THE NATURAL MAGIC OF MIRBOO NORTH FORESTS IN SPRING
Photos: Rufous Fantail in the Mirboo North State Forest. Credit – Grace Adamo. Other Photos: Marg Thomas
In south eastern Australia, the early Spring weather is beginning to stabilise, with longer sequences of warmer days, but still interspersed by tempestuous stormy weather fronts. Increasing warmth and rain combine to imbue the forest with a beauty and ambience of colour, intoxicating scents and an intricate, rejuvenating life force.
Most of the resident bird population activities are dominated by the urgency of breeding. The early Spring dawn silence is broken by a chorus, or an explosion, of birdsong, proclaiming the determination, joys, and power of parenthood.
It is a tumultuous, territorial trumpeting of clucks, whistles, trills, caws, twitters, and piping from all corners of the forest. From the tiny Spotted Pardalote to the imposing Wedge-tailed Eagle. Later, many young birds and animals begin the weaning process and leave nests, burrows, and hollows to explore their natural world, as migratory birds arrive to glean the bounty and wealth of productivity.
The early Spring flowering is ablaze with scented, lemon wattle blooms, then expanding from the drying ridges to the moister valleys, to focus on waterways, stream-sides, and wetlands. The distinctive call of the Common Bronze-wing Pigeon, Lyrebird and Whipbird resonates through the tree trunks and across the valleys, rhythmic and deeply intoned. A diversity of flowering eucalypts feed nectar feeders; the Red Wattle birds and Eastern Rosellas, the latter heavily committed to courting. Breeding, feeding, and weaning is a common activity for wildlife during Spring. The newly arrived migrant Sacred Kingfisher, Rufous Whistler, Rufous Fantail and Satin Flycatcher busying themselves amongst the abundant, floral smorgasbord where Wood Swallows are already nesting.
The predominant Eucalyptus species are Messmate, Peppermint Gum, Mountain Grey Gum, with restricted, distinctive stands of Yertchuk, Silvertop Ash and Mountain Ash. The hollows in standing or fallen mature eucalypts are the threatened, specialised habitat for Sugar Glider, Greater Glider, Bats, Lace Monitors, Owls, Parrots and Reptiles. The tallest trees are the chosen nesting platforms for the magnificent Wedge-tailed Eagle.
Our local Eucalyptus species are essential habitat for our distinctive Strzelecki koala. Much of our great Gippsland forest has been cleared or over-exploited, so our koala population is dependent on our dispersed, remnant forests for feeding, roosting, and breeding habitat.
Along chosen waterways Platypus are completing burrows and nursing chambers to lay their eggs for another generation of this unique Australian mammal. Also, in our waterway’s juvenile Common Galaxias, Spotted Galaxias, Tupong and Australian Grayling are migrating upstream from the coast, passing mature Short-finned Eels migrating downstream to coastal estuaries.
Early Spring holds such exciting promise for our forests and waterways.
Towards the end of Spring, river valleys become the floral centre point of our forests, with distinctive, massed flowers of Burgan, Christmas Bush, Swamp Paper-bark, Tree Everlasting, Prickly Moses, Hemp-bush, Kangaroo Apple, Prickly Currant, Austral Mulberry, pea species. The lush, new, distinctive growth of Coral Fern scrambling and handsome King Fern clumps is outstanding. Also notable are rare specimens of Mock Olive whilst amongst the ground flora, Spiny Mat-rush, Red Saw-sedge, Hop Goodenia and on moist shaded slopes, the fascinating carpets of rare Fir Club Moss and Turquoise Berry can be found.
Water spiders skate delicately over water surfaces aerially patrolled by dragon flies. Damsel flies are still emerging, and egg clusters of Lacewings are found on the forest litter and vegetation around the littoral edge, along with those of the Striped Marsh Frog, Southern Brown Tree Frog, Common Froglet, and Whistling Tree Frog tadpole masses with variously developed appendages, share pools with a wide biodiversity of invertebrates.
Tiger snakes make their conspicuous presence, with a short period of visibility, during a couple of weeks of breeding in early Spring. They love to sun themselves, often flattening out a platform on a sedge. Migrant, Clamorous Reed Warblers call from clumps of introduced Cumbungi and White-winged Trillers are busy nest building. Cattle Egrets, in breeding plumage, feed in wetlands or open pasture, likely feeding on Black Field Crickets, flooded up, after heavy rains.
In the moist gullies many climbers choose a home. Bowers of Wonga Vine, Twining Silk-pod, Austral Clematis and Billardiera longifolia are spectacular. Migratory birds often use these sheltered sites to nest, such as Rufous Fantail, which returns to the same nesting site, after migrating from New Guinea. In search of the domed nests of Warblers, Scrub-wrens, and Thornbills, is the Golden Bronze-Cuckoo, who steals a chosen nest as its own. Mistletoe Birds collect the fruit of the Box Mistletoe, growing on the Narrow-leafed Peppermint. Ring-tailed Possums begin to wean their young, with some infants falling from their mothers’ backs as they travel in search of food.
Across the forest, a broad diversity of understory plant species are in flower: Buttercups, Candlesticks, Milkmaids, Native Flax, Everlasting Daisies, Grass Trigger plants, Apple-berry, Fringe-lily, Chocolate Lily, Hop Bitter-pea, Guinea Flower, and the delightful Love Creeper.
The delicate flowers of native orchids and grasses are abundant: Wallaby Grass, Weeping Grass, Kangaroo Grass, Poa and many sedges. The prominent orchids: Purple Beard Orchid, Greenhood, Bearded Greenhood, Bird Orchid, Cinnamon Bells, Donkey Orchid, Brown Beaks and on the best sunny True Spring day sky blue, Sun Orchids flower in spectacular array. These all add to the gorgeous embellishment of the floral mosaic on the forest floor.
Magpie Moth and Grapevine Moth are busy hovering over their food plants and termites are in flight during humid, warm weather. Jewel Spiders are a common sight, as are clusters of sawfly larvae. But it is the butterflies that can colour the hot, blue sky. Imperial Whites, Australian Admiral, Painted Lady, Spotted Skipper, Lesser Wanderer, Common Grass Blue, Common Dusky Blue, Woodwhite, Symmous Skipper, Yellow-banded Dart, and Common Brown, all bring colour and movement of heavenly proportions.
Mudlarks have fledglings, which never seem to fall out of their nests with the same frequency as Magpies. Young King parrots visit, and Short-beaked Echidnas are often observed on their long, waddling excursions, looking for ant or termite mounds. Blue-bottle Wasps (the female an outstanding, incandescent blue) is also regularly observed on the hot days of True Spring, clambering energetically over the ground, waiting for the male to lift her to the skies on their nuptial flight.
Warmer weather also stimulates Mole and Field Crickets to create a chorus at dusk. Night brings out Emperor Gum-moths, Red-lined Geometrid, Green-blotched Moth and Granny Moth, under night skies dominated by the stars – Altair, Hamal, Achernar, Lyra and Canopus. If unusually strong northerly winds prevail during the migration of the Bogong Moth to the Australian Alps, there can be large swarms of this moth to southern regions. Sometimes the distinctive call of the Powerful Owl is heard, but it is the almost querulous sounding conversation of the Willie Wagtail, on balmy True Spring evenings, that can capture your immediate attention.
Richard Lester, member Preserve our Forests Biodiversity Research Team
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