Plant education

Atriplex cinerea 071007-7223
Originally uploaded by Tony Rodd

Western Treatment Plant
My plant education is a work-in-progress, but the good news is that it is progressing. Today, I spent the day at the Western Treatment Plant, and managed to learn a couple new plants:

· Atriplex cinerea (Grey Saltbush)
· Oxalis pes-caprae (weed with a yellow flower)
· Wild Rape
· I believe we saw tea-tree as well, but I don't know which kind. My guess is Prickly Tea-tree...

Yarra Bend Park
And, I learnt a few plants while doing fence work at Yarra Bend Park:

· Winter Grass
· Velp Grass (not sure about the spelling)

Lurg Hills
Also, I did some tree planting last weekend in the Lurg Hills near Benalla, and here are a few trees we planted:

· Mugga Ironbark
· Grey Box
· Yellow Box

And, we were trying to get rid of Onion Grass.

Of course, there were many more plants around; my method is to learn a couple on each field trip.

Bird banding

A Pied Oystercatcher captured (and later released) at Stockyard Point
When I talk about bird banding, I'm talking about the practice of fitting a bird with a leg band for identification. I've helped a few researchers and bird groups with bird banding, and I like it because it's hands on experience with researchers working to find out more about birds and what we can do to protect them.

Some people are against bird banding, and some people are for it. The argument for bird banding is it helps greatly with research. Some say much of what has been discovered about birds - especially waders and migrant birds - could not have been achieved without banding. The argument against bird banding is the risks for birds associated with being captured and carrying a band.

The risks associated with being captured are that the birds can suffer from stress, drown or be eaten by predators. My opinion is these risks can be minimized by careful management and the presence of experienced banders, which is a requirement anyway. Waders have been known to carry band-related injuries, however, I have been told that waders commonly carry leg injuries in any case. Only a study on band-related injuries will tell if these injuries are plentiful or few and far between.

All this considered, my personal view is that bird banding is invaluable to bird research, and so long as it is carefully conducted and qualifications remain necessary for carrying out any banding, it should continue. Having said that, I'd be very interested to see the results of any studies on band-related injuries.

Weeding at the Western Treatment Plant

20090114_1950 Red-necked Avocets
Originally uploaded by williewonker

I helped with some weeding at the Western Treatment Plant today. I volunteered through Conservation Volunteers.

We met at the Conservation Volunteers office in West Melbourne before driving to Melbourne Water's main building at the Western Treatment Plant. After watching an induction video, we drove to a dry lake that had been revegetated not long ago. The site was a volcanic plain full of basalt.

The aim was to remove weeds to give the planted trees and shrubs a better shot at survival. We used small mattocks to remove thistles and carpet grass, and pulled by hand other grass and Brassica. In the process I managed to pick up the names of a few plants:

Plants in the revegetated area
Muehlenbeckia florenta (Tangled Lignum; big tangled bush that birds like)
Dodonea viscosa (its leaves turn purple)
Allocasurina verticillata (Drooping Sheoak)

Weeds
Marrubium vulgare (Horehound; herby, with blue-ish mint-like leaves)
Solanum nigrum (Blackberry Nightshade; used to be called Deadly Nightshade, leaf-shaped leaf (ovate-lanceolate) with black berries almost one cm wide; no prickles)
Brassica... probably Brassica rapa (tall, stick-ish, with yellow flowers; lots dead)
Galenia pubescens (Carpet grass; at first to me looked like a lovely native ground cover, but found out later it is a weed)

The photo accompanying this blog entry is from Flickr. I didn't take it (I didn't take any photos today), and it was taken in a different part of the Western Treatment Plant.