Mainly Banksia serrata

On 27 February we went for another visit to the Track Opposite the Pony Club (TOPSY).  My main aim was to look for signs of regrowth in the Banksia serrata (Old Man Banksia).  Some of the trees were completely burnt.

With others there seemed to be growth occurring at the base of the stem. 

The most surprising thing was seeing what appears to be epicormic growth  - ie stems emerging from buds under the bark - in some of the trees.  This is a well known habit for eucalypts, but I wasn't aware of it with Banksias.

I liked this cone with just a few open seed cases (if that is the right term).  It looks as though the tree was just about to put forth a new seasons cones - with the emphasis on 'was'.

A more standard set of cones.

I could see no signs of Banksia seedlings around the trees.  Possibly its a bit early yet.

Betka loop

The walking group went to Betka for the Tuesday outing.  Some members had checked the route and opined it was perfectly safe - at least as far as any walk in the bush is "perfectly" safe so a few signs were ignored.

Doing the loop along the River first it was apparent that the level of the River was high enough to flood part of the forest.

Possibly this dampness was responsible for the number of mosquitoes along this stretch.   Had the Red Cross trapped and processed the insect life I think they'd have got several litres for their blood bank!

Epicormic growth was well evident.

A large goanna was seen but as I was at the back of the pack I failed to get a photo.  Presumably it is finding some carrion to feed on.  Caroline Jones was at the front and got a great photo!

We then moved on to the cliff tops, where the old joke about "the view would be great if they got rid of the trees" had been implemented.  It was felt that the Melaleucas would not regenerate and some musing followed about what will happen to the area.  Bulldozing was one suggestion which I feel to be unrealistic,

This was the site of one of the lookouts.  I suspect some of the infrastructure had been tidied up as I remember a metal fence here.

On the way back we found this collapsed bank where a wooden retaining wall had burned.  Definitely not worth blocking the entire walk for this.

 This is the remains of the first lookout along the track.  Strands of melted plastic are all that remained: again someone must have tidied up all the metal railings.

Several helicopters of various designs had passed over, moving between the airport and the Howe Range.  A lot of water bombing was happening over there,

Bastion Beach

We went for a stroll along the beach at Bastion Point on 24 February.  The dominant feature of the landscape was the plume of smoke from parts of the Howe Range area.

This is shown in the satellite image from Digital Earth Australia.  This matches the comment on the Emergency Services Victoria website that it is burning "within containment lines".  A helicopter with dangling bucket was in the area of the smaller fire (nearish to Marshmead) and one went to look at the big area.

There has been a reasonable amount of commentary on the community Facebook page with two views put forward.  One camp are complaining that Parks Victoria are doing nothing - with particular reference to public communication.  The others are saying the job is very hard and they are doing their best.  No official comment from Parks or DEWLP as usual although one comment is from a person who works in an agency within DEWLP. Hopefully we'll get more rain to dampen it down again, but my thinking is that the only way this fire will stop is when there is nothing left to burn.  Hopefully it will stay within the containment lines.

WRT birds the area of exposed sand is not huge.  A few Bar-tailed Godwits were visible and appeared to be starting to get into breeding plumage.  On the shoreline towards the (closed) mouth there were a good number of Red-capped Plovers and Red-necked Stints: the latter were showing no traces of colour.

 A large flock of cormorants were mainly Little Black with a couple each of Great and Little Pied mixed in.

 A passing kayak fisherman caused them to move on a tad!

One plover seemed a bit larger than the rest and turned out to be the first Double-banded PLover of this season.  A recent arrival from New Zealand.

 Here it is with a red-cap for comparison.

 We had some curiosity about what the gull was schlepping around.  I think it was seaweed , rater than a crab.

Coming back along the beach we spotted a sea star clinking to what appeared to be a broken shell with attached sea weed.

Some photos of recovery starting

These images are part of a plan to take photographs over the next year showing how the country regenerates after the fire.  By way of background, we noticed that after the February 2017 fire in Carwoola:

1. the eucalypts became 'fuzzy' with epicormic shoots about a month later (ie mid March); and
2. in approximately December the landscape appeared to suddenly change from "black with a green tinge" to the green it was (in so far as  sclerophyll woodland can be regarded as green).

I'm planning to take photos each month to track this and have three areas in mind.  They are shown in this image.

 At this stage I haven't worked out how to present the data for a long term view.  For example do I want to group all the 'landscape' images together as the main game with detail as a separate category or classify material by type of plant?  Is it important to keep the sites separate or just have the images classified by time?  So for this post at least the images are pretty much in the order I took them.

I have previously posted a few photos of TOPSY (sort of an acronymic mnemonic for Track Opposite Pony Club).

Here is the starting Point for the site on Karbeethong Rd.  I think the left side is public land controlled by the Shire while the right is part of Croajingalong National Park

 The obviously regrowth at ground level is unfortunately bracken.  Hopegully shrubs will grow up through this and shade it out.

More welcome fernery are a few tree ferns (Cyathea australis).

Some of the eucalypts are already fuzzy.  Both growing up the trunk ...

 .. and mixed with the burnt leaves in the canopy.

 Moving on to the Betka site I have chosen the peninsula between the estuary and the ocean as it is a mixture of burnt and unburnt areas.  That will become apparent in the images which follow.

I begin with an image of the "estuary" currently blocked as a result in insufficient rain to keep it open.  The cliffs on the far side of the kelp covered beach show the ferocity of the fire as it came though there.

Ash was evident trapped against the rhyzomes of the grass.

The start of the formal track was unburnt.

A short distance in a Banksia integrifolia was showing signs of flowering in the near future which will give a food boost for the honeyeaters.  (On which topic, it is the first time I have done this walk without recording a single Red or Little Wattlebird nor a New Holland Honeyeater.)

Clearly an ember has started a spot fire here, burning a small area.

Looking across the estuary shows the burn onthe far side with a mixture of burnt and greem shrubs on the ocean side.

A flower!  Senecio pinnatifolius (Variable Groundsel)

These corded and twisted trunks intrigue me.  I can't remember what species they are, and they are showing no signs of regrowth.

A grass flower!

I think this is regrowth on Acacia longifoliaon.  If so, it is unusual

For reasons I have yet to establish (if I ever do) this area has been severely burnt.

However there is ground cover regrowth happening.  We think this is Lomandra sp, (Mat rush) but will  check as the plants mature.

Looking across a small lagoon towards the Davis Creek car park a first point was that the area isn't quite (wasn't quite??) a monoculture of Melaleuca  armillaris: there are some unburnt/regenerating eucalypts in there.  Also, as indicated by the green arrows, there appeared to be some less damaged Melaleuca as well.

This is looking into the lagoon.  The sticks in the foreground are trees killed in the past by flooding rather than the fire.

This shows the walking track up to the car park.  For reasons best known to themselves the jobsworths from the Shire have closed this track.  We have walked it since the fire and it appears to be completely save.  Apart from anything else the trees - to promote tall shrubs up the size order - are so small they'd do little damage if the did fall on you.

A couple of regenerating eucalypts.

Banksia cones open when they get burnt!

I don't hold out much hope for this stand of Melaleuca regenerating anytime soon ...

... but in places there is a good lot of green pick at ground level

The interest in this image is the white gunk, which I suspect is a species of slime mould.  Although it looks like a fungus it probably isn't but is referred to (except by the DNA freaks) as a protist.  It is worth reading that article.  It probably leads to thoughts like "a DNA sequencing taxonomist is simply a jobsworth with a PhD". 

I can spot at least 4 different types of seedlings in this image. Possibly if they all it their straps we'll end up with a much more diverse plant society here than the previous memaleuca forest.

 A nice yellow lily - I suspect Hypoxis geometrica,

 This view was a heath dominated - ie more or less completely covered by Allocasuarina nana.  Not any more it isn't.

 On the inland side of the track a small stand of eucalypts is regenerating well.