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

Small Milkwort (Comesperma polygaloides) is listed as threat- ened under Victoria's Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act(1988) and described as...

The last job of the year, 29th December - monitoring of our 2 Small Milkwort (SM) Plots in the Kara Kara National Park. Both plots are very dry and show signs of incursions by wallabies and kangaroos- scrapes, hip hollows, pruning and droppings. The larger plot had 58 spikes ( we believe that each rootstock puts up multiple stems and it is hard to decide where each plant starts and ends). There were only 7 flowering spikes in contrast to 24 last year; the spikes were ve

Many landholders like to have a spic and span property- dead trees removed, sticks and leaves raked up and dead branches turned into firewood. Very nice the property looks then - to our eyes anyway but to our often-unseen neighbours, homelessness is the result. The loss of many of our species- birds, reptiles, butterflies,insects and small mammals can be sheeted home directly to loss of habitat. The rarely seen Blind Snake (Ramphotyphlops sp) has been captured on film he

Warm, sultry overcast weather with storms. The farmers hate this weather- too late for rain to do any good and it spoils the hay! However, strange things blow in with a north-east weather system. Large flocks of White-browed Woodswallows hunting for insects over the treetops. Pair of White-browed Woodswallows Photo G. Cheers Then a weird metallic trumpeting, muttering and cackling call and 2 Dollarbirds appear on the scene. Magpies, Striated Pardalotes and Red Wattleb

Birds are nesting everywhere at present. While doing my Birds on farms Surveys last week, I came across this one, unexpectedly, as this species usually nests high in the trees in Yellow Gum Woodlands. This Grey Butcherbird has built her nest in a River Redgum right in the creek- not that there is any water to be had but at least the food supply is probably better here than out in the very parched woodlands. Many other birds are nesting in the same area- Weebills, a pair

Shake off your winter miseries and take a walk up to Bell Rock, just on the outskirts of town (take Wycheproof Rd/Hopetoun St then L into Butcher St and head north!) Wear solid walking shoes as the ground is really rough. Flowering now, although reduced because of the dry conditions our endemic Goldfield Boronia(Boronia anemonifolia ssp. aurifodina) and some beautiful examples of Bendigo Waxflower (Philotheca verrucosa) on the north west slope below the Rock. See the...

For several years now I have tried to photograph this tiny plant out on a buckshot gravel ridge in the Kara Kara National Park. A small patch of these 4-5mm high plants is adjacent to one of our conservation plots. I thought it would be easy to identify- just get a shot or two of the flowers and we would be away! The first year, I missed the flowers- a few tiny dried-up dark-red bits on one plant showed up on the computer screen. The next year, 2016,a wet year, the pla

I deduce that before Victoria was grazed and mined our waterways were very different. Early surveys seem to affirm this: maps of the plains and broad valleys often include the italic notation ‘chain of ponds’. Doubtless, dense or very mature riparian vegetation lined their banks. In my youth I roamed the reaches and cut-off bends of the straightened-out, de-snagged Latrobe River, cleared from time to time of their numerous stands of silver wattle, and eventually I read Peter