Getting hot

I cruised around the bushland on Sunday in search of veldgrass, also to mark the location of the fire lit in the bushland in November.

Fortunately the fire was lit in the 'barrens' area so it didn't burn a large area.

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End of year summary of activities

This is a compilation of our activities for the past 12 months.
FREESIA - hand weeding during winter (Friends of Shenton Bushland)

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LACHENALIA - hand weeding during winter (Friends of Shenton Bushland)

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MISCELLANEOUS
Hand weeded lupins, painted lady, and ixia during winter and spring (Friends of Shenton Bushland)

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Spraying organised by the City of Nedlands

Broadleaf weed spraying (Glyphosate) organised by the City of Nedlands

Black flag spraying (???) organised by the City of Nedlands

FLINDERS RANGES WATTLE
Hand removal by the Friends of Shenton Bushland

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Hand removal organised by the City of Nedlands

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GERALDTON CARNATION WEED
Hand weeding by the Friends of Shenton Bushland

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Hand weeding organised by the City of Nedlands

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VELDGRASS - hand weeded during summer

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Veldgrass spraying (Fusilade Forte) organised by the City of Nedlands

WATSONIA - hand weeded during spring (Friends of Shenton Bushland)

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Vetch - hand weeding organised by the City of Nedlands

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Bee hive removal organised by the City of Nedlands

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Recruitment following 'The Storm'

Shenton bushland has looked distinctly bare this year following the storm; the ground cover plants got shredded, and so, much of the ground cover disappeared leaving the soil bare and exposed to weed invasion.
Having been away for the past few weeks, it was most exciting to walk through the bushland on Sunday and discover millions of sedges (Alexgeorgea nitens, Desmocladus flexuosa) and other shrubs coming up despite the very dry winter. Hopefully they will survive the summer.
John and I went around the western section removing veldgrass that survived the spraying.
I also mapped any lomandra that looked like either maratima or hermaphrodites (hard to tell without the flowering spikes) since these are possible hosts for the endangered sun-moth (symenon gratiosa) that we will be looking for again in March.

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Summer Pattern

It felt very familiar returning to our summer weeding pattern - mainly veldgrass, looking out for the occasional Geraldton Carnation weed that has escaped our attention.

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Annual Photo Monitoring

Janice Marshall began photo monitoring the bushland in 1994, taking photos in 18 sites around the bushland. We have continued with the monitoring - not every year - but as often as I remember to do so. I did remember to do it this year, and am hoping to find a way to view each of the previous monitoring photos for each site ...

One thing I did notice this year were the unusually prolific grass tree flowering spikes - and the large number of distorted ones. It isn't unusual to find the odd distorted one - but I did find it surprising that there were so many ...

This pair of spikes appear to be dancing with each other ...

This one appears to have tied itself into a knot!

The flowering spikes are the most dominant visual element in the landscape at present. The strange thing is that they don't appear in monitoring photos we have taken in previous years  ... strange.

The photo monitoring sites are shown on the map below.

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Unexpected encounters with a painted lady

John and I visited the Agave patch, expecting it to be in flower - instead we found painted ladies (Gladiolus angustus) which we embraced with vigour, using our weeding implements to dig them out of the ground (taking care to collect the prolific bulbules they produce). Continuing on with bulbule collection we moved on to the Ixia patch - and found lots there. Our bags became very heavy with soil, so we staggered back to dump our bounty at the bushland entrance.

Long Tubed Painted Lady (Gladiolus angustus) amid an Agave plant

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Summer in Spring

It feels more like late January than early October - hot, dry, humid - this is going to be a really tough summer for the bushland - after a really tough winter that began with a devastating hail storm, and continued with half of our usual rainfall ...

Nice rain

It was good to get some rain overnight - the bushland looked a bit fresher this morning than last Sunday when it was quite hot - things are very dry, and it isn't even summer yet! The last of the spring flowers are out - swan river myrtle, and summer flowers are coming - ptilotus, fringe lilies.

Swan River Myrtle (Hypocalymma robustum)

John and I worked in the Geraldton Carnation Weed patch(es) along the western fence bordering the Defence Dept land. We found lots .... and there were lots of young GCWs coming up, so we will have to come back here before summer sends them all to seed.

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Blue ladies in flower

Most of the orchids have finished - but the Blue Lady and the Scented Sun Orchid are just flowering now.
John and I worked on a few remaining patches of Geraldton Carnation Weed - one in the Health Department area, the other near the western boundary with the Defence Department.
Dorothy was monitoring Lemandra and the regeneration sites where mounds were removed.

This is a patch of Corynotheca micrantha (sand lily) that used to go right up to the path - died back after spraying by the contractors - it is a bit of a concern that the practice of spraying along the path appears to be creating a 'dead zone' beside the paths - I think we may need to review this practice.

 The scented sun orchid is almost at its peak - I was a bit early for  it to be open this morning.

 The blue lechanaultia are also at peak flowering - very pretty with their intense blue.

 The grass tree spikes are coming up - some amazing sculptural shapes!

 The patch of Agave is almost about to flower - will come back next week to check it.

 The Blue Lady Orchid is also fully in flower now.

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A productive morning

It felt quite productive pulling out Geraldton Carnation Weeds in Health Department land. This is a place where we have been working for several years now, and still the plants keep coming up ... hopefully we will exhaust the seed bank one day soon...

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Speak of the devil!

Blue Devils (Eryngium rostratum) are coming out - I love their bizarre flowers.

 John and I did the grand tour of the bushland, searching out Geraldton Carnation Weeds, Freesias, Watsonias and African Corn Flags - all of which we found and removed. Job satisfaction guaranteed when you find what you are looking for! One patch of African Corn Flag was too big to deal with - will need to return. Also, didn't finish off the Geraldton Carnation Weeds in the Health Department land.
Also came across spots sprayed by the 'Biodiversity' spraying contractor - I couldn't work out what he was targetting. Seemed to be anything that didn't look native along the path side.

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Donkeys everywhere

Lots of donkey orchids are out at present - other orchids are also coming. They don't appear to have suffered from the March hail storm.

John and I tackled the Freesias and Geraldton Carnation Weeds along the western path.

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Full bloom (in a difficult year)

Continued removing Geraldton Carnation weed and Freesia. Some of the freesia appears to have been sprayed, but a lot hasn't, so we are trying to remove it before it goes into flower.
Went for a walk around the bushland looking at what is going to be in flower for the Bush to Beach walk on the 12th Sept.

 The hardenbergia is still out - though will finish soon if we don't get more rain.

The Sowerbia laxiflora (Vanilla Lilly) is not as prolific as most years, but still quite abundant.

 I believe this is a greenhood orchid - but no idea which one.

This Thelymitra macrocarpa (Scented Sun Orchid) has been coming up in the same spot beside the path for years. I have never seen another one anywhere else in the bushland. It is just putting up its flowering spike now - not sure whether it will be in flower in time for the walk.

We usually have lots of these cowslip orchids ... only a few around this year. They are always a welcome sight.

Joe Tonga has been installing bat boxes in the bushland. Go to his website for some interesting video clips about how successful they are!

We don't see many of the cat's paws. There is only one Kangaroo Paw in the bushland that I know of. Not sure why.

There are lots of conostylis - of various varieties.

This year the number of donkey orchids seems much lower than usual.

These Running Postmen are relatively inconspicuous, but seem well represented this year.

Last year we had carpets of these everlastings (Podolepis gracilis). This year there are relatively few of them. This patch is occupying a patch where we removed a mound of rubble from the bushland, so it is nice to see it being colonised by local plants.

This shrub is a wattle that was brought into the bushland with gravel from the hills to make the road that this path follows. We are watching it to make sure it doesn't become a weed.

These blue lechanaultia are not flowering yet, and well worth a visit when they do flower. They are another import to the bushland - probably brought in when the Army built a Prisoner of War Camp here during the second world war and used gravel from the hills to make their parade ground. There are few remains left of the POW Camp, but these plants remain.

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