Reefcare Report: Planting Tube Stock in the Top West Slope

Reefcare Reports

5 Sept

Kristen, Charles, Violet, Merrilyn, Alex, Laila, Brad, Len and Misima, with Lisa taking the photo

We had another wonderful turn up this month of 13 people, the same as in August. This was fabulous, as we had 30 tube stock to get into the ground on the top far west of the slope – a lot more than we usually plant each month, but this could be the last time we plant until next year. So most of us (Len, Misima, Kirsten, Charles, Lisa, our Dragonfly supervisor Violet Lamey) spent the morning building little terraces and planting the tube stock.

Brad and Merrilyn did some planting as well as general site weeding and some bitou cutting back. The two Julies spent time up the top of the site working on asparagus fern, whilst Alex and Leila went to check on and tackle previous areas of Turkey Rhubarb infestations. Alex says they got some pretty big bulbs, and then went back up the very top along the fence line at the bottom of the top paddock and worked on the non-native pigface. They expanded an area where some work had previously been undertaken, and more work is still to be done. Surprise! Not.

After morning tea, those that had done the planting then worked on the eastern dunes area, removing Burr Medic, but unfortunately most of this weed is now covered in green seeds. These need to be bagged, unlike last month where we could leave it on site as the seeds were too immature to worry about developing.

It was a great day for birdlife, as we saw a White-bellied Sea Eagle, and a Nankeen Kestrel, which we saw after a dive with some morning tea in its claws. We also found a Common Trig (Trigonidium cicindeloides) (left) and a Vedalia Beetle (Novius cardinalis) (right). All very exciting.