On Saturday morning on the 16 August, Eynesbury Environment Group hosted a bird walk in Strathtulloh Woodland.
Eynesbury Environment Group hosts monthly bird walks in and around Melton.
Unfortunately only two Melton people participated due to the extremely grim weather forecast. The preceding Friday was particularly nasty, with intermittent icy winds and rains through the day. The weather forecast for the following Saturday was predicted to be even worse! However, when Saturday dawned the weather was relatively pleasant, especially when compared with the previous day! So two people, Denise and Daryl, quickly took advantage of the sudden change in weather. Such is life!
Strathtulloh Woodland is a small remnant grey box woodland at the very end of Toolern Creek, just before its confluence with the Werribee River at Exford. It is a tiny reminder of the vast grey box woodland that once covered the country between Melton and Eynesbury. It provides valuable habitat for our rapidly declining wildlife. Toolern Creek also provides a valuable wildlife corridor for migratory bird species. Many birds migrate to and from our region in accordance with the seasons, (some from as far away as New Guinea) using our waterways as corridors as they migrate through the rapidly developing western region. It is vitally important that we keep these woodland remnants. Unfortunately, since we first began visiting Strathtulloh in 2013 we have lost three bird species; diamond firetails, brown treecreepers and Jacky winters
Eighty-two bird species have been recorded here. Despite the wintry conditions we saw 16 bird species. The previous year, we saw 18 species.
We also saw a surprisingly large number of grey kangaroos. We noticed a large mob of about 20-30 kangaroos emerging from a small bush patch in the adjacent Toolern Creek Regional Park. These made their way into the woodland. These had been presumably displaced from their homes as their habitat is being rapidly subsumed by rapid development locally; to account for such a large number here. Sadly, their chances of survival here are slim as their grassland habitat is being quickly destroyed. Many will be hit by motor vehicles, so take care on the local roads.
We were further surprised to see another dozen or so kangaroos on the opposite side of the woodland, sheltering from the wind in the Toolern Creek volcanic gorge. Possibly these are the original mob that lives here. So, we have two separate mobs here.
We were pleased to see that the grey box trees, protected by Melton Environment Group in 2014 are now five-six metres tall. The tree seedlings had previously been cut to ground cover height by grass cutting operations. After the group received permission to place brightly coloured stakes beside these, they have quickly grown to tree size. This is much simpler, and more successful than tree planting as they do not need to be watered or otherwise taken care of. We noticed that there are still many tiny grey box seedlings trying to grow, despite being mowed down. The bush is trying to grow back.
Perhaps these could be similarly protected by a local group as was done a decade ago, way back in 2014? Perhaps we could similarly stake these with brightly painted stakes.
Birds seen were:
Black duck
Little pied cormorant
Black-shouldered kite
Long-billed corella
Sulphur-crested cockatoo
Red-rumped parrot
White-plumed honeyeater
Little raven
Crested pigeon
Brown goshawk
Kookaburra
Galah
Eastern rosella
Rainbow lorikeet
Superb fairy-wren
Magpie
