In recent weeks club members have been observing Banded Stilts in very good numbers at Moolap Saltworks. These enigmatic and wonderful birds have been seen well from near the pump-house. David Tytherleigh and John Newman observed 765 Banded Stilts, with 665 Red-necked Avocets on the week-end of 20/21 September and Barry Lingham reported several hundred Banded Stilts on 29 September. This is a critical area for these species, and many others, which is currently Crown Land and is subject to a major housing redevelopment. A proposal which the GFNC is strenuously opposing. ...Craig Morley

David and Craig headed out to Reedy Lake for a very enjoyable period of observation at Woods Road late on 18 October 2014 (18:50-20:10; sunset 19:37). There were numerous highlights: 2 Brolgas flying in a few moments after sunset, a Hobby making the most of the fading light skimming past shelterbelts in an attempt to flush birds and later, well after sunset, feeding on flying insects, a small flock of Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos flying towards a distant roosting site, a female Darter flying away from the wetland and a solitary Latham's Snipe rapidly flying through.We also listened intently for bitterns calling. Alas we heard none.      ... Craig Morley

A full bird list follows:

Black   Swan 20
Grey Teal 60
Musk Duck 1
Australasian Darter 1
Eastern Great Egret 1
White-faced Heron 1
Australian White Ibis 20
Straw-necked Ibis 50
Royal Spoonbill 1
Yellow-billed Spoonbill 1
Black-shouldered Kite 1
Swamp Harrier 4
Purple Swamphen 90
Brolga 2
Black-winged Stilt 35
Masked Lapwing 4
Sharp-tailed Sandpiper 110
Curlew Sandpiper 1
Latham's Snipe 1
Whiskered Tern 120
Australian Hobby 1
Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo 8
Red-rumped Parrot 2
Superb Fairy-wren 10
White-plumed Honeyeater 6
Red Wattlebird 2
New Holland Honeyeater 6
White-browed Scrubwren 2
Yellow-rumped Thornbill 4
Grey Butcherbird 2
Australian Magpie 4
Willie Wagtail 2
Magpie-lark 2
Australian Reed-Warbler 4
Little Grassbird 4
Golden-headed Cisticola 4
Common Blackbird 2
Common Myna 2
Common Starling 2
European Greenfinch 1
House Sparrow 6

Little Grassbirds

The Little Grassbird is classified in the Geelong Bird Report as moderately common, breeding, resident. Widespread in dense waterside vegetation. However, as every birder knows, it's very difficult to get a prolonged and satisfying view of one of these handsome birds. So it was with great delight that David Tytherleigh was able to observe and photograph two grassbirds making repeated visits carrying food to, what must have surely been, their nest-site in a very thick patch of lignum at Reedy Lake. It is also noteworthy to have a local breeding record of this species. These images are published with David's kind permission. ...Craig Morley

Little Grassbird Reedy Lake Oct 2014

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Members thoroughly enjoyed a good walk to the end of Edwards Point on Thursday 23rd October, 2014. ...Craig Morley

A total of 69 bird species was recorded from the Beach Road car park to the point with a short and enjoyable detour to the Cliff St wetland. There were many highlights but one of the more fascinating aspects was prolonged views of an adult male Golden Whistler in aberrant plumage (photo). This bird, with a pale grey/fawn breast and full black chin-strap and greyish back, was first reported, from the same area in the north of the reserve on 31/08/2010, as an adult in similar plumage (Geelong Bird Report 2010). The bird has the song of a Golden Whistler.

.Resize P1170904abberant Golden Whistler Edwards Pt 300x225

Full bird list, with numbers counted on walk from car park to the point (including a short detour to the Cliff St wetland) for the excursion led by Angus Hartshorn.

Black Swan

60

Australian Shelduck

7

Grey Teal

400

Chestnut Teal

50

Spotted Dove

2

Little Pied Cormorant

20

Great Cormorant

1

Little Black Cormorant

350

Pied Cormorant

50

Australian Pelican

40

Eastern Great Egret

4

White-faced Heron

25

Little Egret

4

Australian White Ibis

500

Straw-necked Ibis

800

Royal Spoonbill

4

Whistling Kite

2

Swamp Harrier

2

Nankeen Kestrel

1

Brown Falcon

1

Black-winged Stilt

4

Red-capped Plover

10

Masked Lapwing

2

Common Greenshank

5

Red-necked Stint

6

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper

7

Curlew Sandpiper

1

Caspian Tern

4

Whiskered Tern

30

Crested Tern

10

Pacific Gull

3

Silver Gull

100

Galah

2

Rainbow Lorikeet

2

Crimson Rosella

1

Eastern Rosella

1

Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo

1

Shining Bronze-Cuckoo

3

Fan-tailed Cuckoo

3

Superb Fairy-wren

30

White-browed Scrubwren

6

Striated Fieldwren

1

Brown Thornbill

12

Spotted Pardalote

1

Singing Honeyeater

2

Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater

20

Little Wattlebird

2

Red Wattlebird

3

White-fronted Chat

6

New Holland Honeyeater

10

Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike

2

Golden Whistler

4

Rufous Whistler

4

Grey Shrike-Thrush

2

Grey Butcherbird

1

Australian Magpie

10

Pied Currawong

2

Grey Fantail

30

Willie Wagtail

2

Little Raven

4

Magpie-lark

2

Eastern Yellow Robin

4

Eurasian Skylark

3

Silvereye

40

Welcome Swallow

30

Common Blackbird

5

Common Starling

10

Red-browed Finch

20

European Goldfinch

2

There have now been several records of these shorebirds which visit our part of the world after flying from the northern hemisphere. At Black Rock Reserve, over the week-end of the 25th/26th October 2014, more than 20 Pacific Golden Plovers were loafing on the rocks in the Blue Rocks area. There were also several Ruddy Turnstones and many Red-neckd Stints, along with three Great Cormorants, on the rocks. ... Craig Morleyresize P1180049 300x225

Spiny Peppercress!

A miserable little endangered plant

by Valda Dedman

When the Club visited Beeac swamp during an excursion in mid 1996, members were shown a small plant by D.N.R.E. officer, Phil du Guesclin, but did not become wildly enthusiastic about it, in spite of its rarity. Spiny Peppercress, Lepidium aschersonii could be regarded as a miserable little plant, scrawny, spiny, 30 cm tall at most, with insignificant little flowers.

I became interested in this plant when I recently had to prepare comments on the Lake Beeac Catchment Management Plan.

peppercress1Lepidium is a cosmopolitan genus of 150 species, of which 35 are indigenous to Australia. Victoria has 12 endemic species and 8 introduced. Many of the native lepidiums are rare or restricted in distribution, and some have become extinct. Lepidium aschersonii is classed as endangered in Victoria and is thought to be close to extinction in New South V\/ales, where it occurs in the NE western plains and on marginal central western slopes. There is an isolated occurrence, which may be an introduction, at Corackerup Wildlife Reserve in Western Australia.

In Victoria Spiny Peppercress occurs on 12 sites between Mortlake and Beeac, with an outlying population at Lake Omeo. Only one of these sites is in a biological reserve (Lake Beeac). It was collected in 1875 from Lake Corangamite and in 1883 from Williamstown. I wonder if it ever occurred in the Geelong district. I would be pleased to hear of any local reports. Has it been merely overlooked? Much of its habitat has been destroyed by drainage, cultivation, or heavy grazing.

Two other lepidium species on the western volcanic plains and I would appreciate local records of them also. L. pseudotasmanicum is common and widespread, usually in rocky situations, while L. hyssopifolium has been rarely reported from western Victoria and is currently known from only two localities to the north and north-east of Melbourne.

L. aschersonii generally grows on seasonally flooded wetlands with heavy cracking black clays, but is sometimes found on adjacent drier sites. At Lake Beeac it grows on the steep banks of the eastern shore of the salt lake and extends to the waters edge in a saltmarsh dominated by Austral Seablite, Suaeda australis. Other saltmarsh species there include Streaked Arrowgrass, Triglochin striata, Blown Grass, Agrostis avenacea, Australian Salt Grass, Distichlis distichophylla and Marsh Club-rush Bolboschoenus medianus. It also occurs in the south-western and northern fringes of Beeac swamp, and on adjacent private property.

The name "lepidium" comes from the Greek word for "scale" and refers to the shape of the squat flattened fruits, which split open to eject seeds. "Aschersonii" honours the professor of botany at the Botanic Museum at the University of Berlin.Lepidium aschersonii is a perennial herb, arising annually from underground rootstock. It is distinguished by the spines on its tangled branchlets and at the tip of the flowering raceme. Both stems and leaves are hairy. The leaves at the base of the plant are up to 12cm long and pinnately lobed, but become smaller, narrower and stalkless with increasing height up the stem. The greenish-Mite flowers are barely visible and occur in November to December, to be followed by oval stalked fruits only a few millimetres long. The fruits are smooth and notched at the tip and contain two seeds, each in its own separate chamber.

peppercress2Cresses belong the mustard family Brassicacae, which includes many of our vegetables, such as cabbage, cauliflower, radish and turnip. They contain mustard oils, manufactured by the plants as a defence (although obviously not totally effective) against herbivores. Heat inactivates the oils and makes the taste pleasantly bland. Aborigines in South Australia steamed bundles of lepidium leaves in earthen pits. Spicy seeds can be ground as pepper. The European garden cress is Lepidium sativum, a salad plant which is cut young and used with mustard. It contains large amounts of vitamin C.

Garden cress germinates easily, but the National Botanic Gardens in Canberra experienced difficulties establishing plants from seed of Spiny Peppercress collected by Neville Scariett in 1982 from Beeac and Omeo. Attempts have been made to introduce the species to Lake Goldsmith State Game Reserve near Skipton, but although planted seedlings have survived, there has been no natural regeneration there.

At Beeac the opportunity presents itself to put in place measures which could aid the preservation of this endangered species. One stand, that was fenced off after severe damage by sheep grazing in 1982-83, has regenerated and plants also appeared in the 1986-87 season from soil-stored seed in an adjacent area. I do not know the effect of the past two dry seasons, or the extent of the species on private land

In our submission on the Lake Beeac Catchment Management Plan we recommended an active program to protect Spiny Peppercress. This would include a thorough survey to ascertain present local distribution, involving local landowners in identification and propagation, and the production of a brochure on the species. We believe the plant could become a key feature of a wetland education program, which would also assist in the management of the entire catchment.

REFERENCES:
Briggs, J.D., Leigh, J.H. (1995). Rare or threatened Australian plants. Rev. ed. CSIRO, Canberra.
Flora of Australia (1 981 -). Bureau of Flora & Fauna, Canberra.
Foreman, D.B. and Walsh, N.G., eds. (1993-1997). Flora of Victoria. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Low, T. (1988). Wild food plants of Australia. Angus & Robertson, North Ryde, N.S.W.
Romanowski, N. (1997). Beeac swamp reserve: report to the Victorian Wetland Trust. Dragonfly Aquatics, Colac.
Sinclair Knight Merz (1997). Lake Beeac Catchment Draft Management Plan. Draft. D.N.R.E., Melbourne.
Society for Growing Australian Plants Maroondah (1991). Flora of Melbourne. Hyland House, Melbourne.
Photographs: John Eichler