After the heavy downpour in February, we've had regular showers throughout late March and April: perfect conditions for kicking off the 2024 planting season. So far I've planted, with the help of a few friends, 360 trees. With another couple of hundred seedlings still waiting patiently to be inserted into solid ground, it will be … Continue reading Legless Lovelies
Author: worldsendweb
A Sticky Situation
This post has been a while coming, as Al and I spent most of February in the Land of the Rising Sun, checking out cranes, sea-eagles and fish-owls. After arriving home to a jungle of weeds, it has taken me three weekends of solid work to finally get back on top of it all. This … Continue reading A Sticky Situation
A Belated Big Day
My hectic work schedule prevented me from undertaking my usual Pine Mountain big day of birding on New Years Day this year. I intended to give it a go on one other weekend during January, but I had been lacking motivation. I knew I wasn’t going to achieve a big tally this year, on account … Continue reading A Belated Big Day
2023 buzzes, hums and chirrs to a close
Up until mid-November, 2023 had been a dry year at Pine Mountain. Ipswich had only received 67% of its average rainfall, so the traditionally dry winter-spring period was especially so in this El Niño year. Then 40 mm of rainfall on the 20th November, quickly followed by 12 mm on the 25th, 42 mm on … Continue reading 2023 buzzes, hums and chirrs to a close
Riverine Rainforest of Sapling Pocket
My other October blog post ended up being hijacked by a single grass species, and I'm cognisant of grasses being a notoriously unpopular group of plants, even among most nature enthusiasts. As a wise, yellow cartoon character once chanted "you don't win friends with salad" and you don't hold an audience with grass. So to … Continue reading Riverine Rainforest of Sapling Pocket
In search of a long-lost plant
While kayaking down the Brisbane River a few years back, I came upon a small colony of a grass I didn't recognise. It was a coarse, tussocky thing growing in the cracks of rocks near the water's edge. It wasn't flowering or seeding at the time, so I had no chance of identifying it, and … Continue reading In search of a long-lost plant
What Drought?
2023 has been a very dry year so far, and this is unlikely to change any time soon given the El Niño conditions. A brief storm on 28 September showered our property with a meagre 22.5 mm of rain, which was the heaviest daily total in over four months. It is therefore remarkable how the … Continue reading What Drought?
New Life in the Dry
Another month without substantial rain has passed and Pine Mountain is starting to look very dry indeed. All local tree species with deciduous tendencies are exercising this proclivity to full effect. This might be an effective strategy for vine forest trees to reduce water loss, but it is a depressing sight nonetheless. Our scrub-covered hill … Continue reading New Life in the Dry
Fruits of the Famine
Another month without meaningful rain means Pine Mountain is getting very dry. Our "semi-evergreen vine forest" (the official name for our local vine-scrubs) is fast dropping its leaves and becoming not so green at all. The last time we had such dry conditions (a few years ago now), I pushed myself to near exhaustion watering … Continue reading Fruits of the Famine
Year Seven in Review
July marks our seven-year anniversary of moving to Pine Mountain and commencing my vine-scrub restoration project. My relationship to the project well and truly went through the dreaded seven-year itch this year. My motivation levels waned significantly as the La Niña failed to produce a wet summer, and now that El Niño has reared his … Continue reading Year Seven in Review