ilicifolia)

My friend M. found a Swamp Banksia (Banksia littoralis) in flower, and took some photos of the flower cones.  Guess what colour they are?  She remarked that these and many other plants in the area are food for Carnaby's Cockatoo.  (Later, we even heard and saw some cockatoos flying around in the distance; so they do use the area.)  We admired the beautiful foliage of this tree and its neighbours, glimmering silver and dark green as the breeze ruffled the leaves. 

Swamp Banksia (Banksia littoralis) attracts birds and photographers!

The effect of silver and green ruffling is best photographed with the sun behind you.  Perhaps a photo doesn't really do it justice - video would be better!

Swamp Banksia (Banksia littoralis) in the breeze

Eventually we decided it was time to go home.  It took us an hour or so to walk to back to the car.  Of course, there were still things to look at on the way; carnivorous plants (known as sundews) which supplement the meagre soil nutrients by eating insects, weird bulbous fungi with cracked skins, and ancient cycads (Macrozamia fraseri) with their lush green fronds.

An unknown (to me) species of sundew (Drosera sp.) growing in sand

Fungi fruit, about the size of a golf ball (any mycologists out there want to identify this?)

Macrozamia fraseri, a cycad native to Perth

On arriving home, we found we had taken about a hundred photos, walked about 6km in a couple of hours, and discovered only three kangaroo ticks on our persons at the end of the trip.  The walk had also given us a good appetite for a very late lunch. A worthwhile day indeed!

The Great Cocky Count 2011

On the evening of Thursday, 7 April, hundreds of volunteers will head to various sites across the South West from Geraldton to Esperance and inland to the Wheatbelt.  Their mission?  To record sightings of Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo, in the Great Cocky Count 2011.

This magnificent bird, once numbering in the tens of thousands, has suffered from the effects of land clearing, shooting and nest robbing; in the last 50 years there has been a 50% decline in the population.  Their range has been reduced by up to one third.  Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo is now an Endangered species. 

Scientists are collecting data to try to work out more precisely how many birds are around, where they roost and where they feed.  This is a vital step to help protect the species from further decline.  This is where the volunteers come in!  Many volunteers, each collecting a little bit of data, make this project much easier to accomplish.  The volunteers in the Great Cocky Count will each go to a designated roost site 30 minutes before dusk and then tally the birds that come to the site until 30 minutes after dusk.  Simple! 

Would you like to help?  Check out the Birds Australia link to see how you can get involved.

If you're local to Ellenbrook or nearby, and you'd like to come out with me to count cockatoos, please contact me on my mobile: 0421 735 731.   Or email me - ldalgliesh at hotmail dot com.

 

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/

The Great Cocky Count - debriefing

I headed out yesterday afternoon to my designated observation site near The Vines to take part in The Great Cocky Count.  It was beautiful weather; clear skies with almost no cloud, and comfortably cool (around 22 degrees Celsius).  The site was in a Bush Forever area, and a quick walk around it revealed large mature paperbark trees (mostly Melaleuca rhaphiophylla) as well as Marri (Corymbia calophylla) and other gum trees, surrounding a natural spring.  I chose a place on top of nearby earthworks, about 180 metres away, to view the site as dusk approached.  Two kangaroos bounded past, startled.

It was a quiet evening.  I waited impatiently for Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus latirostris) to make an appearance.  Usually flocks of these birds can be heard from several hundred metres away, but I heard only a few magpies and butcherbirds carolling the sunset.  I watched the colours changing on the Perth Hills with the fading light, and picked a few more ticks off my socks.  Commercial jets droned overhead on their early descent to Perth airport, all flashing lights and brightly-lit tails.  But no flocks of big black birds arrived.  It soon became obvious that Carnaby's might not be coming to roost on this occasion.  

At 6:40pm, I packed up my binoculars and notepad.  My count for the evening was zero.  From a scientific viewpoint, this is still a result, and however disappointing, it's important that it's included in the survey.  I hope the other volunteers had more impressive counts!

 

NEEDED - field assistants for The Great Cocky Count 2010

Wednesday April 7th is marked on our calendars for the next Great Cocky Count - a day when dedicated birdwatchers "stake out" at likely places to watch Carnaby's Black-Cockatoos as they come in to roost.

Although flocks of hundreds of birds are sometimes seen, the numbers of Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo have fallen by 50% over the last forty years.  Many areas of cockatoo food plants have been cleared, and the cockatoos face competition from feral animals for nesting sites. 

This survey helps scientists to work out what is happening with this Endangered species, and hopefully show local government and other groups which areas of bushland need to be retained for the species' survival.  The survey is a joint project between Birds Australia and the Department of Environment and Conservation.

The Great Cocky Count is an excellent way to help our local biodiversity.  If you would like to join Fat Bobbie for the Great Cocky Count, and help her with recording the numbers of birds coming in to roost, please send an email to ldalgliesh at hotmail dot com with your name and contact details.  First in, best dressed!  The evening's "stake out" will start around 5:30pm, and you will need to be fit enough to walk about 2km across rough terrain (and in the dark!) to the survey site and back.  

Read more about the Great Cocky Count in my Community, and about the biology of Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo on Wikipedia and the Threatened Species Day website.

Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo : Endangered Species

Every day this week, I've enjoyed my early morning cuppa to the sounds of Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo.  One morning I saw a flock of about 200 big black birds floating across the sky, with the young fledglings calling to their parents - a magnificent sight.  This morning I saw groups of twos and threes for about an hour.  Two hundred might sound like a large flock ...but records of forty years ago say there were flocks of thousands, or tens of thousands, of birds. I would just love to see that.

Moulton Wetland in Ellenbrook is apparently one of their stopovers for snacks and a snooze.  The cockatoos sit up high in the Banksias and marri (Corymbia calophylla), feasting on the flowers and seeds.  They are so quiet that you wouldn't know they were there.  Sometimes a whole flock can disappear into the tree tops, reappearing after a couple of hours of feeding and resting.  Considering that these birds fly a long distance from coastal areas to the Wheatbelt and back every year, they really need these places to rest and refuel on the way.   

This photo shows what's left of the "honkey nuts" (gumnuts from Corymbia trees) after the cockatoos have removed the seeds!

Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo is an Endangered Species.   The main threat to the birds is from habitat loss, i.e. clearing of native vegetation.  We really need to look after the bushland that remains, because without it, we lose not only the plants but the animals that depend on them.

I would like to see more plantings of banksias (especially Banksia attenuata, Banksia menziesii, Banksia ilicifolia, Banksia littoralis and Banksia grandis), marri (Corymbia calophylla) and jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) for these birds.  Other animals would benefit too.  So many hectares of healthy cockatoo food trees have been knocked down to make way for our houses and roads.  Surely it would be simple to replant even a few trees in parks and along streets?  How about a few trees in a corner of a schoolyard for environmental studies?  Or even an ornamental specimen in the front garden?

For more information about Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo, try these links:

an easy-to-read brochure about the Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo Recovery Project - here

a list of plants that the birds use for food - here

some scientific information including habitat, life cycle, threats, with maps - here

Clean Up Australia Day

Fifteen people showed up on the morning of Sunday 1st March for Clean Up Australia Day.

We started off as a big orderly group on the boardwalk in Moulton Wetland, but soon diffused into smaller and smaller groups wandering through the banksias.


It seemed like everyone was keen to grab a bag and start filling it with rubbish.











As you would probably guess, there were lots of PET drink bottles, glass, bottle tops, and takeaway food containers.

We also found household paint cans and computer hardware, and someone even dragged out an old mattress.

A flock of Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo, an endangered species, landed in the trees while we were cleaning up their habitat. This bird comes to Ellenbrook to feed on the banksia flowers and seeds.













After an hour or so of filling the rubbish bags, we headed back to The Grapevine for a delicious morning tea of fruit juice and muffins, and received our certificates of appreciation.















A big thankyou to everyone who participated - Many hands indeed make light work!

Here's what we collected ⇒
It may not look like much, but when you consider all the small items such as plastic lids, crisp packets and other tiny scraps, it was a brilliant effort.

Some of this rubbish will be recycled.


All photographs courtesy of Janelle from City of Swan.