Birdwatchers aplenty at the Castlemaine Botanic Gardens
Posted on 26 August, 2014 by Tanya Loos
The Castlemaine Botanic Gardens has been all aflutter with burgeoning birdwatchers this month! A Beginners Workshop was held on the 2nd August 2014, followed by an Intermediate Birdwatching Skills Workshop on the 16th.
The workshops were presented by Tanya Loos, Habitat for Bush Birds Project Coordinator and Geoff Park, bird photographer and naturalist from the Natural Newstead blog. Both keen birders, it was interesting to note that the key messages of both workshops were quite similar!
- Get yourself at least one field guide to the Birds of Australia (The ‘Pizzey and Knight’ was the preference of the presenters, but they also acknowledged that the others were also very useful – Simpson and Day; Slater; Morcombe).
- Use the field guide and observations in your local area to get to know the features of the main woodland bird families (groupings) such as thornbills, whistlers and robins.
- Use your field guide to nut out key features such as field marks and behaviour. Field marks are the particular feather patterns, coloration, size, shape, bill structure, etc that help us distinguish closely related groups of birds.
- Knowing what are our typical local species also helps. It narrows down the range of possibilities for a new unknown bird that you have seen or heard.
Write-ups and photos of the workshops, and a list of resources are available: Beginners Birdwatching and Intermediate Skills.
It was really inspiring and heartwarming to see how everyone is keen as mustard to get out in the field and enjoy birdwatching, and bird monitoring. To this end, a Community Bird Monitoring Kit is in preparation. This kit will have a list of local bird species and families, a how-to guide on bird monitoring, an Excel data-recording template for those of you who are computer-orientated, and hard copy data-sheets as well. Coming soon!
Update on the Green Army programme
Posted on 20 August, 2014 by Connecting Country
On 2 August 2014, the Federal Government announced that the Green Army is ‘open for business‘. Successful Project Sponsors were announced, as were the successful applicants to become Service Providers. They have also put a call out for young people (aged 17 to 24) to join a Green Army team. The details are available on the Green Army website (click here).
Connecting Country shared community concerns about some elements of the Green Army program and decided not to seek funding in the first round but will instead wait and see how the program develops.
Some of the projects announced in Round 1 are in the North Central catchment area (click here to see the full list). The nearest to the Mount Alexander Region is the Bald Hill Conservation Project near Kyneton (with the Macedon Ranges Shire Council being the project sponsor).
24th Aug 2014 – Aboriginal Landscapes of the Baynton and Sidonia districts
Posted on 15 August, 2014 by Connecting Country
On Sunday 24th August the people of Baynton, Sidonia and surrounding districts are being offered a rare opportunity to learn about how Aboriginal people lived in the area up until 180 years ago.
Baynton Sidonia Landcare group is holding a seminar titled “Aboriginal Landscapes” and is delighted that some members of the Taungurung Clans Aboriginal Corporation (TCAC), who are Traditional Owners of this part of Victoria, will be offering some Aboriginal cultural workshops. Dr Gerry Gill, formerly of La Trobe University, Bendigo, will also give an illustrated talk and show a film he has recently made.
The Seminar will run from 2 pm to 8 pm on Sunday 24th August at the Baynton Hall, Darlington Road, Baynton. Participants are advised to wear warm clothes as some sessions will take place in a marquee. The Seminar is free and refreshments (including dinner) are provided.
Booking is essential, as places are limited, by phoning Clare on 54 234 152 or emailing clare@knco.net.
Taungurung cultural objects laid out for workshop participants to examine and admire.
Ms Trish Terry, Country and Community Strategic Initiatives Coordinator with the TCAC, said, “We are so pleased to be working with a Landcare group like the Baynton Sidonia group. People in the community are becoming increasingly interested in and curious about Aboriginal cultural heritage and it is great when a Landcare group acts as a conduit for that information to get out into the community. We look forward to working with them on future projects.”
After a Welcome to Country, members of the Taungurung Clans will run workshops on Stone Tool Making and Story Telling. Continue Reading »
24th August 2014 – Direct Seeding Workshop in Campbells Creek
Posted on 14 August, 2014 by Connecting Country
The Friends of Campbells Creek Landcare group would like to invite landholders interested others to participate in an information day on direct seeding techniques on Sunday 24th August, 2014.
The day’s activities will be a demonstration of the advantages of direct seeding of native plant species. It will be a great opportunity for land owners looking for an economical way to restore native vegetation on their properties.
The workshop will be presented by experienced local direct seeding experts Ian Higgins & David Milsom.
Two methods will be demonstrated to attendees. A manual technique ideal for small scale applications. Also, a mechanical method suited to any large scale revegetation project.
Demonstrations start at 10.00am and go through the morning until 12 noon.
Demonstration site location: 250 metres South of the end of Lewis Drive, Castlemaine. Follow the signs along the walking/cycling trail. Parking available.
A light lunch will be supplied for attendees.
Welcome new CC committee members
Posted on 12 August, 2014 by Connecting Country
Malcolm Trainor and Saide Gray
At the July 2014 Connecting Country committee meeting, two applicants were endorsed as new members of the committee – Saide Gray and Malcolm Trainor. Both have been long-term supporters of Connecting Country, and also regular attendees at our talks and field days. Welcome and thank you!
A summary of the backgrounds of these two new committee members, and also summaries for the rest of the committee, is available on the CC website (click here).
The current committee continues through until the Annual General Meeting, which is to be held in early-mid October 2014 (more details to follow soon).
Saide and Malcolm have replaced Maurie Dynon and Lynne Josephs, who both tendered their resignations from the committee for family reasons. Thank you to both Maurie and Lynne for their contributions – and particularly Maurie who was one of the founding committee members of Connecting Country back in 2008-09, and has been a significant contributor to the organisation ever since. Maurie will maintain a link with Connecting Country through his tireless work with the Guildford Upper Loddon Landcare group.
2014 Communities for Nature Funding Opportunity now open
Posted on 11 August, 2014 by Connecting Country
The Victorian Government has launched the 2014 Communities for Nature Small to Medium Grants funding opportunity. The grants aim to support practical action by community groups, schools, and volunteer organisations to deliver measurable environmental outcomes through on-ground works.
The Funding Opportunity will provide $3 million to community groups seeking one year grants of up to $50,000 (GST inclusive). Projects that will be completed by 31 December 2015 are eligible for funding.
Applications can be submitted online up until 4.00pm Monday 1st September 2014.
More information can be found on the DEPI website You can also contact the Grants Information Line on 1300 366 356 between 8.30am and 5:00pm Monday to Friday.
New edition of ‘chat’
Posted on 11 August, 2014 by Connecting Country
The July 2014 edition of the North Central CMA publication ‘chat‘ is now available and can be downloaded here. The issue includes highlights of the forthcoming 2014 National Landcare Conference and information on courses, resources and funding opportunities.
Our woodland bird surveys – what are we finding?
Posted on 7 August, 2014 by Connecting Country
Our resident bird expert, Tanya Loos, is midway through Connecting Country’s 2014 Winter bird surveys. She is monitoring 50 sites that are located on public and private land throughout the Mount Alexander Region. Some are within ‘intact’ woodland, some are in woodland restoration areas (e.g. re-planting areas) and some are in lightly treed farm paddocks.
A birds-eye view of a birdwatcher, Tanya.
Annually, the 50 sites are visited twice in Winter and twice in Spring. Each site covers two hectares, and all birds seen or heard within this area over a 20 minute period are documented. By the end of August 2014, we will have completed four years of bird monitoring across these sites. Many thanks to the landholders that have allowed us to undertake these surveys on their properties.
During the 2013 surveys, 104 bird species were documented – six of which had not been recorded during the previous years of survey (including three species flying overhead – Great Cormorant, Little Black Cormorant, Straw-necked Ibis; and three using habitats within the sites – Black Kite, Tawny Frogmouth, Banded Lapwing). Click here for a list of all bird species detected so far. Many specialised woodland-dependent species have been recorded, although none are considered to be particularly common.
Last year, Connecting Country staff comprehensively analysed the data collected from our 2011 and 2012 bird surveys. A copy of the full final report is available (click here), or alternatively, shorter summaries of the main findings are also available (click here and here).
Keep your eyes and ears open for the imminent launch of Connecting Country’s new ‘citizen-science’ bird monitoring program that everyone can get involved with. A local bird and habitat identification guide is also to be released in the near future.
2014 National Landcare People’s Choice Award
Posted on 5 August, 2014 by Connecting Country
It’s up to the public to decide who will be this year’s National Landcare People’s Choice Award winner. There are sixty-nine finalists across nine diverse categories. Have your say by voting for the nomination you believe represents the most outstanding contributions to Landcare. Click here to find out more information about the finalists and how to vote.
The Norman Wettenhall Foundation – a very strong supporter of Connecting Country since its inception – has been nominated for an award in the Partnership for Landcare section. This is the first time that a philanthropic organisation has been nominated for this national award. This is an opportunity for the public to promote the relationship between Landcare and philanthropy, and we encourage voting for the NWF.
FTLA Newsletter
Posted on 5 August, 2014 by Connecting Country
The latest Farm Tree & Landcare Association Newsletter is now available and can be downloaded by clicking on the banner above. The issue includes the latest information on grants, awards, events and competitions.
2014 Wimmera Master Tree Growers Course
Posted on 5 August, 2014 by Connecting Country
Project Platypus and other Wimmera-based organisations are hosting a course on tree growing, which will be held over 8 days from mid-September to early-October 2014. The course is also open to Landholders outside of the Wimmera, and the organisers can help organise accommodation if participants need to stay overnight.
To find out more about this course and/or to register download this flyer.
8 August 2014 – Talk on Australian mammals
Posted on 5 August, 2014 by Connecting Country
The guest speaker at this month’s Castlemaine Field Naturalists Club meeting is Graeme Watson. The topic of Dr Watson’s talk is the Biogeography and distribution of Australian mammals. Those who have attended his talks to the club in the past will know of his great ability to make seemingly complex topics accessible to a lay audience, and in an entertaining manner.
The talk is being held in the Fellowship room behind the Uniting Church on Lyttleton St, Castlemaine (next door to the Castlemaine Museum and Art Gallery). The evening commences at 7.30pm on Friday 8 August. Members and visitors are all welcome, and there is no cost for attendance.
17 Aug & 4 Sept 2014 – Landcare Workshop Series
Posted on 5 August, 2014 by Connecting Country
Two free workshops on Creativity, Innovation + Problem Solving will be held in the North Harcourt Hall on 17 August and 4 September. The facilitator will be Lisa Smith, from ‘Minds at Work’. The focus of these workshops will be on a fresh approach and new ideas for engagement within community groups.
Whilst the activities will revolve around Landcare membership, the workshop will be open to all community groups and interested individuals.
The workshops are an initiative of the North Harcourt/Sedwick Landcare Group and are jointly sponsored by the North Central CMA. Registration must be made by 13 August. See this flyer for all the details.
2014 National Landcare Conference
Posted on 5 August, 2014 by Connecting Country
The 2014 National Landcare Conference will take place in Melbourne’s Crown Conference Centre from September 17th to 19th. The Conference program will be based around the theme – Celebrating our history, growing our future – and promises to be the key knowledge sharing event for the Landcare community as it reaches its significant quarter of a century milestone.
The early registration date for the Conference has been extended to August 25th.
You can find out more about the Conference and how to register by clicking on the banner above.
11 August 2014 – FOBIF AGM
Posted on 5 August, 2014 by Connecting Country
A foggy morning in 2013 on the Mount. Photo by Bernard Slattery
The Friends of the Box-Ironbark AGM will take place on at 7.30pm on Monday August 11 in the Continuing Education Building, Templeton St, Castlemaine . At the end of a short business meeting, guest speaker George Milford will talk about the history of Mount Alexander. Visitors are welcome to attend.
You can download this flyer or check out the FOBIF site for more details.
Wild about Ants
Posted on 1 August, 2014 by Connecting Country
If you were in Newstead on the afternoon of Sunday 6th July 2014, you be excused for thinking that a revolution was underway. You’d struggle to believe that instead almost 200 people came along to the Community Centre learn about the invertebrate family Formicidae – or otherwise known as the humble ant.
Dr Alex Wild was indeed a wildly entertaining and engaging speaker, and he had an amazing selection of accompanying slides. His talk covered the three main reasons we should care about ants:
1. There’s so many of them
2. They interact with so many other plants and animals
3. They drive major environmental processes
Undoubtedly there’ll be a lot more people of all ages wandering across central Victoria with a new respect for these extraordinary creatures. Maybe one day we’ll even have a guide to the identification of local ant species! Connecting Country and the Norman Wettenhall Foundation were proud to be able to support the Newstead Landcare Group to run this event. Congratulations to Kate Sandiford from Newstead Landcare in particular for her efforts.
For people wishing to continue their study of ants further, Kate has identified the following books on the biology, behaviour and unusual social structure of ants and their colonies – all except the last book are available through the Goldfields Library Corp libraries:
- Adventures among ants: a global safari with a cast of trillions. by Mark Moffett
- Journey to the ants: a story of scientific exploration. by Bert Holldobler and Edward O. Wilson.
- The lives of ants. by Laurent Keller and Elisabeth Gordon
- Secret lives of ants. by Jae Choe, Jane Goodall and Dan Perlman
The CSIRO also has an amazing section of their website devoted to Australian ants, their biology and their identification (http://anic.ento.csiro.au/ants/ or also http://www.antwiki.org/wiki/Australian_ants).
Creativity, Innovation and Problem Solving Workshop in North Harcourt
Posted on 31 July, 2014 by Connecting Country
The North Harcourt/Sedgwick Landcare Landcare group has engaged an Innovation Facilitator to help them, and others in the community, to create new, innovative ideas to activate their membership.
The facilitators “Minds at Work” are highly acclaimed – and also fellow Landcarers.
Anybody interested in Landcare or community work can attend. The workshop will be loosely based on Landcare activities; however, as principles of engagement are universal, representatives of any community group or organisation are most welcome to attend.
Workshop 1 -Rebooting your brain + Scheming for a better way will take place on Sunday 17th August 2014 and Workshop 2 – Making great decisions will be on Thursday 4th September 2014.
Both workshops will be held at North Harcourt Hall, McIvor Rd, Harcourt.
Registration is essential, places are limited. Please register by Wednesday, 13 August 2014 via email to kklein7@bigpond.com or phone 0427 417 498.
Good food will be provided during all workshops, please nominate any dietary requirements.
This is a free workshop series sponsored by the NCCMA – Victorian Landcare Grants and the North Harcourt/Sedgwick Landcare Group.
You can download a flyer for the workshops by clicking Here.
Visit the Minds at Work website here: http://www.mindsatwork.com.au/
A surprise on the Mount
Posted on 29 July, 2014 by Connecting Country
The namesake for our local shire, Mount Alexander, generally seems to be a bit under appreciated by most locals. However, John Ellis and Marie Jones captured a special rare event on camera there on 17th July 2014. Snow.
Further photos are available for viewing on the Facebook page of Chewton.net (click here if you have a Facebook account).
There were further reports of snow falls to the immediate south of the Mount Alexander Shire (Porcupine Ridge, Daylesford, Kyneton). And falls of hail-stones across much of the rest of the shire. To the best of our knowledge, there were no snowfalls onto the nearby remaining patches of old growth Snow Gums (Eucalyptus pauciflora) that occur along some of the roads between Elphinstone and Sutton Grange!
2 & 3 August 2014 – Swift Parrot Survey weekend
Posted on 28 July, 2014 by Connecting Country
This weekend of the 2-3 August 2014 is the second of two annual survey weekends across south-eastern Australia for the elusive endangered Swift Parrot and Regent Honeyeater.
If you are keen on your birds, and are looking for some outdoors activity this weekend, why not head out into your favourite patch of bush? Larger eucalypt trees that are either in flower or with lots of lerps on the leaves are the most likely Swift Parrot sites. There have been a small number of Swift Parrot sightings in the Muckleford area over the past 3-4 weeks, so they are out and about at the moment. Regent Honeyeaters are highly unlikely to still occur in the Mount Alexander Region, but there is still a slight chance.
Copies of the datasheets are available for downloading (click here for Word version and click here for PDF version). Even if you don’t see either of the target species during your searches, please still send this information into Birdlife. It also helps them to know where birds are not being found, as well as where they are present.
For more information, see Connecting Country’s earlier post on the first Swift Parrot survey weekend for 2014 held in May – click here. BirdLife Australia received 200 completed survey sheets from May 2014 from across SE Australia, and the results are available on their website (click here). The Castlemaine Field Nats were not successful in finding any individuals of these species locally at the time. Chris from Connecting Country also didn’t manage to find any in the Apollo Bay area (while on holiday), but still managed to have a good time searching – Bassian Thrush and Olive Whistlers were the highlights of birds seen!
Frost, but only in the beginning!
Posted on 27 July, 2014 by Connecting Country
A chilly start to Sunday’s (July 20th 2014) Connecting Country Community Planting Day gave way to a blue skies and companionable chatter as a group of committee, staff and volunteers planted 300 indigenous tree and shrub seedlings on the property of local Elphinstone landholder Mark Walters. As part of his project with Connecting Country, Mr Walters is planting and protecting a wildlife habitat corridor almost 3 km in length, which largely runs parallel to the existing roadside woodland. This wildlife corridor is being created using a mix of targeted tubestock plantings and broad-scale direct seeding. It will be exciting to watch birds and other animals moving into this area over time.
A warm lunch and a cuppa gave sustenance after hard work and cheer contributed by the group of around 20 adults and children. Project Coordinator Jarrod Coote then spoke about the property, the value of the project and the work that the Connecting Country Works crew do on country which may include fencing, pest plant and animal control, direct seeding and of course planting native species.
Many thanks again to those who came along and made the morning enjoyable for all.
If you are a landholder in the Mount Alexander Shire and surrounds, and are interested in support for a project on your property, expressions of interest can be made by contacting Jarrod, Bonnie and Tanya by email (jarrod@connectingcountry.org.au) or by calling the office (03 5472 1594). If your property is eligible, support from Connecting Country could include the development of site management plans, technical advice, help from the works crew and financial assistance.