Tarra Bulga – Page 8 – Friends of Tarra-Bulga National Park

Clematis Season

by Tarra Bulga30/10/201229/08/2013Leave a comment

There are two species of Clematis that occur in Tarra Bulga National Park and surrounding forest areas, Forest Clematis (Clematis glycinoides) and Mountain Clematis (Clematis aristata) and it can be very difficult to tell the difference between them. They are climbing plants that can climb high into trees and produce a mass of attractive white flowers in Spring. Both of them have leaves in groups of three of a similar size, Clematis aristata commonly has teeth or serrations on the leaf margins but both species show variation.

There are two main ways to tell the difference between the two out in the field. The first is flowering time. Clematis glycinoides tends to flower in early spring, with most of its flowering finished by mid-October, then Clematis aristata seems to take over to be the dominant flowering species for a month or so, although locally it is less common. The other way is a key but subtle difference in the flowers. If you look carefully at a flower the tips of the anthers have little appendages, In Clematis glycinoides they are very short <1mm or even absent. In Clematis aristata they are clearly longer usually around 2 or 3mm long.

Clematis Flowers — Clematis glycinoides (Forest Clematis) and Clematis aristata (Mountain Clematis) flowers compared.

What are we monitoring for?

by Tarra Bulga29/10/201214/06/2013Leave a comment

Tonight’s the Friends of Tarra Bulga National Park committee had one of their regular meetings. It is always interesting to make the evening trip up to Balook, as you are almost guaranteed to see an interesting array of wildlife along the way. Tonight was no exception on the way up in the last hour of daylight there were plenty of wallabies darting out in front of the car and a couple of lyrebirds doing their last rounds of the day.

Long- nosed Bandicoot - Perameles nasuta — Long- nosed Bandicoot – Perameles nasuta

After the meeting it was now a couple of hours since dusk, back in the car and around the first few bends we catch some eye shine and a shape at the side of the road, slowing down it becomes clear that it is a fox with something in its mouth. With light from the headlights and the full moon, I can see a short tail and on the other side of the foxes snout a long pointy nose, unmistakably a bandicoot, bit sad that my first live sighting of a bandicoot at Tarra Bulga had to be this way. The full moon seems to get the fauna out and about and a little further on we stop the car when we spot a brush-tailed possum on the roadside. With the car stationary it strides across, with a tiny offspring hanging tenaciously on to its mother’s back. Next sighting is a couple of rabbits, which surely would have been our preferred option for the fox to be dining on.

Before the friends started monitoring with remote cameras, there had been no official records of bandicoots in the park for at least a decade (wildlife surveys can be an expensive business). What impacts do fox numbers have on bandicoot or lyrebird populations or even rabbits? How common are other feral animals in the park and what impact could they be having e.g. cats? What else is out there that we don’t know about (Could there be any Tiger Quoll? We could guess but without some means of surveying we wouldn’t really know. The Friends of Tarra Bulga now have a network of remote cameras across the park, we aim to use them to the best of our ability to get a much greater understanding of what is happening out there with all them critters.

Wallaby Pouch Action

by Tarra Bulga26/09/201224/03/2013Leave a comment

This vision of a mother Swamp Wallaby (Wallaby bicolor) and her young one was snapped at one of our monitoring sites in the Tarra Valley section of the park. The camera was ideally located to catch the action.

Communities For Nature Grant

by Tarra Bulga02/07/201224/03/2013Leave a comment

The friends of Tarra Bulga are happy to announce that they have been successful in obtaining a grant from the Victorian Government’s Communities for Nature Grants for a major restoration project in the park. The project site is one that is tucked away in a remote section of the park and was only discovered by chance when some contractors were doing some minor control of what was thought to be only a minor incursion of Sycamore Maple (Acer pseudoplatanus) on the edge of Diaper Track.

Communities for Nature - Project Site — Communities for Nature – Project Site in Tarra Bulga National Park

Once they began it became clear that the task was much bigger than first thought and in the end it was found that this plant was dominating the canopy in a large thicket about 2ha in area. Much expense was spent destroying these invasive trees but the site has now been left with no overstorey species and the potential for the weedy Maple to return.

Thankfully securing this grant will enable the friends group in partnership with Parks Victoria to work to restore this area, by establishing a wet forest overstorey with species including Eucalyptus regnans (Mountain Ash) and also allowing the understorey to recover while destroying re-germinating weed species.

Maple Resprout — Sycamore Maple – Re-shooting from the base after the initially felling and poisoning of the stump.

The friends group are planning a tree planting working bee on Saturday August the 11th. For further details or to register your interest in attending please contact David Akers at dakers@activ8.net.au

Lyrebird Survey Map

by Tarra Bulga07/06/201224/03/2013Leave a comment

To all of those people who did the Lyrebird Survey this map can give an indication of what was going on this year.Geographic Information System (GIS) software was used to plot the location of all of the monitoring sites. Then the lines coming out from each site were drawn using the information that all the volunteers recorded during the survey. Once all the lines have been drawn we can then find points where several lines from different monitoring points intersect. At these points we can be confident that there was a Male Lyrebird calling during the survey period.

2012 Lyrebird Count

by Tarra Bulga04/06/201224/03/20131 Comment

We were happy to have perfect weather for Lyrebird Counting, still calm conditions meant that Lyrebird calls would be easy to detect. We had an excellent turnout with 32 helpers including a contingent of Scouts. Ranger Craig briefed the early morning crowd about their roles and passed on his knowledge in terms of taking a compass bearing. We then raced out to our monitoring points, in order to be in position before the first birds began calling at the break of dawn. After only a quarter of an hour or so all groups recorded several different birds calling and there were a number of live sightings. It was then (as is the custom) time to migrate to the guesthouse for a hearty breakfast. After all the recordings were logged and mapped we can confirm at least 6 birds were present in the target area, which thankfully shows that the Parks Lyrebird populations are still going strong.

Pre Count Briefing — Everyone paying attention to the instructions before going out to their positions.

Two young helpers ready to start the Lyrebird Survey

Agile Antechinus

by Tarra Bulga11/05/201214/06/2013Leave a comment

This little critter nearly went by unnoticed until we went back through some remote picks and spotted it here. It is an Agile Antechinus – Antechinus agilis. They mainly feed on invertebrates such as spiders and beetles. Like all antechinuses, the Agile Antechinus has a short and violent breeding season, after which the males all die.

Agile Antechinus - Antechinus agilis — You might have to look closely to find this little Antechinus

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