Pittwater Natural Heritage Association (PNHA) | Community organisation

Pittwater Natural Heritage Association (PNHA)

Phone: +61 420 817 574

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23.01.2022 Frog ID week starts November 6. Get the Frog ID app on your phone or IPad to record a call and help Australian Museum frog experts map our frog species. Image: Southern Barred Frog (Mixophyes balbus) by Jodi Rowley. Thanks to your FrogID submissions from all across Australia, the FrogID team have produced seven scientific papers so far. This month, FrogID research revealed that Australian frogs indeed have accents, and their accents change across the country, and even over ti...me. We also used FrogID data to take a closer look at just how much frogs restrict their calling to night-time, and found that most Australian frogs actually call during the day, some at surprisingly high rates! All the research produced by the FrogID project is a reminder of how your records are providing information about frogs on scales never before possible. Last month, we revealed how your FrogID records are providing an early understanding of frogs persisting after the Black Summer bushfires, but this picture is not yet complete. Your continued use of FrogID is very important this year, more than ever. Whether you’re at a nearby creek, pond, nature reserve, or your own backyard every recording of a frog call contributes to our research. So far, FrogID has identified more than 250,000 frog calls and identified 199 of the known 242 Australian frog species. During FrogID Week last year, over 5,000 frog records from 71 species were counted! The best way to stay up to date with this year’s FrogID Week information, stats, and exciting discoveries, is by following us on social media. If you're planning any FrogID Week activities in your community and would like help seeking local media opportunities, let us know by emailing [email protected] With La Niña underway and the likelihood of above average rainfall across much of Australia, we hope more frogs will be breeding and calling this year. Head outside each day of FrogID Week and help us find calling frogs together, we can build our understanding and better protect our frog species. Safe frogging, everyone!

22.01.2022 Issue 2 of Pittwater Nature is now on line here: http://pnha.org.au//u/2020/10/Issue-2-Pittwater-Nature.pdf Read about: Leopard Slugs drunk on KB, Avalon Community Garden's fantastic composting, A Cockie Conversation, Angophora Reserve in Avalon, a Koala, and the Big Angophora, Mona Vale Dunes, Baby Ringtails rescued, and lots more. We welcome contributions.

20.01.2022 Have a look at our Mona Vale Dunes bush regeneration site progress, in before and after photos. Work began early this year. Dense bitou bush, green cestrum, lantana and asparagus completely covered this area. A few desperate native plants have been revealed. Bush regen contractors are working here funded by a grant to PNHA from the Federal Government's communities environment program. We will be planting tubestock here in autumn 2021. The site is now becoming visible from the pathway between Golf Ave and south Mona Vale headland.

18.01.2022 Trad, that dreaded weed, may be about to meet its match in the Pittwater area and hopefully everywhere. PNHA has been tracking the progress of a biocontrol agent, a leaf fungus, trialled by the CSIRO. Last week we received a box of infected Trad and planted it at three sites on October 28 so it could infect healthy Trad. Watch for Trad going yellow: 1 on the right of the first boardwalk towards Irrawong Waterfall, 2, in part of McCarrs Creek Reserve, 3, Bangalley Head Reserve near . Whale Beach Rd. Photos: 1. Marita Macrae, Julie Bennett, David Palmer and Edna Blanchard with the infected Trad. 2. Planting the stems beside the boardwalk. NO, IT'S NOT ANOTHER CANE TOAD. More info: https://blog.csiro.au/smut-to-the-rescue/

16.01.2022 Wider view of the delicate flowers of Tongue Orchid in our cover photo. It survives dry conditions clinging to the rock with roots that can absorb moisture, the leaves thick and shrivelled, then bursts into bloom late September.

16.01.2022 What do you know about backyard birds? Here's a webinar to help. https://www.northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au//backyard-birds-dis

15.01.2022 We like the idea of being able to enjoy the night sky. Can you support this proposal for a night sky park at Palm Beach? https://www.northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au//preserving-our-vie

14.01.2022 Roundup herbicide contains the active ingredient glyphosate. What do we need to know about its safety? Though we'd love to do without herbicides, it's very valuable to bush regenerators. Alternatives suggested can be more dangerous or ineffective. Read Tim Low's article here: https://invasives.org.au//glyphosate-a-chemical-to-unders/

12.01.2022 What pollinators are on your flowers? Hoverflies? Bees native and introduced? Wasps? Beetles? https://www.australianpollinatorweek.org.au/

10.01.2022 The Spotted Pardalote's sweet little call high in the eucalypt canopy is rare in Pittwater now, unless you are near a bushland reserve. Loss of canopy trees and places safe from cats to build nesting tunnels are reasons, plus the attacks of Noisy Miners and other bully birds. Can you plant a local Eucalypt to bring back our canopy and lock up your cat?

08.01.2022 Abstract art, by Nature, the world's greatest artist. Spotted Gum bark on a wet morning.

05.01.2022 Dwarf Apple buds, Angophora hispida. This heathland shrub is a stunner in early summer, very popular with insects, particularly beetles. Chiltern Track at Ingleside is a place to go for a close up view of this lovely plant in a week or two. The red hairs probably protect the developing flowers, as Angophoras, unlike Eucalypts, don't have a little cap over the stamens of the flowers.

04.01.2022 The Textured Emerald Moth Hypodoxa muscosaria, expert in camouflage. Its earlier life is as a Green Looper caterpillar. This one in an Avalon garden. The moths are on the wing from November through to April in both rural and suburban situations, and they often come to nocturnal lights. The lovely colours turn to brown in dead moths. More info: http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au/ge/muscosaria.html