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Bingi Babbler
Binginwarri Landcare Group Newsletter No. 24 18th February 2016
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Have your say, share your experience or topic of interest in the next Bingi Babbler - Submit Here
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Chair: John McClumpha 5185 1455 jd@incitegraphics.com.au
Minutes : Vacant Is this your name?
Newsletter: Kaye Proudley 5185 1398 kayeatbingi@.gmail.com
Social Secretary: Is there anybody out there?
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Chair: John McClumpha 5185 1455 jd@incitegraphics.com.au
Minutes : Vacant Is this your name?
Newsletter: Kaye Proudley 5185 1398 kayeatbingi@.gmail.com
Social Secretary: Is there anybody out there?
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For interesting articles and plenty of photos, links to the YYLN or the JARR websites, or to read your newsletter online (don’t forget to let us know that you’re reading it online so we can save paper, trees & the ether from being polluted)
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VICNATURE 250In 2015, a group of people came together at a symposium, called Managing Victoria’s Biodiversity under Climate Change, in Melbourne. More than 200 Scientists and audience members with years of practical experience discussed the state-of-play and options for the future. VicNature 2050 was organised by the Victorian National Parks Association, The Royal Society of Victoria and The University of Melbourne’s Bio21 Institute and sponsored by the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning and Parks Victoria. (Each of the underlined blue entities is a link you can use to check them out. Editor.) This website is one outcome from that conference. It presents 10 things we can all do to help nature adapt to a new climate. All 10 actions involve people, nature, science, politics and every single one of us – personally. Some of the actions are new, some are as old as the hills. Many will be discussed, experimented with, and refined as we learn more in the future. Here is their (ridiculously long) link - http://vicnature2050.org/?utm_source=RSV+Members+%26+Friends&utm_campaign=4feb62f4fe-vicnature20502_2_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b8cb89ff82-4feb62f4fe-111867853&mc_cid=4feb62f4fe&mc_eid=60a7e4db08 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Product swaps on one well-viewed map More than 4000 people have viewed the Google-map-based listing of produce swaps across Gippsland prepared for Agribusiness Gippsland by Dr Graham Moore from the University of Melbourne. You can view and edit the map at: http://g.co/maps/eqvpa ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sometimes the thoughts in my head get so bored they go out for a stroll through my mouth – that is rarely a good thing! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GOING, GOING… The bad news for our Binginwarri Landcare Group is that we’ll be losing another stalwart and valuable family from our books come April 2016. Ric and Margaret Collet have been centre points of their community, both as Yarram shop keepers at Wynn’s Drapery, as well as members of the original, and the newer incarnation, of Bingi Landcare for far longer than I’ve been in the area and are well-loved by all who know them. Sadly for us, due to ageing and ill-health they’ve made the decision to down-size and move onto flatter land, so let’s say it now that we wish them all the very best of health to enjoy their new-found paradise and will remember and perhaps visit us in their spare time – something as past shopkeepers, they should enjoy. Thanks for being members Marg & Ric. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hey Kevin, just getting off the subject of dairy cows for a bit, what do you call cattle with a sense of humour? You’re right…. Laughing Stock!!! 
This cartoon was a result of me telling John McC, our computer expert, that I’d seen a cockatoo flying through the tree canopy and colliding head first with a tree branch and how it had ‘‘stumbled’’ whilst flying. John created the cartoon on his computer, and the new word ‘‘flumbling!’’
WITH APOLOGIES TO THE PEOPLE FROM JACK RIVER: The only cow in Binginwarri stopped giving milk. The people did some research and found that they could buy a cow just across the way in Jack River for $200. They brought the cow from Jack River and the cow was wonderful. It produced lots of milk all of the time, and the people were very happy. They decided to acquire a bull to mate with the cow to produce more cows like it. They’d never have to worry about their milk supply again. They bought the bull and put it in the pasture with their beloved cow. However, whenever the bull tried to mount the cow, the cow would move away. No matter what approach the bull tried, the cow would move away from the bull and he could not succeed in his quest. The people were very upset and decided to ask the Vet, who was very wise, what to do. They told the Vet what was happening. "Whenever the bull tries to mount our cow, she moves away. If he approaches from the back, she moves forward. When he approaches her from the front, she backs off. An attempt from the side, she walks away to the other side." The Vet thought about this for a minute and asked. "Did you by chance, buy this cow in Jack River?" The people were dumbfounded, since no one had ever mentioned where they bought the cow. "You are truly a wise Vet," they said. "How did you know we got the cow in Jack River?" The Vet replied with a distant look in his eye, "My wife is from Jack River." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is the rather nice little ‘thank you’ card that Zoe Macdonald made, entirely of her own volition, for each of the attendees at a treeplanting on her parents farm in 2015. Sorry I had to squish it a bit to fit Zoe!! 
Endangered, Threatened, Vulnerable, Rare & Uncommon birds in our area
There have been a few sightings of late of birds that are listed as ‘Endangered’, ‘Threatened’ or ‘Vulnerable’ under the government’s Flora and Fauna Guarantee listings, coming under the EPBC (Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation) Act. To have these birds and animals in our area is really special for us all and could potentially mean more Landcare grant money that could come this way to help make things better for those species, and give us very worthwhile projects to work on. Some of you out there working on your farms and properties must be seeing these birds and animals (if you recognise them) and I’m wondering if you can let me know by email or a phone call, every time you notice them please? I am willing to record all these sightings to keep a track of them and use that information to best effect. Your privacy will be guaranteed and I will not publish site-specific information unless that is what you want. Some of the birds on the Threatened or Near Threatened Species List (under different categories) are: Magpie Goose, Great Egret, White-bellied Sea Eagle, Barking Owl, Powerful Owl, Little, Caspian & Fairy Terns, Hardhead (duck), Blue-billed and Freckled Ducks. I will write a bigger article on the next Babbler on these and perhaps go into the area of fish, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, etc. sometime on the future. 
Male Freckled Duck - photo Wikipedia
Male Freckled Duck - photo Wikipedia
One that is on the Near Threatened List that is my concern right now is the Azure Kingfisher, pictured below. Quite different in colour to the Sacred Kingfisher that we find in the drier forests around this way, the Azure nests in tunnels it digs out in riverbanks. It sits waiting in trees, usually overhanging freshwater rivers, streams, dams, lakes and swamps then dives for fish, crustaceans, frogs and other water creatures. They are a small (18cm from tip of bill to base of tail) and quiet, unassuming bird, easily overlooked. Their call is a high-pitched ‘‘psee-psee’’. If you reckon you’ve seen them at your place - call me, please.
You can listen to a recording of them and read more about them as well here - http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/species/Ceyx-azureus This is what you’d be looking for, although the bird’s colouring may appear somewhat darker in the shadows of the trees - 
Azure Kingfisher –photo by Scott Rawstorne,
With that, I‘ll sign off now and see you in two months in the next Bingi Babbler, take care and please…do watch out for our wildlife.Kaye Proudley
Newsletter Editor |
