April socials
This is a round-up of our social media posts from April. This collection is for those who don’t spend much time on Facebook or Instagram, and apologies to those who have already seen these. (Please do click on the gallery photos to see them in full size!):
A covey of quail, the cutest Nobbi Dragon, frogs enjoying the rain, Garland Lilies as Easter eggs, trapping bats and tree planting finished for 2022.
Quail are very hard to see in the paddock. Usually, it's just an explosion of feathers flapping out of the grass ... and I often squeal and run away.
But finally, here is a photo of a Brown Quail - there are plenty about this year. Also, from Raakajlim in the northern Mallee - a Little Button Quail, a typical view of a Stubble Quail fleeing the scene, and a very sad photo of a Painted Button Quail that we think crashed into something whilst flying at night. Now … just need to find a Plains Wanderer …
A baby Nobbi Dragon pretending to be part of the bamboo stake.
So great to see frogs hopping around at night after the 35mm of April rain.
Pobblebonk (Limnodynastes dumerilii dumerilii), Spotted Marsh Frog (Limnodynastes tasmaniensis) with and without the pale vertebral stripe.
I'm off to plant my Easter eggs!
The seeds of the Garland-lily start to grow almost as soon as they fall to the ground. From our few plants, we're hoping to establish some swathes like this patch back in 2005 in Hattah-Kulkyne National Park. Yellow flowers are generally Calostemma luteum (endangered); pink / purple is usually Calostemma purpureum (vulnerable) but you need to measure the length of the petals to be sure.
Cute bat photos!
I was lucky enough to do some volunteer bat trapping recently. We are building a library of bat calls for the Mallee bats so we caught these guys, stuck teeny-tiny little glow sticks on them and then followed them with bat detectors to record their call. Yep, running around at night in the dark, is always a recipe for fun ... the glow sticks fall off after a few minutes so there's a bit of pressure to capture the call!
Click here for more about Bats in the Mallee
Tree planting 2022 is done!
A huge thank you to the volunteers who dug, watered, and planted over 400 tubestock. This year we planted a mixture of Pine, Sugarwood, Cattlebush, Hakea, Mallee, Pittosporum, Tea tree, and some special Wattles. We also slipped in some threatened plants: Umbrella Wattle, Bush Banana, Bush Bean, Silky Glycine - all endangered or critically endangered in Victoria.
Check out the water cart - plenty of water to get our trees off to a great start!
We plant in April so our plants are strong enough to withstand the winter frosts and can then power through their first summer. But some years, like this year, there hasn't been enough recent rain so the soil is dry. Each plant gets about 25L of water to start it off and we're fully prepared to water again if the autumn break fails. You can read more about tree planting in the Mallee here.
Thanks to Carey Baptist Grammar School for the water tank and our neighbours for the truck.