Reefcare Report: Raptors, Planting and Weeding
Our volunteer team enjoying morning tea - (Shann, Mahi, Denise, Arthur, Mary, Stefanie, Karina, Gen, Brad, Merrilyn, Maria, Misima, Lisa, Paul)
A lovely sunny day greeted the Reefcare team together with Georgia from NBC who introduced the team to Paul – our Supervisor for the day, and Mahi (both from Dragonfly Environmental) who will take over the usual monthly supervision, now that Kathy is on maternity leave. On site, Georgia ran through the Site Plan with Mahi and any other volunteers who wanted to attend.
Brad and Gen worked on the Bitou, whilst Merrilyn scouted the site for Gladioli, Asparagus fern, small Bitou and Burr Medic.
Lisa set up Stefanie, Karina, Misima, Denise and Paul to weed the top n/w slope and then make terraces and plant 12 native Carpobrotus, before heading down the slope where Georgia had the rest of the team weeding on the flat.
Planting Carpobrotus on slope - Misima, Stefanie, Karina, Denise, Paul
Lisa spent some time there with 2 new volunteers, Maria and Shaan pointing out the weeds in this area and what to bag to remove from site and what can be left to rot for mulch.
Mary wanted an area that she is able to dedicate herself to on the flat, so with Arthur, I allocated the n/e dunes which was full of Burr Medic.
When the season is over for this weed, Mary and Arthur can then move to the eastern dunes to maintain the 2 demarcation lines to stop the non-native pigs face getting into the eastern flat and the kikuyu moving south into a really good patch of Kangaroo Grass.
Paul brought us some lovely fresh fruit and a cake for morning tea. After morning tea, Lisa with Stefanie, Karina, Shann, Maria, Misima and Mahi worked back and forth along the main slope removing Asparagus fern, small Bitou and Burr Medic – until we got to the top where Mahi worked on Turkey Rhubarb and the others cleaning up any non-native pigs face from our previous cleared area – which is looking fabulous with a grassy cover, so no erosion issues.
It was a great day for bird watching as we saw a white bellied sea eagle, osprey and a nankeen kestrel of which Stefanie got some great video footage.
We also had a police helicopter constantly flying over, looking for the shark around the reef, who had at 9:30am attacked a surfer and Dee Why/Long Reef beach, killing him.
There was very little oat grass and/or Bromus this month which is unusual for this time of year – has the weather not been good for these weeds? Has our past few years attention in targeting these weeds managed to reduce the number? Wish I knew the answer – let’s hope it means our past several years’ work targeting this weed has worked.
Text by Lisa
