October 2013 | Vol. 34 No. 9 Registered by Australia Post. Publication No. VBH4462 MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF THE BENDIGO FIELD NATURALISTS CLUB Bendigo Field Naturalists Club Inc. Address for correspondence: PO Box 396, Bendigo 3552. Web address: www.BendigoFNC.com.au ISSN 0812-423 e-mail address: info@bendigofnce.com.au Office Bearers for 2013 - 2014 President Richard Goonan Vice President Bill Holdsworth 5443 4063 Secretary/Public Officer Matt Comer 0409 162 627 Minute Secretary (gen meet’gs) Kerrie Norris (still require a back up) 5447 8017 Minute secretary (committee) Anne Bridley 5442 6188 Treasurer Ben Goonan Membership Officer Anne Bridley 5442 6188 Excursion organiser John Lindner/Joy Clusker 5448 3406 Syllabus organiser Ben Goonan Librarian Diana Collier & Maryann Hill 5443 0137 Garden Convenor/Secretary Jan Orr Hall Management Maurie Lewis (assisted by Rob Moors) 0407 427179 Whirrakee contact/editor Sabine Wilkens e-mail: s.wilkens@latrobe.edu.au 5443 2797 Co-editor Richard Goonan Whirrakee mailing coordinator Gemma Candy Website coordinator/Webmaster Ben Goonan Membership of the Bendigo Field Naturalists Club is open to all those interested in Natural History. The subscription rates are: Single $40; Family $50; Concession: Single $35; Family $40. Whirrakee subscription only is $40. General meetings are held on the second Wednesday of each month. The venue for General meetings is the Golden Square Senior Citizens Building, Old High Street, Golden Square. The meeting starts with a 10 minute thing-of-the night natural history segment. The invited speaker starts at 8:00pm and meetings conclude with supper. The Annual Meeting is held in September. Committee meetings are held on the third Wednesday of each month at 6:00pm. Members of the Committee are the Office Bearer listed above and the following members: Anne Bridley, Kerrie Norris, John Lindner, Jenny Shield, Diana Collier, Devi Shanty Excursions are conducted regularly and are advertised on the diary page of the Whirrakee. The assembly point for excursions is the Golden Square Senior Citizens Building, unless otherwise specified. Several interclub field naturalist campouts are held every year. The Bendigo Field Naturalists Club has one sub-group (the Fauna Study Group) and is actively involved in local conservation issues. An indigenous garden has been established around the Golden Square Senior Citizens Building. Working bees are advertised on the Whirrakee diary page. Fauna Study Group: Chairman: John Burtonclay, Fadersons Lane, Mandurang (5439 5710) Secretary: Bill Holsworth, 13 Nabilla Crs., Bendigo (5443 4063) Equipment Officer: Maurie Lewis (0407 427179) Regular fauna excursions take place most Fridays. See page 11 for details. Bird Observing: Club members conduct regular bird surveys. Please contact Anne Bridley 5442 6188 or Glenise Moors 5439 6254 for details. Special bird observations should be reported to Anne Bridley 5442 6188. To propose bird observing excursions please contact Kerrie Norris 5447 8017. Front cover photo?...see page 2 WHIRRAKEE Monthly Newsletter of the Bendigo Field Naturalist Club Vol. 34, No. 9, October 2013 Whirrakee takes its name from the Whirrakee Wattle (Acacia williamsonii), which is virtually endemic to the Bendigo region CONTENT Item Contributor Page Short notices 3 Colour photo section various contributors 4 Call for help with field work Renae Forbes 8 BENC October campout notice John Lindner 8 The Warby Ranges... and other memories Peter Ellis 9 Some July and August Observations M. Lewis via K. Norris/Rod Orr 10 Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the information they use and also for any opinions expressed in their articles. Contributions should be posted or e-mailed to the editor at least two days prior to the last Wednesday of the month. They will be included as soon as possible after they are received, although space restrictions occasionally require shortening of articles or holding them over till the following edition of Whirrakee. Articles in Whirrakee may be reproduced, but permission should be obtained from the Bendigo Field Naturalists Club, and acknowledgment should be given to the author and the Club. Some back issues are still available on request. Editor’s Note Some things usually change after an AGM and some things stay as always. As you can see from the inside front cover, some office bearers and committee members have. changed. If you. were wavering whether to throw your hat in the rink, but hesitated in the last minute, there is still time. A couple of vacancies on the committee and any number of ‘assistants’ jobs are still open, so just let someone know of your interest. I hope you have time to enjoy the ‘sea of purple’ (not from the foot- ball fans, but) from all the waxlip orchids and chocolate lilies. For me, it is one of the best sights of Bendigo in spring (see page 4). Front page photographer: Rod Orr Jan & Rod checked out the Diamond Hill/Spring Gully section of the forest South of Bendigo at the end of August and were very pleased to see that the Boronia Patch had been protected from the forest burns conducted earlier this year, following a last minute special request. The Boronia was flowering beautifully then and so were the small number of Globe Parrot-pea (Dillwynia glaberrima) plants that grow there among the much more numerous Boronia plants (Boronia anemonifolia)....Continued on page 10 Short Notices Altered Whirrakee mailing format You may have been surprised to receive your Whirrakee in an envelope this month. This has been a necessary change to previous mai- ling arrangements to offset the increased cost of producing the newsletter. Current costs ex- ceed club revenues and this situation severely limits the clubs financial position. It could be argued that the limited resources available should be better utilised. Although member- ship fees have been marginally increased this year, Whirrakee production remains a finan- cial loss. Changing the mailing arrangements and limiting the number of copies produced, will bring expenditure closer to a neutral position. A simple change to using envelopes will mean that no alteration to the Whirrakee format is required, so you can continue to enjoy reading the usual monthly newsletter. Unfortunately posting Whirrakee in an enve- lope will require folding, so you may need to practice your origami skills to successfully unfold it before reading. I would suggest a few hours tucked under a large fat book (something the size of the Flora of Victoria) will un-crease your Whirrakee enough for pleasant handling. If you treasure your newsletter, the future success and viability of Whirrakee relies on - member’s contributions! Please consider writing a short article or sending in a photo. If you have any concerns or queries about the changes to mailing arrangements please don’t hesitate to contact Richard Goonan. Membership Fees for 2013 — 2014 Just a reminder that our new membership fees are as follows: Single membership $40 Family membership $50 Single concession $35 Family concession $40 Subscriptions $40 A renewal slip was included with your August Whirrakee. Please pay promptly if you have not already done so. Email Notifications If you wish to be advised promptly of interes- ting sightings, events or other special commu- nications you may wish to subscribe to our club’s email notifications service. Subscribers to the service who make an unusual or inter- esting sighting in our region can email all other members of the service. Email subscribe in the subject line to info@bendigofnc.com.au if you wish to join the service. Include your full name in the body of the email. To be added to the list you must first send _an email to the address provided. This is the easiest way to manage the system. Notice of a special general meeting A special general meeting will be held at 7:30 on Wednesday 9th October (prior to the gene- ral meeting) at the Golden Square clubrooms to consider the following special resolution which has been moved by the club committee: "That the Bendigo Field Naturalists Club adopt the proposed new rules of association." It is necessary for 3/4 of those voting to be in favour for the resolution to be passed. "A member who wishes to vote by proxy may inform the club secretary, Matthew Comer, of their vote no later than 24 hours before the time of the meeting. Copies of the proposed new rules will be available at the September and October gene- ral meetings, by email from info@bfnc.com.au or by using the following web address: http://www.bendigofne.com.au/fNatsNewRul es.html. There won't be a link to this page on the public view BFNC web pages. The proposed new rules contain the club's new statement of purpose (see August Whirrakee) and are an amended version of the new Model Rules for an Incorporated Association as contained in the Associations Incorporation Reform Act 2012. If the special resolution is passed, Consumer Affairs need to give their approval of the proposed rules before they become the club's tules. Spring Orchids in gorgeous colours Photographer: Joy Clusker Glossodia major in white (above) Caladenia caerulea and purple (below). Is this fly just resting there Or is it looking for a reward? Do the white flowers of this species ever get pollinated...? Does anybody know? Caladenia carnea (pink fingers) Family Nature Club — an afternoon with the birds Photographed by Joy Clusker B Nicole Howie, who organised the activity with a captive audience. It was nice of Nicole to also organise the beautiful weather. Below, the participants made bird nests, almost as good as the birds . Down memory lane — the Warby Ranges in 1967 (see page 9) Photographer: Peter Ellis" Recording the sounds of the bush... Andrew Skeoch ready to record bird songs (photo by Sarah Koschak) and Yellow-tufted Honeyeater in Golden Wattle Gece by Andrew Sea" Andrew will be giving a talk in October 10 (see back page) oe _ Dillwynia glaberrima Stes _ ~~. Flowering well in late -- August in the Spring 28 Gully/Diamond Hill Anthracobia muelleri ‘Charcoal Fungus’ at Diamond Hill area (see page 10). see observations on page 10 (photos by Rod Orr). Call for help with field work Effects of host-plant quality on the trophic structure of insect communities Renae Forbes La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC, 3086 A number of forces such as host-plant quality influence the abundance and diversity of insect species within an ecosystem. Although ecologists have investigated the functional role of host-plant quality in insect communi- ties, they have primarily employed a manipu- lative approach and so the importance of natural variation in plant quality is poorly understood. My project aims to determine the influence of: (1) Spatial variation in edaphic and plant factors on the insect diversity of two native Australian shrubs, Gorse Bitter Pea (Daviesia ulicifolia) and Drooping Cassinia (Cassinia arcuata) (2) Host-plant quality on the abundance of insects within related taxa This study has important implications for the revegetation of degraded ecosystems and the potential of plant species to support native insects. Field work will be conducted within a number of Trust for Nature covenants (between 10-12 sites), around the Bendigo-Seymour region from October to January. I am looking for some individuals to assist with the collection of leaf, soil and insect samples throughout this time. Leaves will simply be collected using scissors and stored in bags for nutrient content analysis and core soil samples will be taken using a stainless steel soil probe. Insect abundance and diversity will be assessed using either sweep-netting or insecticide spraying. Other measures to be taken include plant size and leaf weight. No prior experience is required and it is up to the individual how much time they can invest and how often. If you are interested in helping Renae, please indicate your availability to the BFNC email address at: info@bendigofnce.com.au Ben Goonan will then get back to Renae with a coordinated response. Bendigo Field Naturalist Club Proposed Spring Campout Date Weekend 26 — 27 October 2013 Location Warby Ranges, Warby-Ovens National Park. This elongated park is located West of Wangaratta and north of Glenrowan Organiser John Lindner, telephone 54483406 Notification. Please notify me if you intend to participate. If I am not at home, please leave a clear message with your phone number and the number of people who will be coming with you Campsite | Wenhams Camp, at the southern end of the range. (Note: if it is very wet, at the advice of the ranger, we may have to move to Forest Camp at the northern end of the park. But hopefully not... .) Distance Via Goornong, Colbinabbin, Rush- worth, Murchison, Violet Town and Glen- rowan, the distance to the campsite is 212km Allow 2.5 to 3 hours. Map A sketch map of the route from Glen- rowan township (32 kilometres) to the camp- site will be supplied at the club meetings in September and October Facilities eWater tank attached to the (pit) toilet block, which is probably quite OK but may be stained brown by leaves. Hopefully there will be enough for washing and cleaning. ¢Fireplace/barbeque ePicnic tables eSpace for camping Please bring *Your own drinking water eFirewood, if you want a barbeque or a campfire eWet weather gear eWalking boots Camera, binoculars eAll your food Information You can download and print the information and map for the Warby- Ovens National Park from the Parks Victoria website at www.parks.vic.gov.au Attractions Vegetation communities: Woodland on granite on the Warby Range, box-ironbark in the Killawarra Forest. Interesting plants — eg. Austral Grass-tree, Spurwinged Wattle, orchids, Birds, particular- ly the Turquoise Parrot if we are lucky Activitiess planned: Rather than an un- structured program where everybody does as they please, we may try to formalize some of the activities (eg. botany) so that we have a leader with a group interested in that subject for a set time Walks: There are several walking tracks, around which other topics could be structured e Salisbury Falls, 8.0 km return approx. ¢ Summit of Mount Warby, 2.0 km return e Summit of Mount Glenrowan, 9.0 km return from Taminick Gap e Pine Gully Nature Walk, 2.0 km loop from Pine Gully Picnic Area ¢ Friends Track, 4.6 km loop from Wenhams ¢ Kwat Kwat lookout, 1.0 km return from Friends Track, with views of the Ovens River valley and the Alps ¢ Killwarra Forest (Red Ironbark) at the northern end of the park Program Friday: Arrive in the afternoon or earlier Saturday: You could come up Saturday but this leaves you a lot less time am Activities from 9.00 am onwards (tbd) pm Activities (to be decided) Sunday: am Activities (to be decided) pm Pack up and depart The Warby Ranges at another time and other memories... by Peter Ellis With the Warby Ranges campout scheduled in October I thought the picture (see page 6) would be topical. I took it June 1967 on a special trip I’d orga- nised to the Warby Ranges after reading an article in the FNCV magazine of the day which had a photograph of Grass Trees in that locality and showing they had never been affected by bush fire their grass like skirts reached all the way to the ground. The article in the magazine centred around a Miss Dawson of Wangaratta FNC who knew the locality. I contacted Miss Dawson and she obliged to show us the site. So Bob Allen, Tom Patullo, Keith Handley and myself travelled across to the Warby Ranges, it was a wonderful day and we just marvelled at that grove of Grass Trees. Keith Handley was a new Chemistry Teacher at the old Bendigo Technical College who had immigrated out from England. He was interested in natural history and wildlife photography and actually replaced Redvers Eddy who had retired in the September of 1965. I had Red as my practical Chemistry teacher and of course there was much talk of wildflowers, birds and geology, and it was Red who nominated myself a member of the club about 1964. Red used to draw up little ‘mud maps’ for me and I'd ride my bicycle out to the Whipstick or to the Mandurang Forest and Sedgwick Race on the south side to explore for wildflowers and photograph them. With Red’s advice I had purchased a Practika camera and the latest Novoflex macro lens that Red himself used for the various photos that won awards in ‘Photo- flora’. I made a special train trip to Melbourne to Wagners in Elizabeth St to purchase the equipment that Red and Frank Cusack had advised me to do. When Red retired the previous year, we senior chemistry students, including Glenise Douglass (now Moors) and Rob Moors presented Red with the latest camera gadget bag as a gift. So I also pur- chased one for myself from Wagners which I still have. So when Keith Handley arrived I knew some of the key wildflower localities to take him. I remember on one occasion at Ruedin’s Euca- lyptus Factory site, Keith found a nest of blue wren young, he set up his camera on a tripod and was about to take the picture. The parents were making a hell of a racket, I was concer- ned Keith was too close to the next. But it wasn’t that at all. Suddenly, Keith leapt in the air with his camera and tripod, yelling and doing half parabolas (a Red Eddy expression) bounding away through the scrub. A brown snake had slithered along, stuck its head in the nest and ate the baby birds. I taunted Keith for not pressing the button before he took off. So that’s Keith Handley in the photograph standing in front of the grass trees. He was a keen member of the BFNC for a couple of years, then with his homesick wife, daughter and son, returned to England, but only for a couple of years. They missed Australia and returned to Sydney. But today, I don’t know where they are! A special July Observation Platypus Ornithorhynchus anatinus Observed by Maurie Lewis in early July. Midday overcast weather Location Campaspe River (Doak's Reserve/Eppalock). Maurie was able to watch the platypus for quite some time as he sat quietly nearby. Some August observations ...cont. from p.3 ...the Boronia is flowering beautifully at present and so are the small number of Globe Parrot-pea (Dillwynia glaberrima) plants that grow there among the much more numerous Boronia plants (Boronia anemonifolia) (see front cover and page 7) This is a very small area and deserves to be protected from fire. The surroundings are recovering very slowly but will remain devoid of shrubs and ground-cover plants for several years. Many of the eucalypts in the burnt areas have been killed by the fires although there are signs of recovery from several species which are beginning to show epicor- mic growth. Much of the ground is covered with charcoal which is providing suitable habitat for mosses and some other species. We were able to find a small patch of Fungi which is also favoured by the charcoal residue from shrub and tree destruction (see page 7). As we walked further through the now ‘very open' Open Woodland we found several large patches of Scented Sundew, Drosera whittakeri, whose bright white flowers showed in very stark contrast to the blackened and bare areas of poor clay soil. 10 Of course, this species of Drosera is quite common and widespread in our “surrounding bushland although the other 2 species of flowering plants in this forest are very rare and localised in the Bendigo Region. The charcoal-adapted fungus is interesting to find but not at the expense of these locally rare flowering plants. August General Meeting: “The archaeology of Arabia in the context of water and landscape’ by Phil Macumber Author: Sabine Wilkens Phil Macumber is a well-known hydrogeolo- gist with huge experience in the Central Vic- torian region, but on the night of the Septem- ber general meeting, he took us to the Arabian peninsula, the rift valley and the Jordan River, areas where early humans migrated out of Africa, and locations recounted in biblical stories. In this seemingly hostile mountainous landscape, there are springs fed by ancient groundwater, which have run continuously for tens- and hundreds of thousands of years and which have served as central points for human settlements and are now treasure troves for the study of early human civilizations. One such area is at Pella, where broken layered sediments reveal tools and utensils from tens of thousands of years ago. This really spurs the imagination! The most amazing thing for me was that Phil had brought some of these tools with him and you could see the stone “axes and arrow heads that our forefathers made and carried, perhaps when they were first dispersing, to eventually colonise the entire planet (see page 6). This was an extremely interesting talk, and I thank the speaker for sharing this incredible adventure. Diary All Club meetings are held at the Golden Square Senior Citizens Building, Old High St Golden Square, unless otherwise indicated. Wednesday October 9 7.30pm Associate Professor Graeme Coulson from the Department of Zoology, The University of Melbourne, will talk to us about ‘Living with kangaroos: biology and management from Melbourne to the Mallee’ Regular Fauna Excursions Every Friday morning starting at around 9 to 9:30 the Fauna Group inspects nest boxes in the Spring Gully area. The excursions are led by Maurie Lewis, 16 Vains St. Golden Square. Phone 0407 427 179. Phone Maurie to confirm exact departure times and location. If you don’t phone and go directly to Maurie’s house and find nobody at the house between 9 and 9:30, then the excursion is not on. It may be that these excursions are coming to an end. Make sure you ring Maurie if you’d like to go on such an excursion. Family Nature Club Sunday 20th October. Kennington Reservoir, issues for local wildlife, which will include a talk by a WRIN member about local wildlife. Registration: Bendigonatureclub@ gmail.com or 5443-1326 Check out their 2011 and 2012 activities at http://bendigofamilynatureclub.blogspot.com/ Bendigo Native Plant Group meeting. All interested people are welcome to come along. Meeting starts at 7:30pm on the third _ Tuesday of the month, Golden Square Senior Citizens Hall. Next meeting: 15th of October. The speaker is Peter Miller, Proprietor, The Hanging Gar- den. 'Culture and mounting of Australian native epiphytes and lithophytes'. 11 Wildlife Rescue & Information Network Inc. W.R.LN. is an organisation dedicated to the care of orphaned, sick or injured native animals. It is fully endorsed by the Dept of Sustainability and Environment. Please call our Emergency Number for Help for Fauna in Need. Phone: 0419 356433. ‘Understanding the Natural Soundscape' a presentation by Andrew Skeoch by Frances Cincotta On Thursday 10th October Newstead Landcare Group will hold their Annual General Meeting, and we are delighted to have been offered a presentation by one of our members, Andrew Skeoch of Listening Earth. All Bendigo Field Naturalists and the general public are welcome to attend this event at Newstead Community Centre starting at 8pm. We ask for a gold coin - donation to cover costs. Andrew describes his presentation thus: "The sounds of our natural environment are com- prised of many voices; birdsong, insect choirs, frog choruses. Collectively, the songs and calls of all these species form the biophony; the living sounds of our natural landscape. Studying how all these diverse vocalisations interact in the acoustic environ- ment, can tell us a fascinating story about how our bushland ecosystems work and have evolved”. ; Featuring sound recordings and sonograms, from local places to habitats around the world, Andrew will explore the fascinating understandings emerging from the new field of soundscape ecology. Many of you will be familiar with Andrew’s recording of birdsong on a CD in the back of the Wildlife of the Box-Ironbark Country book by Chris Tzaros, and this event is a great chance to meet with and learn from a local expert. For more information, contact Frances Cincotta, Newstead Landcare President Phone 5476 2691