A gallery of photos to say Merry Christmas from the Connecting Country team
Posted on 21 December, 2017 by Tanya Loos
It has been quite a year at Connecting Country! We would like to warmly thank all of our friends and supporters, our landholders and volunteers, the many groups we work with, and our funders for their ongoing involvement and support of Connecting Country.
We have some exciting on ground works and community engagement programs planned for 2018, and we very much look forward to announcing these early next year.
Bonnie and Tanya have compiled a gallery of flora and fauna pics from the year to scroll through. Many of these photos have been sent in to us by you, our subscribers (thank you!). The beauty, colour and variety of these photos is a testament to the rich and abundant landscape we live in, and to our enthusiasm for capturing this beauty.
We wish you all a very Merry Christmas, a peaceful holiday season, and a wonderful 2018…
Macrophotography exhibition at Dig Cafe Newstead Dec 20 2017
Posted on 21 December, 2017 by Tanya Loos
Newstead naturalist and photographer Patrick Kavanagh is well known for his incredible macro photography which is an occasional feature on Geoff Park’s blog, Natural Newstead. Patrick is holding an exhibition of his photographs at Dig Cafe Newstead entitled ‘Small World – Visions from Another Dimension’. An apt title! Patrick sent us through some words and images to entice you to head to Newstead…
A long-nosed weevil, extremely small in size. By Patrick Kavanagh
There is another world hidden from our unaided senses. A world of strange and wonderful animals – some could be from another planet, some are insects but look like sea shells. The damage inflicted by a caterpillar on a eucalypt leaf looks like a Renaissance window. A piece of abstract art turns out to be the wing of a moth. A tiny world, on a scale of millimetres, best seen through a macrophotographer’s lens.
This remarkable world will be on show at an exhibition of macrophotography at Dig Café in Newstead. Photographer Patrick Kavanagh is showing the images he has taken at his home at Strangways.
The exhibition ‘Small World – Visions from Another Dimension’ will be on at Dig Café, Newstead from Wednesday 20 December until late January.
An extreme close-up of a moth’s wing. By Patrick Kavanagh
Landcare Adapting to Change – Site Visits
Posted on 19 December, 2017 by Asha
As part of Connecting Country’s ‘Landcare Adapting to Change’ project, our resident botanist Bonnie teamed up with Landcare Facilitator Asha to do ten site visits with local Landcare groups. The aim was to offer Landcare groups access to additional knowledge to help identify specific plants, and answer any questions about priority weed control actions, choosing plants for revegetation, and other areas of land management for conservation.
Here is a gallery of photos from the site visits – hover your mouse over the right hand side of the picture and click on the arrow to move through the gallery.
If any other Landcare or Friends groups are interested in a site visit with Bonnie in 2018, please contact asha@connectingcountry.org.au or call 5472 1594.
What’s under that tile? – reptile and frog monitoring at Campbells Creek
Posted on 14 December, 2017 by Frances
You may think ceramic roof tiles belong on roofs, but we have another use for them. Ceramic roof tiles also make great shelters for reptiles and frogs.
On Friday 8 December 2017, we gathered at the Campbells Creek walking track to admire the beautiful creekline restoration work achieved by Friends of Campbells Creek. The aim of the workshop was to check the tiles previously set out as part of Connecting Country’s citizen science monitoring program for reptiles and frogs. This program involves arrays of ceramic tiles set out on both private and public land across the shire. For some more information on our reptile and frog monitoring program click here.
Peter Johnson (PJ) from Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) demonstrated how to safely check monitoring tiles, and helped us identify the creatures we found. At the first monitoring site we found several native garden skinks (Lampropholis guichenoti) sheltering under the tiles, along with numerous scorpions, centipedes, beetles, slugs and ants. Unfortunately we discovered the second monitoring site had been ‘tidied up’, with the tiles piled into a neat stack! Asha and the rest of the team reset the tiles and took this as a valuable lesson in the challenges of doing scientific research.
It was a perfect day for reptile and frog monitoring – not too hot or too cold. Although we didn’t find frogs or larger reptiles, Peter suggested that it takes time for the tiles to become suitable habitat for these animals. Experience suggests the tiles are first colonised by invertebrates, then increasing numbers of reptiles and frogs move in over several years. So we can expect tile monitoring to get more exciting as monitoring continues!
Over some morning tea, Peter shared more of his knowledge and experience about reptile and frog identification and conservation. We thank Peter and DELWP for their support in running this event.
If you would like some ceramic tiles and instructions on how to set up reptile and frog monitoring on your property, please contact Asha Bannon at Connecting Country.
The following images were captured on the day by our director, Frances Howe.
Natural History Photography Workshops with Alison Pouliot in 2018
Posted on 14 December, 2017 by Tanya Loos
Alison Pouliot is a photographer, nature writer and educator who has been involved in Connecting Country on and off for many years. Her fungi and photography workshops are always well attended and book out rather quickly! Alison has sent us through a list of a rich and varied natural history photography workshops and seminars for summer 2018.
Hygrocybe sp – a tiny specimen by Alison Pouliot
For further information about each of these workshops please see Alison’s website: www.alisonpouliot.com
31 January 2018 – Snake Valley – The science and art of nature photography
9 February 2018 – Otway Ranges – A murder of crows
18 March 2018 – Lockwood South – Focus on trees
24 March 2018 – Trentham – Through a forest wilderness
31 March 2018 – Trentham – Fungi in Focus
Bookings may be made at www.alisonpouliot.com
Bird Baths – tips for keeping birds cool and safe
Posted on 14 December, 2017 by Tanya Loos
Bird baths – there are mosaic ones, terracotta ones, deep ones, shallow ones. What makes a great bird bath, and how do we best care for them?
Types of baths – for a variety of bathing styles
Very small birds like thornbills stand in shallow water, crouch down and then flutter their wings at unbelievable speed to bathe. Honeyeaters and fairy-wrens seem to dip into to deeper baths and almost swim through the water. Larger birds like rosellas wade in to a deep bath and create a massive splashy mess to their great enjoyment!
White-throated treecreepers creep up the side of a nearby log or branch, and then back into the bath. You can almost hear the reversing beep!
I have three baths of differing depths and heights, and each are used by different birds. As the bird bath enthusiasts among us know, bird baths are also used as baths and a source of clean drinking water by animals such as echidnas, wallabies, kangaroos, and frogs and reptiles. Occasionally a bird bath is used as a clever lure for the hunters among us – see the stunning images from the Yellow-footed antechinus and Grey fantail story here.
Location of the bath(s)
The placement of the bath is important for a few reasons. If it is in full sun, it will get too hot, and the birds are too exposed to aerial predators such as goshawks. Birds also need a place to perch and preen their feathers after their bath.
Pardalotes are very cautious at my place. They wait until the bath is jam-packed with happy visitors and then come down to the bath, checking for danger at many different perch heights as they approach. They visit the bath that is located under a a tall fruit tree and protective shrub. The White-browed scrubwrens and fairy-wrens share the deep mosaic bath on the ground with the rosellas.
Another reason to have plenty of perching spots around the bath area is that queues form on very hot days! Birds will wait nearby until there is enough room to fly down and have their turn.
Safety for the bathers
Ensure the bath is beyond the reach of cats – hang it from a tree or use a pedestal bath if cats are around. If you have a pedestal bird bath, some dead branches placed across the bath may make it more attractive for smaller birds.
Keep the water cool, fresh and clean. It’s a good idea to locate bird baths near your plants that need watering on hot days, so you can water your plants and refill the bird baths easily at the same time. It’s best to keep the bath clean by giving it a regular scrub with a brush, to avoid the spread of diseases such as Beak and Feather disease, which affects parrots.
If the bath is bucket shaped or deep, always provide a sturdy stick or series of stepping stones for small animals to climb out. I have seen skinks and young rosellas drowned in water that was too deep with smooth sides.
Finally, if you are going away, ask your neighbour to refill your bird bath, so your birds and other creatures don’t lose their water supply.
Here is a series of images from our staff member Bonnie Humphreys. Bonnie has three baths at her property in Barkers Creek. Note how clean and fresh the water is! Click on the arrow on the right hand side to move through the images… Thanks Bonnie!
Getting to know our local weeds
Posted on 7 December, 2017 by Asha
Christine Brooke from the CC Committee welcoming everyone to the ‘Get to know your local weeds – Sutton Grange & surrounds’ workshop
Getting to know our local weeds was the focus of three workshops run by Connecting Country as part of our recent Landcare Network Grant. Bonnie and Asha partnered with 17 local Landcare and Friends groups to organise the workshops in Sutton Grange, Newstead and Chewton. A fourth workshop in Maldon focused on both native and invasive plants (you can read about the Maldon workshop HERE). The workshops were a great opportunity for Landcare and community members to learn more about their local weeds, and share their work, experiences and existing knowledge.
Following an opening by members of Connecting Country’s Committee of Management, we asked each participant to share where they were from and what they hoped to learn. Representatives of local Landcare groups also introduced their group and the work they do to manage weeds. This was personally one of my favourite parts of each workshop, hearing everyone’s weed stories and everyone chatting about their shared experiences. It was fantastic to see some members of neighbouring Landcare groups meeting for the first time.
Bonnie led an interactive talk covering ‘what is a weed?’, legislation governing invasive plants in Victoria, different lifeforms of plants, methods of weed control, and other things to consider when conducting weed control.
Bonnie helping a team with the ‘Who am I?’ weed matching activity at the workshop in Newstead
Based on feedback from Landcare groups, 12 noxious weeds were selected for our ‘Who am I? game. Each team received a set of cards with a ‘Who am I?’ description of a weed, and their job was to match it with a corresponding card with the name and picture of the weed. Everyone also received a template to record how and when to treat a few choice weeds, and take home to stick on their fridge.
We finished up with some quiz questions to test what everyone had learned during the workshop. Over a cuppa and some snacks, Bonnie helped identify weeds and other plants from samples or photos that people had brought. Feedback from the workshops was overall very positive: ‘I really enjoyed meeting others and learning new stuff ‘, ‘It is a truly informative learning experience and introduced me to a number of local natives which I thought were weeds’, ‘I came away with renewed vigour and new resources ideas’.
A big thank you to everyone involved in the success of these workshops, especially to our presenters, helpers, and partnering Landcare groups.
This workshop is part of a Landcare Network project funded through the Victorian Landcare Program.
“Who am I?” weed matching activity in Newstead
Weeds quiz in Chewton
Plant ID activity in Maldon
Sociable Skinks – Nature News Midland Express – 5 December 2017
Posted on 5 December, 2017 by Tanya Loos
For this month’s Nature News, Tanya Loos from Connecting Country writes about the sociable skinks photographed by Nick Schulz on his property in Nuggetty. This article was featured in the Midland Express on 5 December 2017.
Earlier this year, landholder Nick Schulz sent us a series of stunning photographs from a granite outcrop on his property in Nuggetty. The pictures show a large group of plump, spiny and spotted skinks seemingly enjoying each other’s company near the safety of deep rock crevices. They are Cunningham’s skinks and they turn the idea of reptiles being cold loners on its head!
A family of skinks peers out from the safety of their rock crevice. Photo by Nick Schulz
The skinks live in long term family groupings, with a large breeding pair (around 25 cm long) and many immature siblings of various ages and sizes from previous years. This kind of social system is more commonly seen in birds and mammals. Researchers suggest that the family group represents safety in numbers, with more eyes to look out for predators such as birds of prey. Another advantage may be temperature-related, as the skinks huddle together to help keep warm during cold weather.
The breeding pair remains faithful to one another from season to season and sometimes over many years – similar to the Stumpy-tail lizard or Shingleback, who also have long monogamous relationships. Both the Stumpy-tail lizard and the Cunningham’s skink give birth to live young instead of laying eggs.
Cunningham’s skinks are only found around rocky outcrops. Each family group must have a rocky habitat with nice deep crevices to hide in. If threatened by predators, the whole group scuttles into the cracks to hide. If the bird of prey or fox is persistent and tries to remove a skink from a crevice, they will inflate their bodies and make their spines stick out, becoming incredibly hard to dislodge from cracks.
The very spiny tail is evident in this photo. Photo by Nick Schulz
Cunningham’s skinks are omnivorous, like other large skink species such as Stumpy-tails and Blue-tongue lizards. Most of their diet made up of plant matter such as flowers, fruits, soft leaves and shoots. They also eat insects, spiders and small lizards.
We have had reports of this species in Sutton Grange, Elphinstone and now Nuggetty. If you have granite outcrops on your property, you may be hosting a whole family!
Many thanks to Nick for sharing his wonderful photos with us. For more information or to report a Cunningham’s skink family, contact Tanya Loos at Connecting Country 5472 1594, or info@connectingcountry.org.au.