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Birds On Farms Field Day 9 September 2018, By Liz Burns

Roy Lovel introduces Goomit

The day was hosted by Roy and Caroline Lovel on their property Goomit at Baringhup. Goomit was named for the assumed aboriginal name of the hill on which their land resided. Sadly, none of the traditional owners have survived post settlement. The first settler, Livingston in the 1870’s reported that the aborigines would be often seen amongst the rocks & were mostly friendly.

The Lovels bought the land with less than 1 dry sheep equivalent (DSE) capacity about 20 years ago on which they raised their family. As they were more concerned with restoring the landscape rather than farming, they planted thousands of trees & shrubs and watched the bird diversity increase.

They have been part of Connecting Country’s Woodland Birds Project since 2012.

Tanya talks about birds

Tanya gave an overview of the Woodland Bird Project, which covers mostly Box Ironbark country, as birds are seen as indicators of biodiversity.

“A farm with a rich diversity of birds will also have a relatively high diversity of trees, shrubs, mammals, reptiles, frogs and invertebrates.” From The BirdLife Australia Birds on Farms report.

Sadly, there has been a decrease in the box-ironbark and woodlands in both numbers of birds and species. Connecting Country’s woodland bird project includes 50 sites being monitored seasonally. Intact vegetation sites have the highest number of birds, Restoration sites (especially Direct Seeded sites) the second highest with paddock sites, the lowest number of birds and diversity.

The most common birds recorded at the Lovel’s are insect eating birds such as Magpies, Pardalotes, White-plumed Honeyeater and the Red Wattlebird. One of their important ecological functions is to eat the insects cause dieback in Eucalypts.

An interesting observation has been that Noisy Miners, who normally bully other birds out of their area, have been able to coexist with the smaller birds that are normally seen in the suburban environment. It has been observed that Noisy Miners will chase smaller insect eating birds away so that the psyllids can make a sugary coat on leaves as a form of “farming”.

The small honeyeaters, Scarlet Robins & Fairy Wrens need a high level of complex

understorey shrub plants, which could be why I see an abundance of these birds on my place in Musk.

Carramdale Farm

Farmer Colin Jennings from nearby 1600 ha Carramdale Farm gave a great presentation on the complex issue of seeking a balance in productivity while maintaining biodiversity and important environmental aspects in the landscape.

Australian farmers like Colin and his family rely solely on their productivity for an income in a country that does not have any predictability about its climate. It is the farmers born on their land with access to 100 years worth of observations who are best placed to get the balance between productivity and the environment right. They are also an enormous resource to newcomers to the land who can tap into this knowledge.

Colin talked about the 38 acres of the100 acres Bells Swamp at the northern end of their property that they shared with another neighbour & the Crown. The Shire had put a road through the middle many years ago which in Colin’s opinion has actually made it more accessible for observers to fully appreciate it. Council tried to put a bore in the 1980’s but discovered that there was no aquifer to tap.

In the 1970’s the Jennings regarded this as the worse part of their farm & presented the greatest challenges with getting a crop or grazing from it. Colin now regards the swamp in a completely different light, as it brings in the birds during floods, provides good pasture on the edge and shelter for sheep after shearing.

Colin also talked about collaboration between four landholders to plant a wildlife corridor to the Loddon with a mixture of wattles & Eucalypts, with the help of Judy Crocker and the Mid-Loddon Landcare network.

There is also a “Scattered Tree” program where old trees are being fenced off. Apparently very old trees are more productive for bees as well. A local beekeeper is making use of these fenced off areas, providing yet another value to the landscape.

Colin feels as though they are moving in the right direction. In the 1970-80’s, red-legged earth mite were in plague proportions wiping out whole paddocks of pasture. The last of the DDT family chemicals – Dimetheaote, was sprayed heavily to control them. In the past, some 30-40% of the property needed to be sprayed – this year they haven’t used any pesticide!

Woodland Bird Project Coordinator – Birds On Farms Chris Timewell

The aim of this project is to work with farmers to encourage healthy bird life on their farms.

Woodlands are defined as trees less than 30 m high with crowns that do not overlap ie an open forest. 70% of Victoria is in private hands, and private land in Victoria has the greatest diversity of habitats and provides an untapped resource with 3 way communication between landholders, farmers and scientists.

65% of all Regent Honeyeater records in the past decade have come from private land. It is therefore critical for this species’ survival.

The Birds on Farms report lists 10 recommendations.

1. Aim to manage at least 10% of farm area for wildlife.

2. Local, native vegetation should cover at least 30% of total farm area.

3. Maintain shrub cover over at least a third of the farm.

4. Exclude high impact land use from at least a third of the farm.

5. Recreate local conditions:

• Protect Existing remnants

• Allow local plants to regenerate

• Plant native, locally occurring trees & shrubs

• Plant native, non-local trees from harsher environments (bring in more resilient genetics)

• Plant introduced trees

6. Maintain native pastures & avoid heavy grazing. Aim for smaller paddocks with rotational grazing.

7. Native vegetation cover should be in patches of at least 10 ha, linked by strips of at least 50 m wide. The beauty of the Landcare movement is that groups of landholders can work collaboratively on such projects.

8. Maintain a range of tree ages, especially protect the old, hollow bearing trees.

9. Leave fallen trees to break down naturally for habitat such as the ground dwelling Bush Stone Curlew and Brown Treecreeper.

10. Maintain native vegetation around water. This is probably the number 1 recommendation for keeping birds in the landscape.

The updated recommendations include the consideration and management of :

• Introduced species and pest animals ie competitors

• Predators

• Herbivores such as kangaroos & wallabies

• Bully birds such as noisy miner

• Competitive introduced birds

• Feral bees

Appreciate Mistletoe as a super food for birds.

Farm dams are great habitat. I fence all mine off, watched the diversity of plant, aquatic, bird, reptilian & mammal life evolve in perfect harmony. In the meantime, separate water troughs of pristine Springwater enhance the health of my cattle. A win win. Stock actually grow faster & better with abundant, clean, cool water & make more efficient utilization of their feed.

Bev Phillips MULGA (Maldon Urban Landcare Group Association)

Having already attended one of Bev’s walks and share her passion for protecting our very old trees, it was great to see that Bev was on the program.

Given that the surrounding countryside was turned over during the gold rush, Maldon township contains pre-settlement trees that this group is documenting & trying to get preserved. So far they have surveyed 67 trees older than 170 years (greater than 60 cm diameter) – all are Box trees – 80% are 200-400 years old. The oldest is a 500 year old tree at the Bill Woodford Reserve. It is now fenced off to protect it from vehicles compacting its root zone. The tree protection zone is 12 times the radius of the tree.

Older trees are more prolific flowering as well as habitat for a multitude of endangered species with a multitude of environmental impacts on the landscape.

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