To date we have 17 different species of moths in the family Arctiidae recorded in Tarra-Bulga National Park.
“Arctiidae is a large family of moths with around 11,000 species found all over the world. This family includes the groups commonly known as tiger moths (or tigers). Tiger moths usually have bright colours, footmen (which are usually much drabber), lichen moths and wasp moths. Many species have ‘hairy’ caterpillars which are popularly known as woolly bears or woolly worms. The scientific name refers to this (Gk. αρκτος = a bear). ”
Do you love getting outdoors?
o Keen on gardening.
o Reasonably fit and active.
o Available next Saturday (October 21st) and have your own transport to get to Tarra-Bulga and hate weeds.
o Then helping out with weed removal at our next Working Bee could be great for you.
Meeting Point: 9.30am at the Tarra Valley Car Park
All Tools Provided: (Finish at 12.30)
BYO. Gloves, Hat, Sturdy Shoes, Drink, Snacks
RSVP: To David on 0488 035 314 or email friendsoftarrabulga@gmail.com
Friends of Tarra-Bulga have a couple of days coming up where we plan to remove wire mesh guards from successfully established trees, if we have enough volunteers we might even re-use the guards to plant some more.
Both sessions will target the area we are replanting after the 2009 fires. Parks Victoria have kindly re-cleared some access tracks to make the task a bit easier.
The first planned date is Saturday July 29th (was originally planned for the 22nd on our calendar) and the second date is Saturday, August 26th. Meeting point for both days is the visitors centre at 9.30am
If you are keen to lend a hand at either or both of these sessions please either register via email to friendsoftarrabulga@gmail.com or telephone 0488 035 314. There is also an exciting new option to register for our events via www.parkconnect.vic.gov.au
A successfully grown Mountain Ash freshly liberated from its wire tree-guard.
We had a fantastic turnout of volunteers, which meant that all 16 sites could be covered with at least 2 volunteers at each site. (This is the first time we have covered all 16 sites since at least 2010).
Weather conditions were ideal (2nd year running) with little or no wind to muffle the sound of calls and it was not really all that cold!
Everyone got out to their respective positions in time; the earliest call was heard at 6.49am and by 6.55am every monitoring station had Lyrebirds calling.
The official sunrise time for Saturday Jun 3rd at Balook was 7.23am and first light was scheduled to appear at 6.53am. So, it seems Lyrebirds are fairly well tuned to begin calling at first light.
From our results, we detected 11 male birds calling, (not sure if it would be possibly with our method to detect two birds calling in close proximity to each other, but a couple of stations noted the possibility that they could possibly hear multiple birds calling from around the same direction.
Note: we only count birds that are detected by at least 2 monitoring stations.
This is our second highest number of birds recorded since at least 2010.
Thanks to AGL who helped to pay for the breakfast.
Don’t miss your chance to be involved with Friends of Tarra-Bulga National Park Annual Lyrebird Survey. This year it will be held on Saturday, June the 3rd. The meeting point for all volunteers is the park visitors centre at 6.15 am. The Survey takes only 30 minutes from the time the sun rises and the birds start calling, Straight after the count a free breakfast for all volunteers will be provided at the Lyrebird Cafe. To secure your place please email friendsoftarrabulga@gmail.com or call David on 0488035314 by Wednesday 31/5/2017
Volunteer help is needed again on the first of our hands on work days for 2017. Environmental weeds are a menace and without extra help from passionate people they can quickly degrade precious habitats. On Saturday March 18th we will be continuing our ongoing efforts to keep Tutsan, Sycamore Maple, Blackberries and Ivy under control at a vulnerable site in the picturesque Tarra Valley.
No experience or prior knowledge necessary (help with weed id provided).
Meet at the Tarra Valley Picnic Area Car Park at 9.30am (finish at 12.30pm)
Tools provided (but you might like to bring along your own gloves.
For further details or to let us know you intend to come along contact us at friendsoftarrabulga@gmail.com or phone David on 0488 035 314.
Cyathea australis – Rough tree-fern, the broken of scaly frond bases (Stipes) on the upper part of the trunk of these ferns are a quick aid to their identification.
In the pre-dawn darkness on Saturday the 18th of June, twenty-five volunteers and one Park Ranger were greeted with perfectly calm conditions for Tarra-Bulga National Park’s Annual Lyrebird Survey. Overnight showers had passed by leaving moist dripping foliage in their wake.
The survey is designed to monitor the density of Lyrebirds living in 60ha comprising of wet sclerophyll and cool temperate rainforest immediately to the east of the Tarra-Bulga National Park Visitors Centre. There are sixteen monitoring points strategically placed throughout the site and volunteers move to each site before adult male Lyrebirds start their morning calls at dawn. Volunteers then use a compass to record the direction and proximity of the Lyrebird calls. This year we had enough volunteers to cover all but one of the monitoring points.
2016 Lyrebird Survey crew ready for action.
Following the survey, lines representing the direction of the calls are plotted onto a map, and triangulation is used to establish the spots where birds were calling from. This year the results indicate we had at least nine (male) Lyrebirds calling in our 60ha zone. This corresponds to a density of one adult male Lyrebird per 6.7 ha. You can also assume that there will be female lyrebirds and immature males or non-calling males within our target area. To account for this to get our overall population of Lyrebirds we multiply the number of calling males by a factor of 2.5. It is believed that male Lyrebirds do not begin to breed until they are around 6 or 7 years old.
Summary of Tarra-Bulga National Park Lyrebird Surveys
Map showing bearings taken from monitoring points and the estimated location of calling male Lyrebirds from the 2016 survey.
