Capertee Valley project providing habitat for one of Australia’s rarest birds

With only 350–400 mature adults remaining in the wild, the regent honeyeater is one of Australia’s rarest birds.

The striking black and yellow birds were once widespread along the eastern Australian coast, from as far north as Rockhampton to Melbourne in the south. Extensive clearing of woodland habitat has seen their numbers decline and the range of their distribution contract. Competition from more aggressive honeyeaters for their increasingly scarce woodland habitat has also put pressure on their numbers.

The regent honeyeater’s habitat is now mostly restricted to the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range in Victoria and New South Wales and the Capertee Valley is a key habitat and breeding site.

The Capertee Valley Landcare Group have been working on enhancing woodland habitat for this critically endangered bird and are seeking volunteers to help with their latest planting efforts.

The planting is the first in a five year project to restore habitat and provide increased habitat connectivity. Support from local landholders along the Capertee River has meant the project can strategically target key regent honeyeater habitat and the plantings will supplement feed trees at breeding sites.

The project follows on from a pilot study conducted last year where volunteers planted 150 trees. Survival rates have been very good despite a very hot summer and drought conditions. The plantings have also been designed in a way that the river bank will be stabilised and prevent further erosion and improve water quality.

Capertee Valley Landcare Group are inviting volunteers to help plant 200 tubestock and install tree guards on Tuesday 28 and Wednesday 29 May. There will also be a further two planting days with high school students, on Friday 24 and Friday 31 May, where help will be required.

For further information or to register your interest contact Julie Gibson, Capertee Valley Landcare Secretary, cvlandcare@gmail.com.

Expert speakers in the pest animal and weeds field will gather for two workshops next week to be held in Gulgong on Wednesday 27 March and in Pyramul on Thursday 28 March.

Landholders in both areas have requested a focus on serrated tussock. This is an invasive weed of pastures, with the potential to infest entire properties. In the local region it causes a great reduction in carrying capacity as it is indigestible to livestock. The Australian Government has serrated tussock listed as a Weed of National Significance (WoNS). This means that it is one of the thirty two worst weeds in Australia!

WoNS are seen as a priority due to their invasiveness, potential for spread and environmental, social and economic impacts.

Serrated tussock has a life span of over 20 years and a mature plant can produce more than 140 000 seeds per year which can be blown up to 20 km by wind.

It’s one weakness is that seedlings do not compete well with other pasture plants. Unfortunately, with the current run of dry seasons, ground cover is very low giving serrated tussock a prime opportunity for expansion. These workshops are therefore a timely opportunity to explore management strategies.

Staff from the Local Land Services and Mid-Western Regional Council will be on hand to discuss serrated tussock and other weeds that landholders may want more information about. People are encouraged to bring in samples of weeds that they would like identified, but remember to bring it in a bag, we don’t want your problem to become everyone else’s!

The Biosecurity Act will be overviewed to help attendees understand land manager’s obligations for pest and weed control as well as compliance options.

Wild dogs, pigs and deer will also be covered on the day with a real focus on new technologies to help combat these pests.

Both workshops are free, with morning tea and lunch provided by local CWA branches.

The Gulgong workshop will be held at the Gulgong CWA Hall on 27 March and the Pyramul workshop will be held at Green Hills Crossroads Shearing Shed, Pyramul on 28 March. Both workshops will run from 9am to 4pm. Please register by Monday 25 March.

For more information or to register please contact Watershed Landcare Pest Animal Group Coordinator, Beth Greenfield on 0438 090 525.

Mid Western Regional Council will be hosting a Carp Muster at the Putta Bucca Wetlands on Sunday 17 March.

Carp have a detrimental effect on water quality and their feeding habits are destructive to plants, which provide critical feeding, spawning and nursery habitat for native fish.

Carp are benthivorous fish that feed in and on the sediments to a depth of about 12 cm. This increases turbidity by suspending sediments and mobilising sediment bound phosphorus, creating an unfavourable environment for other species. High turbidity reduces visibility for visual-feeding predators and the suspended sediment particles can clog gill filaments.

Their feeding habits are destructive to soft-bodied and recolonising plants, which provide critical habitat for fish feeding, spawning and nursery habitat. Carp have also been known to consume the eggs of other fish. Carp can also exclude smaller fish from their preferred habitat through their physical dominance and overcrowding.

There are various approaches to carp control but it has been recognised that control for wetlands is integral to overall population management.

It is estimated that a 6 kg female can produce up to 1.5 million eggs and wetlands are often primary breeding sites for carp. These are also the sites where carp are most likely to have detrimental effects on water quality and affect native fish and invertebrate species.

So whether you are young or old and whatever your fishing ability, come along and have some fun and help remove this pest from our waterways.

The main event for the day will be the fishing competition which will run from 9am to 12pm at the Putta Bucca Wetlands, Putta Bucca Rd, Mudgee. Prizes will be awarded for Junior – under 12 years, Junior – 13-18 years, adult male, adult female, most fish caught and smallest fish categories. Mudgee Camping and 4WD have also donated lucky door prizes to be awarded on the day.

Registration for the fishing competition is free but all entrants 18 years and above must have a fishing license and comply with NSW fishing rules. License or receipt of license must be presented upon entry. All native fish caught on the day must be released.

Bring your fishing equipment, hat, sunscreen and show off your angling skills. A free sausage sizzle lunch will be available from 11:30am on the day.

For more information contact Cassie Liney, Environment Coordinator with Mid-Western Regional Council, on 6378 2850.

Through community collaboration, an exhausted quarry has been turned into a public reserve managed for biodiversity conservation and public recreation.

The Putta Bucca Wetlands reserve is situated on the site of an abandoned aggregate quarry, just a stone’s throw from the Mudgee town centre. The site was opened to the public in 2011 and since that time has been undergoing extensive restoration and rehabilitation works.

The name Putta Bucca is an aboriginal word thought to come from the Wiradjuri language, “puttaba” meaning a hill near a creek and “bugga” meaning stinking fish.

The Putta Bucca Wetland is a public reserve managed by Mid Western Regional Council. Rehabilitation works at the site have been a collaborative community project, supported by Mid Western Regional Council, Central Tablelands LLS, Watershed Landcare and many volunteers. Mid Western Regional Council has been successful in securing some $5-6k in grant funding to conduct works at the site, such as weed removal and re-vegetation.

To date 5000 trees, shrubs and grasses have been planted by the Friends of Putta Bucca volunteers, Green Army, Council, local schools and community planting events for National Tree Day.

Wetlands are one of the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems. The rehabilitation works conducted at the site have significantly increased habitat value and Putta Bucca is now supporting a highly biodiverse wetland ecosystem, despite it’s relatively small size of 31 hectares.

The wetland now boasts a multitude of birdlife, as well as many frog, fish, reptile and mammal species, including the platypus. The site is renowned amongst birdwatchers with a growing list of over 160 bird species, including 12 threatened species and now rates as the 55th bird hotspot in N.S.W.

The site is also used as a stopover by animals passing through the area, such as the Swamp Wallaby and the threatened Painted Honeyeater, and is an important breeding ground for migratory bird species, including the Rainbow Bee-eater.

While wildlife is thriving at Putta Bucca, future plans for the site include further improvements to recreational facilities to attract more human visitors to the site.

Council has been successful in their application for Stronger Country Communities grant funding which will be utilised to build a new bridge over the Cudgegong River and allow for linking walking trails from Lawson Park to the reserve. There are also plans to build a toilet block and a commitment by Glencore to fund works at the site over the next 3 years, commencing with a covered barbeque area.

Well if you are a small animal, such as the eastern pygmy-possum, then it might take 100 years for a tree to grow large enough to develop a hollow suitable for you to nest in. If you are a parrot or an owl, and require a larger, deeper hollow, then it might take 200-300 years to develop.

A large variety of creatures rely on hollows for nesting or breeding habitat; from tiny microbats, possums and gliders, to owls, cockatoos and other parrots. And they all have different requirements and preferences as to the size and shape of the of the opening, and the depth, volume and extent of insulation of the cavity.

A range of hollow types is necessary for biodiversity and the presence of old, mature trees in the landscape is crucial.

Hollows occur primarily in old eucalypt trees, where formation by wind breakage of limbs, lightning strike or fire, termite, insect or fungal damage is less likely to be covered by growth of external sapwood. Hollows with large internal dimensions are particularly rare and only occur in large, old trees with sufficient trunk diameter.

Hollows are becoming an increasingly scarce resource for hollow dependant species, those that rely on hollows for shelter and nesting, either on a daily or seasonal basis. The loss of hollows can lead to local extinctions of these species.

Many of our mature old trees are isolated and under stress, or reaching the end of their life span, and natural recruitment is rare, particularly in agricultural areas where woodlands have been converted to crops and pastures.

This is part of the reason why many of our large hollow-nesting birds, including the Glossy Black Cockatoo and Superb Parrot, are vulnerable or endangered. The loss of tree hollows has been listed as a key threatening process by the NSW Scientific Committee.

What can you do?

• Retain live and dead hollow bearing trees
• Protect vegetation which produce hollows
• Plant local native species that produce hollows

Watershed Landcare have launched our ‘A Home Among the Gum Trees’ project and we are seeking expressions of interest (EOI) from landholders in our region to protect mature hollow bearing paddock trees on the land they manage. Funding of $7,000 is available to conduct on-ground works which protect mature habitat trees, the project is now open for EOIs and will close on 15 February.

For more information or to submit an EOI, visit our website: http://watershedlandcare.com.au/projects.

The Watershed Landcare ‘Home Among the Gum Trees’ Project is supported by Local Land Services through funding from the Australian Government and is a component of the Driving Corridor Connectivity Project funded through NLP2.