A coastal visitor

Joe Tonga tells me that this nestbox now has about 20 bats roosting! We plan to apply for funding for more boxes to help build up a viable bat colony.
Vicky joined us for our weeding session for today - we spent an hour or so pulling veldgrass, then did a tour around - unfortunately the battery went flat on the GPS, so it didn't record the tour.

View live map 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.

Its hot!

This is definitely the hotest time of year in the bushland - we are covered with sweat - and still have to wear long trousers to protect against snake-bite and long t-shirts to protect against the sun - and hats ....
We worked our way (slowly) northwards from where we had stopped last Sunday - just removing clumps of veldgrass. There is so much of it! It is soooo nice when we come across an area where there is no veldgrass - not because there is nothing for us to do - but because the bushland looks so pristine and alive in those places.

View live map 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.

Do I hear a wedding bush?

Visited the site of a mound we removed which has been colonised by some native grasses (Austrostipa sp. rather than weeds for a change.

Also came across a shrub that we didn't recognize. I think it is Rinocarpus glauga (Wedding bush) - must come back in October to see if it is in flower.
John and I pulled out veldgrass when not looking at plants.

View live map 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.

See the difference!

As John and I removed veldgrass in the South Western corner of the bushland I came across this mantis - not sure what it is ... hard to see isn't it!

More obvious is the change in the bushland when we remove the veldgrass ...

View live map 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.

A prickly customer

Every now and again we come across a plant that really takes us by surprise. Last sunday, John and I were pulling veldgrass down in the far south-west corner of the bushland, and came across a baby prickly pear (Opuntia stricta) which is a cactus introduced to Australia from the Carribean. We had pulled out a patch a few years ago, but nowhere near this one. How did it get here?
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View live map 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.

Spiders in the sky and birds in the hand

As John and I cruised through the northern section on a search-and-destroy mission for veldgrass, we came across (and quickly dispatched) some geraldton carnation weeds and a japanese pepper tree.
It was a bit unnerving to come eye-ball to eye-ball with a spider - though it was a very pretty one.


We enjoyed meeting up with Rob Davis (Birds Australia / UWA) doing some bird banding in the bushland this morning. Rob ended up banding about 18 birds in his 4 hour stint in the bushland. They were mostly young ones that hadn't been banded before.

View live map 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.

How can we make this bushland more resilient?

As John and I moved through the bushland, chatting (as you do!) about life, the universe, we pondered how we might make this bushland more resilient in the face of climate change (I had just been reading about the work of Brian Walker, CSIRO, on resilient ecosystems).
It seems that everytime we pull a weed out, we are making the weeds in our bushland more resilient; more capable of avoiding our weeding hands, and simultaneously making the bushland less resilient, and more dependent on our weeding hands.
How can we turn this around?

View live map 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.