Life in the ERBG's Boletim

This morning we kicked over 3,000 observations of nearly 740 species, mostly in just a little over 2 years! The awards go to:

1. Date observed
Limoniid Crane Fly by Phil Warburton
https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/198373927 - philwarb
2. Date uploaded
Gum Leaf Skeletonizer by canbrou
https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/198558609 - canbrou

These are 2 of some of the amazing insect life in the ERBG which remained largely undocumented until now. iNaturalist has enabled us to rapidly build our knoweldge base in this changing period since the 2019/20 fire, not only of the insects themselves but also their pollination activity. And there have been some exciting discoveries - three insects in our iNaturalist project have never been photographed in the wild before. And a fourth has not been seen in NSW for fifty five years.

But it doesnt stop there - a whole world of fungi has been opened up to us. Like insects, many of these cant be easily identified to species level from photographs alone, but we are certainly making a start. And while plants and other animals in the ERBG were largely known, we are now gaining a much better understanding of seasonal change and recovery since the fire.

Thank you to all our observers and identifiers, and keep up the great work - we all benefit from it!

The Garden continues to attract some star pollinators - the latest find is a stiletto fly that has not been seen in NSW for 55 years. This is only the third photographic record of it in the wild. The other 10 recorded observations are pinned specimens - mostly dating back to 1974 and earlier.

https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/189897939

A great start to Pollinator Week - dont miss the Insect Pollinator Seminar this coming Saturday 11 November, and lots of other activities.

See full program here:
https://www.erbg.org.au/news-and-events/pollinator-week

Learn about how botanic gardens across Australia are developing new frameworks to ensure threatened species survive in living collections, and ERBG’s plans for a new threatened species garden.

There will be an overview of threatened plants in the South Coast region and a report from a recent field trip to Mt Imlay, which is home to several threatened species.

Book now on Eventbrite - https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/threatened-species-and-botanic-gardens-tickets-664251001627

An Elusive Hoverfly is the Most Popular Species

We kicked over 2000 observations at Easter, a great effort over 18 months - keep up the good work! Plants are the biggest group, the most observed species is the red-bellied black snake, and the most commented species is a rare and elusive hover-fly. These observations are providing a comprehensive inventory of species at the Garden, both wild and cultivated. But they are also helping us understand seasons, when plants flower, presence of potential pollinators and frequency of bids and other visitors to the Gardens. Not to mention other life forms - mysterious fungi, myxomycetes,

Checkout our stats page - https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/projects/life-in-the-erbg?tab=stats

The Magic of Mycelium and Myxos

Yesterday around 30 people went on a fungi foray on the deep Creek Trail at the Garden. While this year is not as spectacular as previous years, there was still plenty to be seen.

Checkout some the latest fungi sightings at the Garden - https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations?iconic_taxa=Fungi&order_by=observed_on&place_id=177901&project_id=life-in-the-erbg&captive=any&verifiable=any&subview=grid

Alison Pouliot at the ERBG – Encounters with Fungi

Ecologist and author Alison Pouliot will be presenting a 4.hour workshop at the ERBG on 2 July. The workshop is part of the Fungi Feastival, a month long winter celebration of fungi on the South Coast, being organised by a regional community of fungi-growers and aficionados.

Read more about Alison Pouliot - alisonpouliot.com
Book now - https://www.fungifeastival.com.au/event-details/alison-pouliot-encounters-with-fungi

Spotlight tour will be led by Craig Dunne, Field Ecologist with State Forest Corporation. This is a rare opportunity to visit the Garden after dark with an expert.

Places are limited, register now:

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/spotlight-wildlife-walk-tickets-587495373477?aff=eand

This event is part of the From the Forest Festival, see more at https://erbg.org.au

Eurobodalla Regional Botanic Garden - 16th April 2023

Presented by experts Teresa and John Van der Heul, this walk will introduce you to the magical world of fungi and slime moulds. Participants will take a guided walk through the forest when fungi at their peak time in the Botanic Garden. After the walk a lab session will discuss material seen on the walk, and illustrate photographic techniques to highlight features.

Two sessions available: Sunday 16 April, 10am - 12pm & 1.30pm - 3.30pm

Sessions ~2 hours, same material will covered in both sessions
Commence at the ERBG Visitor Centre
All ages welcome!

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/the-magic-of-mycelium-and-myxos-tickets-546791125977

1K Observations

This week we kicked over the k mark - 1000 observations of 396 species. Canbrou continues to lead in both observations and species, and by a long way. See the latest observations here:
https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations?order_by=observed_on&photos&place_id=177901&project_id=life-in-the-erbg&verifiable=any

Fungi Identifications

We are all fascinated by fungi - so far we have 155 fungi and slime mould observations in the ERBG. They are notoriously difficult to identify properly, and many Australian species can only be separated by microscopic features. Unfortunately the image matching engines in iNaturalist and google often produce a faulty ID for fungi which can add to the misidentification problem.

Our fungi observations are currently being reviewed by an expert in regional fungi and slime moulds. Many will only be properly identifiable to genus level, and in some cases only to family level. So dont be alarmed, its better to be accurate than wrong!

Record Your Flowers

You may - or may not - notice that some of our kind identifiers have been annotating your plant observations for flowering and fruiting. This information is invaluable as it will help us build an annual picture of when plants are flowering in the Garden. So save our overworked identifiers some trouble and annotate your observations - look for phenology under annotations.

On the topic of flowers - stringy barks are now flowering, they can be seen at the approach to ERBG and in the Garden itself. Eucalyptus globoidea in the Garden, but also E. eugenioides seen in coastal spots.

Spring Bioblitz

The first bioblitz at the ERBG brought together observers, photographers, scientists and others. Some of these had been using iNaturalist but were not aware of Life in the ERBG. We have new members of the project contributing some great stuff.

Nature discovery was the theme:

• around 60 people attended, including adults and children.
• 103 observations, 75 species from 7 observers - some species had never been recorded previously at the Garden.
• Nature discovery walks for kids were offered for the first time at a public event. These were adapted from the ERBGs education program and were a great success.
• Insect microscopy was a hit with adults and kids alike.

The early Bird Walk was also a resounding success - not everything was logged, some were just seen fleetingly or identified through calls. Full list of species sighted:

Australian Wood Duck
Pacific Black Duck
Common Bronzewing
Fan-tailed Cuckoo
Purple Swamphen
White-faced Heron
Masked Lapwing
Azure Kingfisher
Laughing Kookaburra
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Crimson Rosella
Rainbow Lorikeet
Australian King Parrot
Satin Bowerbird
White-throated Treecreeper
Superb Fairy-wren
New Holland Honeyeater
White-naped Honeyeater
Noisy Friarbird
Eastern Spinebill
Red Wattlebird
Yellow-faced Honeyeater
Spotted Pardalote
White-browed Scrubwren
Striated Thornbill
Brown Thornbill
Olive-backed Oriole
Rufous Whistler
Golden Whistler
Grey Shrike-thrush
Eastern Whipbird
Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrike
Pied Currawong
Australian Magpie
Grey Butcherbird
Willie Wagtail
Grey Fantail
Magpie-Lark
Australian Raven
Eastern Yellow Robin
Welcome Swallow
Silvereye
Red-Browed Finch

Local photographer Phil Warburton just joined our project and loaded up his beautiful insect observations. Phil has been an iNaturalist user for some time, but his observations werent available to our project for technical reasons - that issue is now solved! That jumps our obervations up to 790, of 339 species - great work!

Enjoy Phils observations in the ERBG at https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations?captive=any&order_by=observed_on&place_id=177901&project_id=life-in-the-erbg&user_id=philwarb&verifiable=any

Spring Bioblitz is Coming!

October 2, just 2 weeks time. Special events include early bird walk, nature discovery for kids, and photography demos from the experts, including Phil. See you there and tell your friends - register now through Eventbrite:

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/spring-bioblitz-at-the-garden-tickets-402132377767

Welcome to our first journal post for Life in the ERBG – we now have all of 7 members, but plan to grow that soon with October 2 Bioblitz! This is our official launch of the project, and the start of more great things to come.

Please invite all your friends, relatives, colleagues – it should be a fun day out and we want to get as many obs on the board as possible. Main action starts at 10am, but there is an early bird walk at 8am. Registration essential!

Register with Eventbrite

Bees in the Garden

Our newest member Peter Abbott has taken some wonderful photos of bees and other insects in the Garden, he also provides the insect hotels installed in the Garden and also for sale in the shop. See below quote from Peter about his bee observations in the Garden:
“I had been studying the native bees in the Garden for a couple of years before the fires and have been eagerly awaiting their return – perhaps this summer season will be the beginning again.

In my covid days I have been writing a guidebook entitled Native bees of the ACT and NSW South Coast – A spotter’s guide – it is near to completion and should be available this spring. I will keep you posted.”

Unfortunately Peter will be in WA on Oct 2 Bioblitz Day, but one of his photos on the Bioblitz Poster.

See Peter Abbott's ERBG observations

Leaderboard

The prize definitely goes to canbrou for “Most Observed” and “Most Species” – maybe he should take out the “Most Observed Species” prize as well, as you frequently see him round the Garden with his impressive Nikon camera. See stats on the home page:
https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/projects/life-in-the-erbg

He seems to like birds, but he’ll take a photo of almost anything and his fungi are especially interesting. We still need to do more work on fungi ID at the Garden and also in the region more generally, but at least we’re making a start by capturing these images.

See canbrou’s observations in ERBG:
See canbrou’s observations in ERBG