Local water birds

Posted on 2 October, 2012 by fobif

The diversity of water bodies in and around Castlemaine provides the opportunity to view a variety of birds. One of the largest is the Great Egret. This bird can be seen along the edges of swamps and larger dams such as Cairn Curran. Watching one in flight is a sight to behold!

Great Egret. Photo by Damian Kelly, 2012

Although somewhat cryptic and hard to see, the Black-fronted Dotterel is actually quite common in this area. Next time you are near the water’s edge have a scan along the edge and you might be surprised to find a few of these beautiful birds.

Black-fronted Dotterel. Photo by Damian Kelly, 2012

The Chestnut Teal has quite a difference between the sexes, with the male standing out. Although not a common species in this area, these birds can be seen in pairs, sometimes mixed in with other species. But on a sunny day this bird is quite a sight.

Chestnut Teal. Photo by Damian Kelly, 2012

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Garden birds around Castlemaine

Posted on 20 September, 2012 by fobif

Damian Kelly was the guest speaker at the FOBIF AGM in August. His presentation was about observing local birds in our gardens and he included many excellent photos, including the three below, of birds from his Lyttleton Street garden. Damian has written the text that accompanies these photos.

Rufous Whistler and White-naped Honeyeater. Photo by Damian Kelly

Many gardens in Castlemaine have a variety of wildlife, with birds often being the most visible. One very useful thing you do in your garden to encourage birds is add a shallow bowl of water and keep it fresh. In the warmer weather you will be rewarded with views of a variety of birds. The above two species are quite common in our area and can be seen sharing a bowl in our garden. The Rufous Whistler has a melodious call and will polish off a lot of insects around the garden. The White-naped Honeyeater is more of a nectar feeder and will be attracted to a variety of flowering plants as well as snacking on insects when available.

Bronzewing Pigeon. Photo by Damian Kelly

Above is a Bronzewing Pigeon also enjoying a pool in the garden. Although generally a seed eater, Bronzewings can be seen around Castlemaine. They tend to be a bit more secretive, spending more time in sheltered locations. But again, the provision of water will always attract them to your garden.

Eastern Spinebill. Photo by Damian Kelly

The Eastern Spinebill is a remarkable flier, able to hover to take nectar from flowers. They are not fussy about the type of flower, happily feeding on natives or introduced plants – in this case a salvia.

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Hear Don Watson reflect on ‘The Bush’

Posted on 20 September, 2012 by fobif

Don Watson will be the guest speaker at this years Muckeford Landcare Annual General Meeting. ‘Xartec’ from the Lancare Group writes that

Don Watson is one of Australia’s wittiest, original thinkers and raconteurs, and is currently completing a book on the Australian bush. He will be revealing some of his insights into the Australian landscape as a prelude to the Muckleford Catchment Landcare Annual General Meeting on Wednesday 10 October. Don’s presentation will commence at 6pm, will be accompanied with soup and refreshments, and will be followed by the AGM at 8.15 pm

This landmark event is being held at the Castlemaine Golf Club, Pyrenees Highway, Castlemaine. Continue reading →

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Heavy response to Fire Operations Plan

Posted on 19 September, 2012 by fobif

A DSE forum on the draft North West Region Fire Operations Plan has been postponed from mid September to early October to allow DSE to process the exceptionally heavy response to the plan: more than 200 submissions have been received, more than three times that received last year.

This degree of public interest in the Plan is on the face of it good news. Not so good news is that participants at the meeting will not be supplied with information requested by environment groups regarding fire history, monitoring, and effects of management burns. We will report on the meeting in due course.

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A walk in the Park

Posted on 18 September, 2012 by fobif

Thirteen hardy walkers braved dire weather forecasts of rain and cold to do a circuit at the very south end of the Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park on Sunday. The weather turned out, in fact, to be mild. The walk made a circuit along Amanda’s Track to Middleton Creek, with a return via the Goldfields Track along Brown’s Gully. All the area covered is part of a large proposed management burn in the draft Fire Operations Plan.

Walkers were rewarded with excellent displays of Baeckia ramossissima, not common in our district, and plenty of other wildflowers–plus lots of views of Cup Moth caterpillars, the most likely culprit in the devastation of eucalypts from Irishtown to Daylesford. The caterpillars even congregated in numbers on track signposts. Walkers produced a couple of common names for them: ‘Stinging joeys’ and ‘Chinese junks.’

The nice and the not so nice: Baeckia ramossissima along Amanda's Track...

 

The walk highlighted the variety of environments in this section of the Park south of the Wewak Track: grassy woodlands, dense low grade eucalypts, creek valleys with fine large trees, and some excellent wildflower sites.

...and Cup moth caterpillars on a Great Dividing Trail signpost in Brown's Gully.

 

 

The October walk will in the Fryers Ranges, held by some to be the premier wildflower part of the region. Check our Walks section for details.

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Kalimna Park burning: a response

Posted on 11 September, 2012 by fobif

The following is the response submitted to the DSE draft Fire Operations Plan by the Friends of Kalimna Park. The Department proposes to burn two sections of the Park: one, bounded by the tourist road, the town boundary and Hunter’s Track [CAS 003]; and the second, much larger parcel, mainly on the east and north of the tourist road [CAS 007]. FOBIF supports the ideas put forward in this submission:

1 General

We understand that there is a perceived risk in this area from wildfire and that some fuel reduction burning for strategic asset protection may be required. However, we do have concerns that a statewide assessment of risk and burn area targets may be applied in Kalimna Park and implemented without due regard to the values of the Park. The area is a rich woodland with its characteristic understorey

Kalimna Park, September 2012: a rich woodland much used by Castlemaine residents.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and ground cover plants and associated fauna, having slowly regenerated since clearing during the gold rush and successive impacts. There are some rare or threatened species in the Park, but the richness of the whole area’s biodiversity is impressive. The Park’s proximity to Castlemaine may be seen to pose a risk, but it also contributes greatly to the character of the town and this is appreciated by many people.

Continue reading →

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Fire Operations Plan: a detailed response

Posted on 31 August, 2012 by fobif

FOBIF’s detailed response to the draft Fire Operations Plan for our district is published below. We will know the effect of this and other responses to the draft plan when we attend a meeting with DSE in Bendigo in mid September.

As we have previously made clear, our major worry is the signals we have been receiving from DSE workers that there is little intention of following the directions of the Code of Practice in Zone 3 burn operations.

Hunters Creek, in the Tarilta catchment: if current proposals go ahead, we estimate that 70-80% of this catchment will have been severely burned within a five year period.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other serious concerns include the allocation of a huge area of Mount Tarrengower to be 90% burned, and a section of the Diggings Park south of Guildford to be 80% burned. The full submission follows:

Continue reading →

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Bird discovery tour

Posted on 24 August, 2012 by fobif

Thirty-seven people came along to Geoff Park’s recent FOBIF walk in the Muckleford Forest. The focus was on birds and despite the large group it was possible to see and hear a fair range. These included Striated Thornbills, Weebills, Grey Strike Thrushes, Galahs, Grey Fantails, Rufus Whistlers and Brown Flycatchers. Many in the group were familiar with Geoff’s blog, Natural Newstead, and appreciated the opportunity to pick up some tips on how to find and identify birds as well as seeing some of his favourite spots.

Geoff Park with some of the walkers

The next walk is 16 September. We will be going to the south end of the Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park. The walk will be led by Bernard Slattery. Click here for more details.

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Zone 3: what’s going to happen there?

Posted on 22 August, 2012 by fobif

As we reported on our website last month, DSE has released the draft Fire Operations Plan for consultation. Although FOBIF has many concerns about the plan, and urges members to consult it and make a submission based on their local knowledge, we are urging you here to focus on proposed burns in Zone 3. These are burns generally relatively remote from settlement, and have in the past on paper been devised principally for ecological reasons.

The draft DSE Fire Operations Plan proposes several significant Zone 3 burns in our region in the next three years. The stated purpose of these exercises is: ‘to provide an irregular mosaic of areas of fuel reduction which will complement works in adjacent fire management zones and can assist in ecological resilience and forest regeneration.’ All burns are proposed for Spring between now and 2015:

Brown's Gully, Castlemaine Diggings NHP: FOBIF is getting mixed messages about how much of this bush is to be burned, and what attention if any will be paid to ecological values. It's up to the public to urge that DSE follow its own policies on Zone 3 burns.

Muckleford: Dunn’s Reef—257.6 ha [CAS 11] and A Frame Tk—319.9 ha  [CAS 12]

Maldon: Donkey Farm Tk—188.4 ha [CAS 10].  Nuggettys –274.7 ha [CAS 5]

Chewton: Railway Dam—193.4 ha [CAS 13]

Taradale: Plantation Tk –151.7 ha [CAS 17] Carnell Rd—225 ha [CAS 14]

Glenluce: Amanda’s Tk 409.3 ha [CAS 15]

To find maps of these proposed burns, go to the DSE website:

FOBIF and other interested groups were told by DSE in July that the objective in zone 3 is to aim at ‘at least 20%’ of burn coverage: that is, to burn 20+% of each named parcel, perhaps up to 35%. However, we have been told recently by fire operatives that they aim to burn 50% of each zone 3 parcel [This confirms our observations of past Zone 3 burns, some of which go much higher than 50%]. Further, although the DSE Code of Practice and the stated aim of the burn as we have quoted it above requires a clear ecological perspective on the burn, we have been reliably informed that the intention of these exercises is purely fuel reduction.

It is important that pressure be exerted on DSE to implement its own stated policy regarding the use of fire for ecological purposes.

You can make a difference by writing a short submission to DSE by August 31:

Continue reading →

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The view from St Arnaud

Posted on 16 August, 2012 by fobif

The St Arnaud Field Naturalists Club has made a detailed submission to DSE regarding the draft fire operations plan for the St Arnaud area. Below we reprint part of the covering letter attached to the submission. Although of course conditions vary from district to district, readers will notice that many of the concerns expressed here overlap with our own [Please note that ‘ecological management zones’ have now been renamed ‘landscape management zones’. DSE signage is sometimes out of date]:

‘…We note that all areas listed [for burning] are labelled “Ecological Management Zone”; we believe this to be misleading as there is no reason to manage the ecology of the areas by burning, ie., there are no fire-dependant species. Burning will produce a simplification of the understorey remaining after 15 years of intense drought and heavy grazing by kangaroos. Already, long-term (more than a decade)studies by both our group and Monash University researchers show that habitat degradation and simplification(loss of species) have resulted in a decline in the number of bird species using our bush areas as well as a serious decline in the number of birds within all species. This decline continues despite two years of above average rainfall. Further loss of the integrity of our Park and allied reserves will mean a further decline in species.

Hedge wattle, August 2012: spring burning is a contentious issue because of its effects on flowering plants and breeding birds and animals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘For the National Park and Reserves, loss of the remaining understorey and ground litter layer will result in increased soil temperatures leading to loss of soil microbiota- the basis of the entire food chain; loss of soil moisture resulting in

Continue reading →

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