FoMM Newsletter September 2013

link to pdf of this newsletter

Upcoming events

Welcome in Spring on Sunday 1st September

Give some extra loving care to Mt Majura’s new plantings at The Fair from 9am to 10am, details are available here. Additional follow up care events will be held at the same location on the 1st Sunday of each month between now and Christmas for one hour at 9am.

Or

Join our fellow parkcare group, the Mt Ainslie Weeders for a Great Vinca Bash from 10am; the bash venue is close to the National Tree Day 2008 planting area at the old Ainslie tip, details and map are here.

Or

Care first and massacre afterwards.

Spring Working Bee at the Fair 15th September, 9am-12:30pm

Join the Friends of Mount Majura at the National Tree Day planting area behind The Fair in North Watson. Help remove pesky weeds around the young plants, give some extra protection by placing woody debris around the guards and improve the site by direct seeding of native grass and flowering plants. More details here.

When: Sunday 15 September, from 9am to 12.30 pm; come for an hour or the whole time.

Where: access nature park entrance intersection Tay Street and Ian Nicol Street, The Fair, North Watson, or Antill Street roughly opposite Carotel for a 5 minutes’ walk to the planting area; view this map.

Bring: Sun protection, sturdy shoes, long sleeve and pants and garden gloves if you have them.

Enquiries: phone 6247 7515 or email admin@majura.org

Promote the working party – download this poster

The Fair Ladies

If you find weekends difficult you may consider joining “The Fair Ladies” on Friday mornings from 9:30am until 12:00noon for a range of conservation activities in the nature reserve east of The Fair. Lads welcome too! Bring appropriate clothing, drinking water and sun protection.  For more information email admin@majura.org.

Prevent Illegal Use of Opera House Traps

From the Upper Murrumbidgee Waterwatch Facilitator Woo O’Reilly, ph 6207 2246

As most of you have heard, platypus have yet again been found dead in illegally set yabby traps on the MurrumbidgeeRiver. There are currently a number of initiatives taking place to help counter this problem. Bill Phillips from Riversmart is running a petition that you can find at the this link. Bill is also talking to camping shops about better informing their customers on the use of these traps at point of sale. One of the most important ways we can prevent the illegal use of these traps is to better inform the public that:

  1. Yabby traps are illegal in all public waterways in the ACT and the surrounding NSW region; and
  2. To report to authorities if you find these traps in our waterways.

Please forward this flyer to all that you know who live in this region to ensure that we have as many eyes on the ground, making it harder for people to do the wrong thing.

Your help is appreciated.

Some of you may know that over the past years, illegal opera house traps have drowned turtles a number of times in the twin dams on the Blue Metal Track in the Mt Majura nature reserve.

Canberra Ornithologists Group (COG) Annual Bird Blitz – 26/27th October

Whatever your experience please assist with the COG annual bird count on the weekend of 26/27 October 2013,

Even if you can only confidently identify magpies and other common birds and can only spare 30 minutes, your help will mean getting the best coverage possible on the Blitz weekend and the best possible estimate of the abundance of common birds. This is important. For example similar surveys in the UK have identified a significant drop in numbers of the House Sparrow.

You are invited to a one-hour Blitz training session on either:

  1. Saturday, 7 September, at 2 pm (54 Grayson Street, Hackett)
  2. Sunday, 15 September, at 11 am (3 Thorn Place, Curtin)

Sessions will give practical tips, such as knowing when to report and not report birds, help in being confident of your ID, and easy ways to estimate numbers. Forms, notes and pencils will be provided.  An optional second hour will include a search of a local park, more practice and tips about describing location, type of searches, use of latitude and longitude, support software and COG online system.

Contact Michael Robbins mrobbins@home.netspeed.com.au. If you can’t make it to a training session, email Michael Robbins for the training notes.

FoMM’s first AGM, 9 October at ACT Sportshouse, Hackett

 

This is a pre-annoncement. More details including time will be in next months’s newsletter.

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