Sunday 28 March 2010

After the storm

We came to the bushland today to look for the endangered Graceful Sun Moth. However, the storm on Monday evening has had a tremendous impact on the bushland. The upper canopy of the bushland has been stripped off the trees. Most Banksias and Casuarinas have very few leaves left. The Jarrahs have a few more leaves, but many of those leaves are damaged, so the canopy looks a little like it might after a fire. The middle storey shrubs have partly disappeared, giving the bushland a very open look. The ground covers, grasses, and sedges have been pulverised. Many of the Jacksonia serecia look dead. The sedges and lomandras are not too bad. The only green in the bushland comes from the somewhat shortened leaves of the grass trees.

The banksias have been hit really hard. Most of their leaves have gone.

The bark of the Banksias bears the marks of the hail stones which left orange scars on the grey bark.

The bushland is almost silent. Few birds can be heard, or seen. Even the Rainbow Lorrikeets have gone. I heard a few Robins in amongst the canopy of one of the Eucalypts that seemed to have escaped much of the damage.

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Wednesday 24 March 2010

Will we find it again?

John, Dorothy, and I continued our survey of Graceful Sun Moths in the bushland. It was a bit windy, and quite hot. Despite walking very carefully and vigilantly, we did not spot any moths. We did come across a Flinders Ranges wattle to remove before it comes into flower (not long !)
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Tuesday 16 March 2010

Sun Moth search successful - at last

We have been searching for this elusive creature for the past five years! Last Sunday Vicki's sharp eyes saw one flitter from one sedge to another. We got a net over it, but it got away before I could take a photo. We will look again next weekend. At least we know where to look now.

Also last weekend I borrowed Dorothy's Garmin Etrex GPS unit to see if I can connect it to my Macintosh (OSX Snow Leopard). Whilst Garmin has now introduced support for USB connections to Macintosh computers, I have not been able to connect to the older serial cable models. I had bought a cable via eBay, connected it to my Keyspan serial to USB converter, and finally found software (LoadMyTracks) that will download from the Etrex. It worked perfectly!

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Click here to download the GPX data for this map. Note, this data is an XML file - change the name to .GPX to upload to your GPS.

Monday 8 March 2010

Week 1 of sun-moth search

Dorothy and I spent two hours looking for lomandra and associated sun moths on Sunday - found lots of Lomandra. No sun moths.
Went to the Cottesloe Sculpture by the Sea afterwards - found a couple of sculptures that I liked.
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Wednesday 3 March 2010

Cleaning up

John and I did some cleaning up along the front verge - there is so much rubbish dumped by people parking there, and blowing off vehicles going to the rubbish transfer station. Then we went to Dorothy's area to remove remnants of veldgrass.
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Click here to download the GPX data for this map. Note, this data is an XML file - change the name to .GPX to upload to your GPS.