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Mammal monitoring 2020

Dear Members, we have carried out the annual monitoring of the Walmer Conservation Reserve. We did this in small groups – Beth, Nev, Theo and Eleanor in the morning; and Beth, Nev, Theo and Dave in the afternoon. We’re sorry we couldn’t extend the invitation to more members, but we didn’t want to break any Covid-19 restrictions.

Here are our results for 2020:

-we checked 88 boxes on the day
-10 x Brush-tailed Possums; 1 x Brush-tailed Phascogale; 13 x Sugar Gliders; 11 x bats
-20 of the boxes contained a critter: 6 had sugar gliders, 10 had possums, 1 had a phascogale, and 3 contained bats (bat species unverified at this point)
-7 of the boxes had evidence of phascogales using them (fresh nests)
-8 of the total boxes were for pardalotes (so no activity this time of year or evidence of use)
-35 critters in total
-2 boxes had bees

Bats (probably Southern Freetail Bats and Little Forest Bats)

Land restoration activities by Landcare members

Some of you may remember a workshop we held a couple of years ago as part of our Water in the Landscape series, on the property of Landcare members, Paul and Kylie. Muckleford Landcare Vice-President, David Griffith, spoke to us about getting moisture back into the soil, and he got into his tractor and did some ploughing to show us the key line technique.

Paul and Kylie are continuing their restoration work on their Walmer property, and during the ‘lock down’ period they have: prepared a site for some revegetation on their dam; done some more key line work in a degraded section in the bush to improve hydration and aid the recovery of understorey plants; also key lined on slopes with degraded pasture to again improve hydration and promote pasture growth.

Thanks for sharing. If you are doing something on your property that you would like to share, please let Beth know via email.

Heads down, bum up

We hope everyone is getting a chance to poke around the bush and look for flowers, we have certainly been doing that when the sun is out. Keep sending me photos that you would like to share with other members, thanks, Beth.

Autumn Greenhoods (thanks Eleanor and Albi for this photo)
Inland Red-tip Greenhood (well done Nev for finding this little beauty, never found this one before)
Parson’s Bands (included a drawing I did for a book on flora of our Muckleford property)
Sprawling Bluebell (it took a lot of microscope work to identify this correctly as it’s dying now and is not the most common around here, the Tall Bluebell)

Get ready to plant

Landcare member, Dion, (Muckleford South) is using the time at home to get some plants in the ground. Call Frances at Newstead Natives or Ken at Neangar Nursery to see how they are trading during lock down.

Hares at Easter

Neville, our Landcare President, found a nest of baby hares on his Muckleford property, the parents took off when he discovered the nest.

Community Planting Success

In October last year we planted 432 plants on a property bordering the Muckleford Creek, to provide new vegetation connecting up to the riparian habitat. Six months on with so little rain, the plants are forging ahead and sticking their heads over the top of the guards. Well done Dan and Michael for keeping them alive.

Landcare Link-up

Hello Muckleford Landcarers, Connecting Country is holding its annual Landcare Link-up this Saturday 29 February 2020, starting at 4pm until 7pm. You get to hear stories from other Landcare groups in the district about what they are doing. It’s at the Castlemaine Uniting Church Hall, please RSVP to Asha at Connecting Country.

Muckleford AGM Minutes

Here are the results of the 2019 AGM, and the minutes: Muckleford Catchment Landcare AGM 2019 Minutes

Neville Cooper, President
David Griffiths, Vice President
Beth Mellick, Secretary
Eleanor Wright, Treasurer
Albert Wright, Richard Mann, Chris Mackenzie, Michael Billington, Ordinary Committee Members

Muckleford Landcare Xmas Break Up and AGM

Join us Thursday 12th December at 5.30pm for our end of year break up drinks, and official AGM. This is also the time we decide on our activities for 2020. We will be in the back garden at The Hub, in Templeton Street, Castlemaine (then building with the bikes attached to it).

Bike Ride this Sunday

Meet at 11am on Sunday 10th November 2019 at the Muckleford train station for a ride to Maldon, lunch at the Kangaroo, and return. Get your bikes out of the shed, and ready to go! Please RSVP to Beth or call 0431 219 980.