Botany Nerds Ahoy

AlfredWallace wrote:

velocityjohnno wrote:

Magpies have taken a bath today (first time) - is this an omen for the AFL final?

Lots of flowering going on, cherry is going to have so much fruit this year, kangaroo paw is in fine form.

VJ. Hi mate. Glad to hear your Maggie’s have taken a bath.
I sincerely hope its not an omen for tomorrow, I’m a long time Collingwood supporter, the result of an uncle who threw a magpies beanie in my bassinet in Apollo Bay hospital. Still have it. Hope your family is doing well. AW.

Just took the dogs for a walk and rounded a corner to come face to face with a Magpie on a fence that didn't flinch, and the dogs strangely ignored, so maybe a positive omen for another Pies supporter :D

Although im not that confident i think its a 50/50 game and just depend on who brings there best game today.

indo-dreaming wrote:

AlfredWallace wrote:

velocityjohnno wrote:

Magpies have taken a bath today (first time) - is this an omen for the AFL final?

Lots of flowering going on, cherry is going to have so much fruit this year, kangaroo paw is in fine form.

VJ. Hi mate. Glad to hear your Maggie’s have taken a bath.
I sincerely hope its not an omen for tomorrow, I’m a long time Collingwood supporter, the result of an uncle who threw a magpies beanie in my bassinet in Apollo Bay hospital. Still have it. Hope your family is doing well. AW.

Just took the dogs for a walk and rounded a corner to come face to face with a Magpie on a fence that didn't flinch, and the dogs strangely ignored, so maybe a positive omen for another Pies supporter :D

Although im not that confident i think its a 50/50 game and just depend on who brings there best game today.

Indo. Hi. How’s things ? Lots of magpies doing all kinds of great stuff at present.
Im nervous for sure, Brisbane are a big bodied team, see how we go. Hope your non-flinching magpie is a good omen.

I did chuckle a little with your last paragraph. We could apply that rationale to a couple of agendas at present.
Hope you, your lovely and kids have a good day, nice weather.
I met the same snake again this morning, i did remark to it that we should stop meeting like this !!!. AW

Carn Lions!!!!! :-P

My friend has found a mate and they have been busy making a nest , still can’t get closer than about 40 meters.

seeds wrote:

Second that
CARN LIONS!!!!!

Seeds, SouthernRaw. Go Pies and Go Broncos.AW

Supafreak wrote:

My friend has found a mate and they have been busy making a nest , still can’t get closer than about 40 meters.

Supafreak. Morning. Hope you’re well. Great photos, thanks, something warm and fuzzy about observing nature. Even though they can be very colonial when roosting at night, they are actually ‘lovebirds’. You see pairs of them in trees kanoodling, preening and leaning together. Good stuff. AW

seeds wrote:

Second that
CARN LIONS!!!!!

Yeeew!!
And second half of that AW, Go Broncos! :-D

southernraw wrote:

seeds wrote:

Second that
CARN LIONS!!!!!

Yeeew!!
And second half of that AW, Go Broncos! :-D

Southernraw. Tomorrow, Sydney weather 37c forecast. Testing for both teams.AW

Very QLD like AW!! ;-)

southernraw wrote:

Very QLD like AW!! ;-)

Southernraw. 29c here already, barometer has just started trending downwards, looks shitful by Wednesday 14c, 15c and then 12c with desperately needed rain of about 30mm. No dramas, will still be juiced up from todays win. Go Pies AW

Love the Rainbow Bee-eaters! Such a distinct high pitched 'chirp'. See them down around Currimundi Lake as they nest in the cliffs/dunes there. Beautiful little birds.

AlfredWallace wrote:

southernraw wrote:

Very QLD like AW!! ;-)

Southernraw. 29c here already, barometer has just started trending downwards, looks shitful by Wednesday 14c, 15c and then 12c with desperately needed rain of about 30mm. No dramas, will still be juiced up from todays win. Go Pies AW

Haha. Back to normal vicco weather by Wednesday.
All the best AW. Hope it's a good game.

Love the Vic weather and all the swings between hot and northerly and cold and NW-S - keeps life interesting. Variety is the spice of life. Also like that rain falls fairly often and gardens grow easily. Not to mention walking and riding up above the snow line in winter.
And love all the variety of cloud patterns, something always going on, wonder if it's an effect of Bass Strait/Otways.

Agreed VJ. And definitely reckon the Otways have alot to do with it.
Amazing the difference from the lush rainforests around Lavers Hill and G.O road to the harsh dry of P.C and Warnambool stretch. Actually, it doesn't really change til WA sth coast!

Yep totally, those Otways forests have a sprinkling of Tassie to them, as you walk in the gullies toward waterfalls the old Gondwanic species take over and you get the ancient ferns, mid storey plants. When a forest down Tassie way goes full Myrtle it's quite magnificent. We camped out in the Tarkine amongst myrtles and the ground was littered with these little holes and these were terrestrial crabs! The sassafras would be around, the leatherwood, the native peppers... Going further south in Tassie you got the Celery tops and Huons where the water was close. We did the King river up to Teepookana (King or Queen? Can't remember) and got to see the Huon reserve, baby Huons the size of your thumbnail right next to 1700 year old trees. Anyway - that southern ocean stretch from the Otways goes through cow country and seems to get lower, starts getting a drier once you get past the border (endless tree farms) to the Coonawarra's coast, a bee-line to the Eyre sees desert style dunes and farmland vegetation much like the Midwest of WA (if you plonked my Ms family farm by the sea, it would look like around Elliston). Then drier still but totally magnificent into the border, then the Roe plain is really quite cool, then the long lonely curve into Esperance country with the granite and the bays (have a soft spot for the mallee inland, up to Kal and Laverton, especially on sunset when it goes pink) - the trees return somewhere after Ravy, get bigger, and bigger and then you are at your spot and it's a gem! Great road trip, one of the all time ones. Lucky I spent lots of time for work out along it.

Anyway KISS is on at the grandy, good luck!

By the way, the farm is near this area, possibly the most magnificent flower in Australia

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=avast&q=mullewa+wreath+flower&iax=images&ia=im...

Damn rare to see them, was lucky enough to see a few, and even on the farm as they decided not to clear a decent % of it, great choice that ended up being.

A couple of times a year, i stop when looking through the voluminous plant photos I have, simply can’t take my eyes off these two photos.

These are an archaic type of Bromeliad.

Bromeliads are herbaceous perennials, that are either, epiphytic (attached to a substrate, like a branch, trunk or similar), terrestrial (basal roots into the ground) or aerophytic ( plants that hang off branches and derive their requirements from the atmosphere around them).

One very familiar terrestrial Bromeliad we all know is the simple but tasty Common Pineapple ( Ananas cosmosus), they’ve come a long from the plants in these photos. AW

velocityjohnno wrote:

By the way, the farm is near this area, possibly the most magnificent flower in Australia

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=avast&q=mullewa+wreath+flower&iax=images&ia=im...

Damn rare to see them, was lucky enough to see a few, and even on the farm as they decided not to clear a decent % of it, great choice that ended up being.

VJ. Nice post, I loved your Otway Dreaming- Ravensthorpe road trip. Done that or similar version a few times. How’s the fluted trunks and the radiant colours of many mallee(Eucalyptus ) species in that Norseman and greater area. Trees like Eucalyptus salubris- Gimlet, with its bronze to green coloured trunks.

. Leschenaultia sp. (see above) do well in non-humid and xerophytic landscapes, nearly always a failure in the eastern states, too humid, even in Victoria, great plants nonetheless.AW

https://apps.lucidcentral.org/euclid/text/entities/eucalyptus_salubris.htm

https://apps.lucidcentral.org/euclid/text/entities/eucalyptus_salubris.htm

A treasure from just north of Australia . Beautiful bird. AW

This one’s for you AW , now that’s camouflage. https://x.com/gunsnrosesgirl3/status/1710757992797257972?s=46&t=5RczxwAf.... https://x.com/timecaptales/status/1710758062099730673?s=46&t=5RczxwAfzXe... what an amazing insect

Supafreak. Hi. Thanks heaps, nice visual start to the day.

The biological world is truly amazing.
We recently had one member of our field naturalist club who is a keen entomologist present an evening on the topic ‘camouflage mimicry’, fascinating. In his case, moths and butterflies from the Indonesian tropics.
The time scale for these genetic changes can be immense, , thousands, hundreds of thousands to millions of years for it to evolve. Great stuff. AW

Took my mum, who is wheelchair bound, for a walk through a local reserve yesterday morning. We had a grey fantail put on a show, flitting around catching bugs, back and for for a good 10 minutes, completely unbothered by us being less than 2 m away. Mesmerising, and good for the soul to see mum so engaged. Also saw some rarer visitors, a small group of red rumped parrots. Happy with that.

blackers wrote:

Took my mum, who is wheelchair bound, for a walk through a local reserve yesterday morning. We had a grey fantail put on a show, flitting around catching bugs, back and for for a good 10 minutes, completely unbothered by us being less than 2 m away. Mesmerising, and good for the soul to see mum so engaged. Also saw some rarer visitors, a small group of red rumped parrots. Happy with that.

Blackers. Hi mate.
How nice for you and mum, a flitting display by a Grey Fantail (Rhipidura albiscapa ssp.alisteri ) alisteri with its rusty brown chest is our subspecies ranging from SE SA ,through VIC and up through NSW mostly east of the GDRange to SE QLD.

What great non-prescribed medicine venturing outside is.
Unfortunately a lot of Australians have become great couch sitters.

Very nice you’ve got Red-Rumped Parrots, beautiful chatter exists when you get close, they are very colonial.
Omnipresent around here, large flocks gather on roadside verges to glean seeds from mostly exotic introduced grasses.

Any interesting plants in that reserve ?

Thanks for sharing your experience with ya mum, I’m sure she was chuffed. AW

Its part of the Carrum Carrum swamp AW, RAMSAR designated wetland, but with areas undergoing regeneration work. Predominantly Common reed, Phragmites australis, with a few remnant river red gums, sheoaks, wattles and some others. According to Melbourne Water there is also a population of large river buttercup, Ranunculus papulentus, of state significance. Hope that is interesting.
It is nice to have it in walking distance of home and mum's place.

blackers wrote:

Its part of the Carrum Carrum swamp AW, RAMSAR designated wetland, but with areas undergoing regeneration work. Predominantly Common reed, Phragmites australis, with a few remnant river red gums, sheoaks, wattles and some others. According to Melbourne Water there is also a population of large river buttercup, Ranunculus papulentus, of state significance. Hope that is interesting.
It is nice to have it in walking distance of home and mum's place.

Blackers. It’s all interesting, thanks for the info on Ranunculus papulentus. Those areas east of Melbourne with low topographical relief produced vast swamps in times gone by, without them today we’d have a very dirty and polluted Port Phillip Bay. Edithvale Wetlands are a gem also. The grey sandy loams of that entire area, Carnegie, Murrumbeena, Edithvale, Carrum, Cranbourne, Narre Warren, Clayton, Elsternwick, etc. were once covered in water, mostly Tertiary Sands, not so recent in geologic time.

So glad Carrum Carrum is RAMSAR designated.

RAMSAR-most people wouldn’t know the word or of its derivation.

Recently, on a day hike in the Brisbane Rangers National Park, i was fortunate to see about 10 Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters in the Stony Creek picnic area, quite common there (worth a look). VIC Bird State Emblem is Helmeted Honeyeater, it’s a subspecies (cassidix) of the aforementioned.
Whilst observing the birds, at our feet a colleague and i spotted a small number of Ranunculus lappaceus Common Aust.Buttercup with its very yellow reflecting petals. Delighted.AW

Edi wetlands ae part of the original Carrum Caruum swamp Alfred. Same same. Nice place. Will give the Brisbane Ranges a go soon as well, thanks for the heads up.

Speaking of RAMSAR wetlands, anyone been following the proposed Toondah Harbour development in Moreton Bay?
Ugly stuff.

what's your take on RAMSAR conventions, AW, Andy, blackers, etc. I live in a world-class karst wetland area, and watching farmers dredge beautiful habitats to make their irrigation run more effectively has broken my heart over the last few decades. But there has been interventionist flooding of areas in recent years, broadening the wetlands, which has basically caused algae-bloom swamps around large now-dead trees that would not have traditionally been there. Coastal wattle dominates, and I have seen bird, reptile and frog diversity diminish. Temporary evil?

AndyM wrote:

Speaking of RAMSAR wetlands, anyone been following the proposed Toondah Harbour development in Moreton Bay?
Ugly stuff.

AndyM . Hi mate. Myself and others have been following this very closely, particularly our waders group, but of course all our club members are very concerned that boundaries and or sections of a RAMSAR wetland are going to be excised and then built up.
Apparently, the proposed development has been authorised under the premise of ‘a project of national interest’. Seems odd really, the actual project tender was won by Walker Group Holdings and approved by
Qld state and local Governments. I think ive read that the project may take 10-20 years to complete works. i think those with the greatest interest would be WGHoldings.
This is nothing but a commercial development by governments, all the pseudo trinkets of life are on offer, coffee shops, shopping centres, marinas, etc, all the shit I hate, another urban ghetto, its just another project similar to previous ones nationally.
Am I surprised, no, similar issues for concerned citizens in NW WA, Burrup Peninsula (Murujuga) area is of major concern, Macquarie Harbour,TAS. -re the recent article about salmon pens, its never ending.
Short sighted governments making the usual short term planning mistakes, a better approach is needed for a sustainable future.
Australia rarely makes the right decisions especially when it comes to the environment .

Australian Government is influenced heavily by big businesses, to all, take the time to thoroughly read about what’s going on in WA regarding that previous dickhead Mark McGowan and his association with FF businesses.

Outside Aldi supermarket, I overhead a group of people recently talking about their previous weekends.
One guy said it was amazing to get out and about and to immerse yourself into nature and the environment, somewhere east of Melbourne from memory , another said “where were you guys” the first guy and his partner said they’d played golf all day Saturday and visited vineyards on Sunday.
I chuckled and nodded my head whilst walking back to my car.

Large portions of our biota is critically endangered or on the brink of extinction.
A project like Toondah Harbour is just one on the list of many occurring nationally.

AndyM. Ive read the Toondah Proposal. I’d be interested to hear your professional/legal opinion. Thanks

There is no hope. AW

basesix wrote:

what's your take on RAMSAR conventions, AW, Andy, blackers, etc. I live in a world-class karst wetland area, and watching farmers dredge beautiful habitats to make their irrigation run more effectively has broken my heart over the last few decades. But there has been interventionist flooding of areas in recent years, broadening the wetlands, which has basically caused algae-bloom swamps around large now-dead trees that would not have traditionally been there. Coastal wattle dominates, and I have seen bird, reptile and frog diversity diminish. Temporary evil?

Cant speak to the specifics of your area but as Alfred notes above, any conventions are only as good as the will of Govt of the day to follow through with protection and punitive measures when these are broken. They sound good in theory. Our little patch is surrounded by densly populated suburbia, with plenty of cats on the prowl, dirt bikes etc. Some type of protection, even if just on paper, is better than none I guess.

basesix wrote:

what's your take on RAMSAR conventions, AW, Andy, blackers, etc. I live in a world-class karst wetland area, and watching farmers dredge beautiful habitats to make their irrigation run more effectively has broken my heart over the last few decades. But there has been interventionist flooding of areas in recent years, broadening the wetlands, which has basically caused algae-bloom swamps around large now-dead trees that would not have traditionally been there. Coastal wattle dominates, and I have seen bird, reptile and frog diversity diminish. Temporary evil?

Basesix. Hi mate , hope you are well. I’ll elaborate later. Im out and about. It’ll need a bit of space. Glad you prompted us.
In the interim , worth checking out the work performed by Nature Glenelg Trust , you are in an area of some of the most recent and outstanding bits of land rehabilitation known nationally. The main guy spoke to us earlier this year, we were blown away. Speak later.AW

thanks guys, I appreciate the replies.

Basesix. Hope you are well.

For interested folk, RAMSAR is not an acronym like some people think.

It’s actually a small coastal regional city in the north of Iran where it meets the Caspian Sea. Worth a look on Google Earth, beautiful looking place with a coastal mountain range as a backdrop.

The RAMSAR Convention on Wetlands came about when three individuals, one Iranian, Eskandar Firouz, one Swiss, Hans Hoffman and one British , Geoffrey Matthews agreed that the plight of waterbirds and their habitats globally was of a major concern. Wetlands are the ‘kidneys’ of the waterways, without them, we would live in much more polluted environment than we have at present.

The convention was ratified and agreed upon in 1971 at a conference in Ramsar.

World parties agree to abide by the convention, but many don’t, some do, some who definitely can, don’t do much, like Germany. Australia abides by the laws of the convention in most cases, but it needs vigilant groups like Field Naturalist Clubs , scientists etc. to constantly keep the Government in check and to remind them of their obligation and the agreed terms.

Herein lies the importance of data collecting, field naturalists, wader study groups, scientists of all ilk, its ammunition to use when ridiculous proposals are mooted for sensitive environmental areas.
If you are going to observe birds, get an app, record the numbers, where, when did you see them etc., don’t waste a bird walk when you can actually help them for what, just a few minutes of your time, eBird is the best app and very user friendly, all the data goes back to Cornell University, Ithaca, upstate New York, the home of the largest ornithological database on the planet.

This Toondah Harbour ‘grab’ ,we think, is being pushed by marine water users and developers of ‘shopping/retailing’ entities.

What will this look like in 30 years ? How will birds and most marine life near this proposal fair, not well , I’d say.AW

"RAMSAR is not an acronym like some people think."

My mistake.

"This Toondah Harbour ‘grab’ ,we think, is being pushed by marine water users and developers of ‘shopping/retailing’ entities."

The bridge to Stradbroke failed in the 80s, this is the next best thing, or possibly better.
The Toondah Harbour development is clearly not just a fight for the Ramsar-listed wetlands of southern Moreton Bay, it's a fight for the post-sandmining future of the island.

No professional opinions AW (apart from the likelihood that this will be THE test case for the defence of the Ramsar convention in law) just what I understand from a long and passionate relationship with the place.
They've mined the guts out of it, given heavily degraded areas back as National Park and are now looking to commodify the place through further development and tourism.
Point Lookout has become a rich person's enclave over the past 25+ years but a development of the scale of Toondah Harbour will profoundly change the area.
Moreton Bay is beautiful but Brisbane has always turned its back on the still waters and mangroves.
Developers and politicians want to change that.

AndyM wrote:

"RAMSAR is not an acronym like some people think."

My mistake.

AndyM. Hi . Ah, no mistake mate, it looks and sounds like an acronym. All the best. AW

AndyM wrote:

"This Toondah Harbour ‘grab’ ,we think, is being pushed by marine water users and developers of ‘shopping/retailing’ entities."

The bridge to Stradbroke failed in the 80s, this is the next best thing, or possibly better.
The Toondah Harbour development is clearly not just a fight for the Ramsar-listed wetlands of southern Moreton Bay, it's a fight for the post-sandmining future of the island.

No professional opinions AW (apart from the likelihood that this will be THE test case for the defence of the Ramsar convention in law) just what I understand from a long and passionate relationship with the place.
They've mined the guts out of it, given heavily degraded areas back as National Park and are now looking to commodify the place through further development and tourism.
Point Lookout has become a rich person's enclave over the past 25+ years but a development of the scale of Toondah Harbour will profoundly change the area.
Moreton Bay is beautiful but Brisbane has always turned its back on the still waters and mangroves.
Developers and politicians want to change that.

AndyM. Agree, Ive got friends (bird couple) down here who have a rental place on Russell Island, say no more, its like time has stood still. They never go there.

We were in Point Lookout on Stradbroke island in 2012, on holidays from Victoria.

First impressions of Stradbroke Island upon arrival, bogans enclave, another place fucked over by the boating and fishing fraternities, if you didn’t put fuel or oil in it, they didn’t play with it. Im not anti any of those personal pursuits, it’s just more than a few fucking it up for others, typically the Australian way, let’s destroy something and then pledge to save up to fix it. This syndrome has permeated its way into our culture, especially at the political end of the spectrum.

So oxymoronic, our family, we would head off for the day to the island’s interior, blown away by a lot of the vegetation, animals and others beauties and then come across massive holes in the terrain where sand mining was just winding up and leaving its enormous scar on the island, again, another half arsed attempt to make money, probably needing way more of it today to repair, than they accumulatively had spent the whole time it operated.
I fear for the loss of ecology especially in the mangrove zones around Toondah harbour and any catalytic effect that snowballs into the lives of every other living organism in Moreton Bay, that includes all mammalian life including ours.
Worst species on the planet, by far. AW

upload image online free

seeds wrote:

Disease AW?

Seeds. Hi mate. Not a disease, some nurseries say it is but its actually the visible affects from the life cycle of a small sap sucking insect called a psyllid.
The actual damage in the photos is produced by the larvae, after hatching they dessicate/skeletonise the leaf surface as they feed and grow. The damage is credited to Lerps.
They secret a sugary substance which forms an enclosure thus protecting them during their maturation. The sugar ‘lerps’ are high in protein and attract other invertebrates to feast on the crunchy sugar hut.
Birds love lerps and in particular Pardalote species.
Eucalyptus sp. are most affected. It doesn’t lead to plant death but many a forest/woodland often are looking like they’re lerp infested.

One Eucalyptus tree has such an ecology like most wouldn’t know. 100’s of organisms playing their role. AW

G'day AW and all,

your psyllid/lerp discussion reminded me of the whole 'Bell Miner bird/Euc dieback' issue - have you seen patches of forest affected by that? Basically the Bell Miner is 'farming' the lerp in an area of trees, even chasing away all other birds that may feed on them and potentially restore the balance. An interesting natural ecological scenario, but can be undesirable in some situations. And I dont think we fully understand all the interrelated factors in these scenarios - a key lesson of all my experiences (study, research, nature wanderings...) is that we'll never truly understand the extent of biodiversity/the natural world and all its interactions. Hence we should more often than not invoke the precautionary principle, but we all know that doesnt typically happen in development scenarios...

https://georgesriver.org.au/learn-about-the-river/bell-miner-birds-respo...

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378112722004649

Good one seeds

GreenJam wrote:

G'day AW and all,

your psyllid/lerp discussion reminded me of the whole 'Bell Miner bird/Euc dieback' issue - have you seen patches of forest affected by that? Basically the Bell Miner is 'farming' the lerp in an area of trees, even chasing away all other birds that may feed on them and potentially restore the balance. An interesting natural ecological scenario, but can be undesirable in some situations. And I dont think we fully understand all the interrelated factors in these scenarios - a key lesson of all my experiences (study, research, nature wanderings...) is that we'll never truly understand the extent of biodiversity/the natural world and all its interactions. Hence we should more often than not invoke the precautionary principle, but we all know that doesnt typically happen in development scenarios...

https://georgesriver.org.au/learn-about-the-river/bell-miner-birds-respo...

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378112722004649

Greenjam . Hi mate. How’s things ?
Oh, yes the Bell Miner is actually disliked by many of the so called well to do suburbs in a capital city in my state. Complaint- “too noisy’. The birds have become Lerp Police as you’ve correctly pointed out, but you explain well that not a lot of people understand the overall ecology especially in forests where Eucalyptus is prolific.

The two photos of lerp damage is from Eucalyptus camaldulensis River Red Gum.
My driveway is lined with them and Eucalyptus tricarpa Red Ironbark with black trunks.
Pardalotes and White-Plumed and New Holland HoneyEaters love the lerps as well as any other visiting sugar junkies such as Red Wattlebirds, Musk and Purple Crowned Lorikeets .

Seeds, I’m stoked to hear from you the captain of the Botany Nerds Ahoy ship.
Your Wollemia nobilis is powering along. Fast rates of growth where you live. My Bunya is very slow down here, cold season lasts a while. All the best. AW

GreenJam wrote:

G'day AW and all,

your psyllid/lerp discussion reminded me of the whole 'Bell Miner bird/Euc dieback' issue - have you seen patches of forest affected by that? Basically the Bell Miner is 'farming' the lerp in an area of trees, even chasing away all other birds that may feed on them and potentially restore the balance. An interesting natural ecological scenario, but can be undesirable in some situations. And I dont think we fully understand all the interrelated factors in these scenarios - a key lesson of all my experiences (study, research, nature wanderings...) is that we'll never truly understand the extent of biodiversity/the natural world and all its interactions. Hence we should more often than not invoke the precautionary principle, but we all know that doesnt typically happen in development scenarios...

https://georgesriver.org.au/learn-about-the-river/bell-miner-birds-respo...

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378112722004649

The bell minor favour the flooded gum e.grandis. Worth reporting it if you hear them in such a forest.

bonza wrote:

GreenJam wrote:

G'day AW and all,

your psyllid/lerp discussion reminded me of the whole 'Bell Miner bird/Euc dieback' issue - have you seen patches of forest affected by that? Basically the Bell Miner is 'farming' the lerp in an area of trees, even chasing away all other birds that may feed on them and potentially restore the balance. An interesting natural ecological scenario, but can be undesirable in some situations. And I dont think we fully understand all the interrelated factors in these scenarios - a key lesson of all my experiences (study, research, nature wanderings...) is that we'll never truly understand the extent of biodiversity/the natural world and all its interactions. Hence we should more often than not invoke the precautionary principle, but we all know that doesnt typically happen in development scenarios...

https://georgesriver.org.au/learn-about-the-river/bell-miner-birds-respo...

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378112722004649

The bell minor favour the flooded gum e.grandis. Worth reporting it if you hear them in such a forest.

Bonza. Hi mate. Thanks for that info. Where up your way are stands or mixed forests containing Eucalyptus grandis ? I’d be interested to know. AW

seeds wrote:

Araucaria do well here. Couple here of a few more I’ve planted. Bought in 100mm pots from landcare nursery. Good size hole with a bit of rich soil and forget.

Seeds. Great work going on at yours, keep it up. Well done.AW