Country is never still. It turns quietly, precisely, season by season. One of the most noticeable autumn movements happens at yareya, dusk.
Have you noticed the nightly flyover?
There are several species of winakang, bats, on Awabakal Country. The Grey-headed Flying Fox is the largest. These are our local fruit bats, a threatened keystone species protected by law.
They are the only mammals capable of true flight. Their wings are modified hands, a fine membrane stretched over elongated fingers. With these, they can travel up to 50 kilometres in a single night searching for pollen, nectar and small aru, insects. Unlike the smaller microbats, flying foxes do not use echolocation. They rely on keen eyesight and smell to locate flowering trees and fruiting forests.
In Australia, bats are major pollinators. They spread pollen and seed across distances far greater than birds and bees. They support forest regeneration. They provide prey for owls and other raptors.
On Coal Point you can watch and hear them foraging in our mature eucalypts, moving through late summer blossoms before drifting off into the dark.
If you would like to know more about our local flying fox population, there’s a comprehensive management plan for the Blackalls Park Flying-fox Camp and advice about injured wildlife is available 24/7 on Hunter Wildlife’s Rescue Line: 0418 628 483.
Feeding the pollinators
So what is in flower for autumn’s pollinators? Red Bloodwood, Corymbia gummifera (pic), is still blooming from January through to April, look for its tessellated rough bark and distinctive urn-shaped gum nuts. You will find it at Hampton Street, Stansfield Close, Threlkeld and West Ridge Landcare sites.
Grey Gum, Eucalyptus punctata, also flowers from summer into autumn, its smooth bark sheds in ribbons, revealing fresh pale trunks beneath.
Along the road to Myuna Bay, Paperbark, Melaleuca species, Tea Tree, Leptospermum species, and Banksia species provide valuable nectar sources. Autumn is not a quiet time in the bush. It is the feeding season. A replenishing season.
Watching and learning
Our Landcare team is always learning. One of the tools helping us build knowledge is iNaturalist. Observations logged around Coal Point are creating a living record of our local biodiversity. Every plant, insect, bird and fungus adds to the picture. You are welcome to contribute. We are happy to help you learn how. https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/coal-point-progress-landcare
A tale of two groundcovers
It has lance-shaped leaves that trail across the ground and vivid blue flowers loved by native blue-banded bees. Early settlers gave it the unfortunate name “scurvy weed” after eating it to ward off scurvy. Despite the name, it is hardy, shade-tolerant and forms a useful dense groundcover. (Image from PlantNET)
It is often confused with a serious environmental weed, Tradescantia fluminensis, commonly called Trad or Wandering Trad.
At first glance they look similar. But Trad has fleshier leaves, white flowers and far more vigour. It spreads aggressively, rooting at every node. Any fragment left behind can regrow. It can smother large areas of bushland if left unchecked. There is good news though.
CSIRO has developed a biological control for Trad, a leaf smut fungus, Kordyana brasiliensis. Approved for release in Australia in 2019, it weakens the plant gradually over time. We are hopeful it will reduce some of the dense infestations in our reserves when it is released.
Learning at Landcare is never finished. Autumn is a season of movement and change.
Each Thursday morning from 8am to noon, with morning tea at 10, we work, observe, question and share knowledge.
