Helping Regent Honeyeaters

11/11/2010

A day with Ray is always an adventure , this one was no exception .

It started at the Benalla DPI office with helping Ray & Andy scarify the seed with coarse sandpaper. Then off to a site near the newly decommissioned channel to Lake Mokoan just out of Benalla. Getting to the site was tricky , the grass was long and the tracks overgrown but Ray navigated us across the flood plain through the electric fences , past the lagoons and swamps into the unused roadway where we were to seed a bulk of the understorey species prior to a hand planting event with school children the next week.

The site had been sprayed ready for planting . Area=1.8ha

Riparian Forest- Red Gum woodland.

The soil was damp . The tracks were reasonably easy to follow - not too much squeezing between trees!

Regent Honeyeater Project .

First Ready but Last Sown

11/11/2010

Helen Repacholi DPI Grant

Samaria road , Benalla.

Wet ground has prevented us from getting onto this site since June !!!

Finally nearly 5 months later we were able to sow seed in Sarah's site . We had visited the site three times earlier to check the conditions , today it was dry but up to 150mm of rain is predicted for tomorrow .

This site was beautifully prepared - sprayed three times.

It was a roadside corridor in 2 sections totalling 5ha.

We sowed 4 rows in the north section & 6 rows in the south section.
Recent floods had covered most of the site .

Over- hanging river red gums will probably have taken advantage of the wet conditions and will naturally regenerate .

Pasture growth in the adjoining paddocks was amazing.We could barely see the sheep for the grass.

Grasshoppers / Locusts seemed attacted to the bare, sprayed soil .I hope this was not a bad sign .