Banksia Bulletin summer 2020-21 Bayside beetles Visiting birds Volunteers return From the Mayor In this issue Welcome to the Summer 2020/21 from a reader located in the United Special features Other articles edition of Banksia Bulletin. Kingdom. Well done to everyone living in the City of Bayside who played a part in of Banksia Bulletin going to a PLANTS OF BAYSIDE 4 getting Victoria out of the COVID-19 digitalOne ofversion the biggest is the benefitsreach it now crisis we found ourselves in this year. has. The reader highlighted the SHOREBIRD/WETLAND BIRD ID RESOURSES 4 While it was certainly an interesting learning opportunities Banksia Council election campaign this year Bulletin provided, and it even sparked THE RISE AND FALL without the opportunity for a lot a discussion at the Botanical Society THE STORY OF A OF CHOTA CROTON 5 of face-to-face interaction with our of Britain and Ireland’s Events & community, I am very humbled to be Communications Committee. Well PAIR OF TAWNY VOLUNTEERS ARE BACK! 6 returning to the City of Bayside as a done to everyone involved in making FROGMOUTHS Councillor for the next four years, and this happen. 7 INSECTS AS POLLINATORS another term to serve as your Mayor. It is fantastic to see our Friends – HERE, THERE AND As many of you would know, groups coming together and ramping EVERYWHERE 8 I am very passionate about our up their working bee schedules for local environment, and I’m really next year, and well done to BRASCA for new year. IT’S A WONDER 9 pleased to see the work of our squeezing in two before the year ends. all my fellow Councillors, On behalf of BANKSIA PRUNING volunteers published in this magazine. Our Friends groups are very Merry Christmas Bayside.. WHY BIRDS VISIT BAY AT RICKETTS POINT 16 They are greatly appreciated by all important to the combined efforts we ROAD HEATHLAND of our community. Cr Laurence Evans WILDLIFE-FRIENDLY I heard recently from Council’s and fauna, but they are also important Mayor SANCTUARY REGULATIONS FOR all make in protecting our local flora Biodiversity and Conservation for social connectivity. Bayside City Council 10 HOUSEHOLD FRUIT NETTING 17 I hope you enjoy being back together she had received a thank you email and I look forward to seeing you in the HOW NON-NATIVE PLANTS Planning Officer Amy Weir that ARE CONTRIBUTING TO A GLOBAL INSECT DECLINE 18 ASSESSING THE CONSERVATION BENEFITS OF REVEGETATION 20 BEETLE OBSERVATIONS 14 BUSHFIRE RESPONSE 2020 – IMPACTS ON REPTILES AND FROGS 21 VOLUNTEER GROUPS 22 Manufactured with Manufactured using 100% FSC® post process chlorine free Cover image: Musk Lorikeet consumer waste. (PCF) pulps. Photo: John Eichler Poranthera Birdlife ID Photo by Pauline Reynolds Plants of Bayside resources Words and photo by Jarryd Linehan, Birdlife Australia has produced Citywide Bushland Crew two booklets for citizen scientists involved in shorebird and waterbird The rise and fall of Small Poranthera monitoring. Poranthera microphylla, also referred to as the The Wetland Birds of Chota Croton Small Poranthera, is a small annual herb found in Wetland Birds south eastern Australia of south eastern Australia all states of Australia and New Zealand. Identification booklet Identification booklet can help It is a fleshy plant growing to roughly 15cm in diameter you identify waterbirds found An environmental success story and about half that in height. It has greyish spoon or on the wetlands of south- even egg-shaped leaves with a small point on the tip. Words and photos by Sue Raverty the 2000s we reclaimed a large area to eastern Australia. The booklet It prefers well-drained soils and quite often appears Convenor Friends of Rickets Point the right of the track which was used as says, ‘Sadly many of these after a fire. Despite the large range of this little herb Landside a turnaround and storage for a trailer. species and their habitats are it’s not a plant that we often come across in our days Around 2014, we started to plant subject to increasing threats. working in the heathlands. Chota Croton at 411 Beach Road in along the edges of the access road to By monitoring their trends, Citywide first noticed it back in autumn and we were Beaumaris was built in the 1930s. The narrow it. We continued to maintain and we can identify conservation birds are in our nature scratching our heads attempting to identify this unusual AUSTRA LIA house was named after a mansion in revegetate more of the sides of what had plant, searching our Flora of Melbourne hoping to priorities and seek to halt then become more like a track. come across some clues. It wasn’t until spring when declines.’ demolished in 1937. In March 2016, the house was put the white flowers were very pronounced and we Shorebirds Caulfield called Crotonhurst, which was on the market. In July 2016, when the Identification booklet were able to officially welcome the small poranthera The Shorebirds Identification plinth, stained glass windows, the house was vacant, we prepared the back to Balcombe Reserve. It had been previously booklet, ‘covers all 54 shorebird CornishThe marble entrance fire porch,place surround chimney potsand site and planted out the rest of the recorded back in 2016 after a controlled burn and has species that occur regularly in and possibly the gates were salvaged grassy area. popped up in similar circumstances after the 2019 Australia. For easier identification from Crotonhurst and installed at the After the house was demolished in burn. We are hoping to collect some seed from the we have included ID tips for new Chota Croton at Ricketts Point. 2019, the house block was cleared and Balcombe Reserve specimens and propagate the small each species and maps of There was access to Beach Road has been left untouched since then. poranthera at our Bayside Community Nursery. where you are most likely to through beautiful gates at the rear of The plants in front of the gates have Bushland team member Matthew Powell recently encounter them.’ the property. The land was tiered due continued to grow and at the present discovered some more small poranthera at to the steep slope of the block and the Cheltenham Park. main access to the house was from Lang and the gates can no longer be seen from birds are in our nature time it is hard to find the access entrance The rediscovery of this plant has the bushland team AUSTRALIA Street, not Beach Road. Beach Road. searching for other small poranthera plants around In 1999, when the Friends of Ricketts We are waiting to see what is built on Bayside. This has challenged us to further improve our For more information on how to get Point Landside began working at the the empty block and how it will impact plant identification skills. involved visit the Birdlife Australia website site, the access path was grassed and the reserve. Fingers crossed it will be a was wider than a normal driveway. In good outcome. 4 Banksia Bulletin | Summer 2020-21 Banksia Bulletin | Summer 2020-21 5 Tawny Frogmouth Photo by Diana Pearce Black Rock and Sandringham Conservation Association Inc volunteers, December 2020 working bee. The story of a pair of Volunteers are back! Words and photos by Pauline Reynolds Tawny Frogmouths The first volunteer session since March took place at the Bayside Community Story by Diana Pearce release the dead Tawny from the tree. Nursery on the morning of Tuesday 8 and Moira Longden To our surprise and pleasure, another December 2020. Tawny Frogmouth turned up and we Council and Citywide have put in place In the 2007 Summer/Autumn edition were hopeful that they might mate and their COVIDSafe Plans, and a maximum of of Banksia Bulletin, Moira Longden continue the dynasty. 10 volunteers at each session are allowed. wrote a wonderful article following the Just when we thought it wasn’t going Citywide Bushland and Nursery progress of a pair of Tawny Frogmouths, to happen, the force of life showed its Supervisor Jo Hurse and Bayside Nursery which had nested and roosted in our colours and they did! Coordinator Julie Valentine have worked neighbouring trees for a couple of years. Photo credit: Jarryd Linehan out the safe set up and everyone was very Since then, neighbours have taken an happy to be working and helping again. interest in where they may build a nest in Ither took Casuarina a while totree. find Friends where around they had Since then, we have tubed many trays and shared news when we discovered were sent on their way, and then they ournested area but were finally reassured Moira spotted that they the were nest of Goodenia ovata, and we welcomed a nest. would settle back to roost in our tree still our Tawnies! Our volunteers’ propagating work at the Bayside Community Nursery three new volunteers. Sometimes, it was a surprise when the (Agonis flexuosa). We have had almost Fast forward a few weeks and as I has resumed. While a little out of practice, it didn’t nest was on the top of a light pole near daily pleasure of knowing that they are write, two chicks are looking like they the Beaumaris school. present. I hope we can continue to contribute courses and schools that took advantage I’m sure there were times this year Eventually they would return to our Earlier this year, we were hoping that It has been interesting to watch the totake the long propagation to get the offingers the number going again. of of the quiet time to do extra planting.