As you travel down Centre Rd from St Arnaud you notice the lack of understorey vegetation in many places. Trees, yes, although few are older than 90 years due to extensive felling for timber up until the late 1990s. A few are thick with Golden Wattle and Grey Everlasting; these are areas that have been burnt over the last 20 years. Monitoring by the Club over a 10 year period showed little increase in the species in the burnt areas,a total of maybe 5, including Gorse Bitt

Saturday morning saw me out in the Hard Hills east of St Arnaud to try and get a photo or two of the Bristly Greenhood that had spiked up in the Club's big enclosure on L Bray's Rd. Coming round the corner past the transfer station I was pulled up by the sight of what I first thought was a large wattle in full bloom. Aha" I thought- a new species although I couldn't place this plant at all in the local wattle list. The bush was full of bees having a grand time and after t

On Saturday last, a quick trip north-west of town to Volcano Rd, Swanwater returned a swag of Crimson Chats, a handful of White- fronted Chats, numbers of Pipits, Songlarks, a nesting Brown Falcon and White-winged Trillers. As I turned onto Volcano Rd from the Sunraysia Highway I had a momentary glimpse of what was possibly a White-breasted Woodswallow. The birds below were about 300ft (or 100m for the purists) away and over a slight rise so the photo isn't great. Crims

The hot dry spell we have just had has put paid to many of the our wildflowers, espcually the more showy plants. Heading east out of town on Monday to start the Mid-Spring Bird Surveys, the much improved L. Bray's Rd took me through the Hard Hills to the eponymous Nature Conservation Reserve(NCR) where the Club has two fenced enclosures. The oldest one, established in 1984 to protect the vulnerable Inland Pomaderris (Pomaderris paniculosa ssp. paniculosa) and Daddy Long

Over the last 4 decades I have never seen more than one White-winged Triller at a time and probably only one sighting a decade. Since early September, the Carapooee West area has been over-run with White-winged Trillers. Below- male White-winged Trller Using fencelines as lookout posts they have spent weeks pouncing on unwary grubs in the short grasses- so many grubs, probably army worms, that the birds would have to have a spell on the fence for half an hour at a time b

Despite the lack of rain for the last 7 weeks, the Wax Garden is looking beautiful. A walk with members from Avon Plains Banyena Landcare Group on Sunday 13th October started with disappointment at the front gate where the vegetation could only be described as Macbeth's "blasted heath"! Taking the Mallee Track though, we were soon amazed and thrilled at the diversity of the flowering shrubs and herbs. Blue Dampiera (D.dysantha) was threading its way everwhere through

I was walking down my creekline, cleaning up, checking for weeds and rabbits and generally enjoying the day when I saw what I thought was a big piece of old rusty metal. What on earth was this doing on my creek! All metal bits, old fencing wire and so on had been cleaned up many years ago. When I got closer, I realised it was a monster fungus emerging from the leaf litter.I only had my binoculars to use as a comparison. So next day, I went back with the tape measure ( and bi

My two bee hotels have been full of activity this summer season with 2 hatchings of Hylaeine bees already. This short video shows a female Hylaeus(Euprosopis) honestus bee finishing off the protective cover to a bamboo tube full of eggs. She seems to be licking the whole edge of the membrane to make sure it is sealed and tight- much as we used to put brown paper covered with vinegar over jam jars to seal them, before the advent of cellophane circles. Further up the hotel

Wednesday 20th Feb 2019 saw several members from St Arnaud Field Nats and Avon Plains Banyena Landcare Group leave the boat ramp for a round-the-Lake bird survey. Beautiful clear, sunny and cool weather kept any pesky insects at bay and we spent 2 1/2 hrs watching birds and listing them for Birdlife Australia's online Bird Atlas. Walker's Lake, north-west of St Arnaud, one of the waterbodies in the highly significant Avon Plains Lakes system. 30 species were seen, mostly

The bush is looking pretty dry and desolate now- no rain and a month of extreme heat has knocked all the freshness out of the plants and trees. Birds are congregating in the lower parts of the landscape- around the creeklines and in gardens where there is water and some respite from the excessive temperatures. On a recent visit to Dalyenong Nature Conservation Reserve, a large area of Heathy Dry Woodland, to carry out a quarterly bird survey, I was heartened to see Bulokes