Muogamarra Nature Reserve

I notice that I've been a bit lax with the blog again. For those twisted folk who come to read it, my apologies. But I've been busy on the side of the angels, working hard at university, up to my eyebrows in protein synthesis, stomatal guard cells and sexual self-incompatibility in plants (which I guess stops them from getting hairy palms).

Last weekend, we did take some time out, however, to spend a day walking in Muogamarra Nature Reserve, just north of here and just south of the Hawksbury River. Muogamarra is part of Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, but a very special part. It's closed to the public all but 6 weekends of the year, in spring when the wild-flowers are at their most spectacular. A huge array of species, from Acacia, Grevillea, Boronia, Telopea, Bankia, and various pea flowers, all combining to create the most absurd display of colour.

I hope these images will give a sense of its magnificence.

Birds!

For my birthday (Happy Birthday, me!) my parents gave me some money to spend as I wished, so I ordered three native bird nesting boxes from La Trobe University and they arrived today. Of course, there are plenty of tree hollows out in the National Park and we do have lots of birds visiting our garden, but I'm keen to have them nesting here so we can watch them.

One's for rosellas or lorikeets; one for large parrots; and one for pardalotes. The parrot boxes both have "exotic bird excluders", the thin pieces of wood partially covering the entrances. Parrots like to chew open entrances to their nests, while exotics can't, and won't fit in. The pardalote entrance is too tiny for other species.

These are the birds most likely to move in, just in case you're unfamiliar with them. I've seen all of them in our garden over the last year.

Galah, Eolophus roseicapillus

Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo,
Calyptorhynchus funereus

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Cacatua galerita

Striated Pardalote, Pardalotus striatus

Rainbow Lorikeet,
Trichoglossus haematodus

Crimson Rosella, Platycercus elegans

Eastern Rosella, Platycercus eximius

Bird images: Wikimedia Commons.

I'll post images of the boxes in situ, once we've done the ladder thing, and of course post updates when there's avian activity.

Biodiversity

This clever image, "Species-scape", I found on one of my favourite blogs, Catalogue of Organisms (but it's also to be found here and here. I don't know who created the original.)

It's a graphical image of various groups of organisms represented at sizes relative to the number of described species in that group.

It reminds me of the delightful quotation attributed to J.B.S. Haldane: God, if he exists, has an inordinate fondness for beetles.

(While there are more arthropod species than species of other animals, within insects, there are more beetles than any other species. Sorry, fly. You must be in the graphic only because of your undoubted personal allure.)

Terrarium

I've set up a little terrarium in an old aquarium--yes, also squeezed into the bathroom, along with the propagating ferns. There is something fascinating about them, the way they form microcosms. I've planted an Asplenium bulbiferum (hen and chicken fern, on the top left of this image) which grew from an adult plant in my garden, mosses, liverworts, lichens, and some Utricularia gibba in the "lake".

Incidentally, if you're interested in setting one up, there's a good trick to keep the water fresh. Before putting anything else in the tank, put in a layer of charcoal (best obtained from a aquarium shop and used for aquarium filters), then follow that with the sand, rocks, soil, etc. This limits the growth of anaerobic (ie, stinky) bacteria.

There. The perfect bathroom decoration. Better Homes and Gardens will be beating down my door.