FNCB iNaturalist's Journal

Our October field trip was about documenting a section of the Enfield State Park before planned fuel reduction burning which is due to happen soon. The planned burn is set to affect an area of 562ha. We visited several sites within that part of the park, photographing and recording as many species as possible.

Along with the expected orchids and other vegetation, we found unexpected butterflies, an amazing slime mould, and some canary worms.

You can see all the observations made by clicking here. This query orders the observations by the time they were seen. However, Sunday was the first day of daylight savings time and some cameras may have still been operating on standard time, so some observations appear out of order.

(For Angela this link gives a list of the species observed.)

Thanks once again to our intrepid leader Emily, who thought of everything (including toilet paper for the public toilets that didn't have any).

It is a bit windy and there might be showers, but we are going ahead with the moth night.

By the time you read this, the Great Southern BioBlitz will be less than a day away. Here are a few ideas of places you might like to visit over the 4 days to gather observations:

• At the northern end of Woowookarung, the new-ish Fern Loop Trail and Cherry Ballart Trail start at a small car parking area at the end of Cathie St. There is a shoe-cleaning station, so you can brush and sploosh your shoes before hitting the track to help stop the spread of phytophthora dieback. The trail is a bit rough in places.
• Document species that are regenerating in a former plantation, now part of Woowookarung, in the area bounded by Clayton Street, Boundary Road, Lal Lal Drain and a vehicle track, which is here on the map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/HUYM6rtDka6fMJwp7 . This area was aerial seeded many years ago, and Parks Victoria are interested to see what has germinated and survived. They will be carrying out detailed surveys in the future, but any observations of flora, fungi, mammals or biological processes are useful information as a starting point.
• There is a small section of Grassy Valley Forest EVC around Katy Ryans Road (there are some swamp gums there) that you may like to explore.
• Mullawallah Wetland. See the FNCB Project for the location if you are unfamiliar with it: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/fncb-mullawallah-wetland
• Lake Wendouree is always worth a visit for observations of common and uncommon waterbirds
• Clarkesdale Bird Sanctuary, 360 Linton-Piggoreet Rd, Happy Valley
• Don't forget your own backyard! Insects are starting to be active - I saw my first yellow admiral of spring today. Weeds are valid observations, too and they are popping out of the ground everywhere.

Wherever you manage to bioblitz, have a great weekend enjoying the natural world.

We have permission from Ballarat City Council to hold a moth night at Sparrow Ground Reserve on Friday evening, 20th September. This will be an opportunity to see some of Ballarat's night life that you may have never seen, and record it for the Great Southern BioBlitz.

What we will do: Members of the Field Naturalists Club of Ballarat will be present with 2 or 3 moth sheets and battery-powered lights.

We will set up at the shelters between the oval and the off-street carparking area in Spencer Street, between Kline St and Richards St. Please park in the car-park area.

Sheets will be set up from about 6pm, and moth-attracting lights turned on once it is dark enough.

What to bring:

• the device you use for iNaturalist observations (phone, tablet), or a camera to take photos to upload later. Make sure your batteries are fully charged. Using a flash will give you better photos, but will drain your battery faster.
• torch. If you have one, a head torch is useful for keeping your hands free. I noticed Aldi had some for sale this week, although I have no idea how good theirs are.
• warm clothes. Sitting waiting for moths to appear could be cold. A beanie, scarf and jacket will help.
• hot drink. A thermos of tea, coffee, or hot chocolate might go down well while you wait.
• snacks. Please make sure you take any wrappers away with you. Leaving no litter is a condition of our permit.
• folding chair. There is seating available at the shelter, but if you have one of your own you might like to bring it along.

Upload your photos to iNaturalist by 4th October for them to be included in the BioBlitz count.

Any questions? If you have questions, please comment on this post and I will attempt to answer them.

Watch this space!
As of the time of writing, Friday's weather forecast does not look promising. We are able to move the moth night to another night of the GSB in case of rain, strong winds, or freezing temperatures. A decision will be made closer to the time whether to go ahead on Friday or postpone to another night. Announcements will be posted in this project, so check before heading out on Friday.

The Great Southern BioBlitz starts on 20th September, and runs until 23rd.

We are hoping to run a moth night in a park next Friday (or other night of the GSB if the weather is poor that night), but are waiting to hear from Ballarat City Council regarding our permit application. If permission is granted, I will post the details here and on our GSB Project:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/great-southern-bioblitz-2024-ballarat-region

I will add other ideas to this journal when I have details.

Our September field trip on Saturday 7th combined walks around the Bird Paddock and the Orchid Block at Clarkesdale sanctuary with some iNaturalist instruction.

See the bumper crop of observations made on the day by clicking on this link.

Thanks to Emily for leading our walks, to the iNat instructors, and to everyone who contributed observations. Keep practicing, as the Great Southern BioBlitz is rapidly approaching!

Our August field trip was led by BJ Johnson, an orchid enthusiast who teaches a course at the Ballarat U3A on native orchids. We saw the leaves of many species of orchids, and were excited to find a few in flower as well.

We visited 3 sites in Dereel, starting with an area by the Lagoon which suffered a bushfire at the end of February this year. Our path extended into unburnt areas of the H27 bushland reserve. Highlights included Varied Sitellas, Small Gnat Orchids and a Slaty Helmet orchid in flower.

After lunch back at the Dereel Community Hall, where a female Scarlet Robin was seen, we drove to the H26 bushland reserve where we explored 2 different sections. Afternoon highlights included a large patch of Earthstar fungi, the "vegetable caterpillar" Drechmeria gunnii, and finally a Veined Helmet orchid flowering.

You can see all the observations made on the field trip by clicking here.

Many thanks to BJ for a fascinating and informative field trip!

You are invited to join the Ballarat Region project for this year's Great Southern Bioblitz:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/great-southern-bioblitz-2024-ballarat-region

The bioblitz will run from 20th to 23rd of September, 2024. Join the project to be notified of any special bioblitz events.

For our July field trip Neville took us to two fire-affected sites, a recent one in the morning, and one burnt 4.5 years ago in the afternoon.

In the morning we visited a spot in the Mt. Cole-Mt. Buangor forest which was burnt during the Bayindeen fires in February this year. The fire started on 22 February and burned for more than two weeks, affecting about 22,000 hectares of farmland, residential areas and state forest. Neville guided us to an area which has only just re-opened to the public. Here the undergrowth had been consumed, but the bracken was reemerging and seedlings of many species were seen. Epicormic buds were sprouting from many of the eucalypts, and we were all surprised by the new fronds on some burnt tree-ferns.
The morning photos do not appear in our FNCB-iNaturalist project, as we were more than 50km from Ballarat. They are in our Members at Large project.

After lunch at Richards Campground we travelled on to an area burnt during the Lexton/Ben Major fire, in December 2019. That fire burned for 10 days, covering an area of 2,792 hectares. The spot we were visiting held a small patch of Austral Grass-trees. When Neville first visited after the fire, he thought all the grass-trees had been killed, but some have recovered and there are new ones that have grown since the fire. Grass-tree observation.

You can see all the observations from our field trip by clicking here.

(You might notice that I have worked out how to order the observations by the time they were seen, rather than the time they were uploaded to iNat. This gives a better impression of how the day proceeded, so I have gone back and edited some of our previous trips to display the results the same way.)

Thanks to Neville for a fascinating day out!

For our June field trip on Sunday 9th, Les Hanrahan @leshanrahan led us through the rain along the Lerderderg Track in Blakeville in the morning. The rain cleared up for us to enjoy lunch at the Mooroobool Reservoir park, before spending the afternoon along Slaters Rd in Mollongghip.

Autumn was very dry, so fungi have not been abundant recently. Perhaps the rain overnight and in the morning helped, because we found far more fungi on our field trip than Les thought we might.

You can see all the day's observations by clicking here.

Many thanks to Les for another fascinating fungi field trip!