MARCH: WILDLIFE OF FORRESTDALE LAKE & ANSTEY ROAD BUSHLAND
Our guest speaker Glen Gaikhorst was from the Friends of Forrestdale group. This Friends group has been together for over 30 years and was established from a small group of environmentally aware people, continuing as a small, active group today.
Forrestdale Lake is a Ramsar Wetland and regarded as a Significant Bird Area. The total reserve, however, contains an additional 300ha of supportive vegetation. The reserve is managed under a Nature Reserve Management Plan published by CALM in 2005. Anstey Road (previously known as Anstey-Keane) is an area consisting of land owned by DBCA, Department of Planning and private owners. Where possible it is managed under the banner of Jandakot Regional Park.
Anstey Road covers 350-400ha of bush and is a very diverse reserve. It is where the Megamouth Bee was recently discovered. Neither Forrestdale Lake nor Anstey Road have been subject to a formal herpetofauna or mammal survey, though Glen did some work in the early nineties and published a brief paper on the two areas. Based on this lack of information, the Friends of Forrestdale decided to undertake a series of fauna surveys in both reserves. The surveys were to cover: reptiles, using pits, funnels and cameras; amphibians, using pits, funnels and calls; small mammals, using pits and cameras; bats using ‘Anabat’ recorders; feral species, using pits, cameras and active observations; and bush birds using active observations. A Regulation 17 permit was required to undertake this work and Glen, a zoologist, was the permit holder. The permit was subject to strict conditions, which restricted its extent. For Forrestdale Lake it was restricted to the dune area on the eastern edge of the lake.
The first survey was conducted in spring 2017 by a team of volunteers. They placed the traps in the ground and checked them twice per day as required. Glen showed us a photo of two species of legless lizards, Fraser’s Legless Lizard and Gray’s Legless Lizard, and a photo of a pair of Guenther’s Toadlets caught in the pit traps. Active searches turned up five Honey Possums in Anstey Road and two Tiger Snakes and several Dugites. Small reptiles included Burton’s Legless Lizard and the Perth Lined Lerista (Lerista lineata), which Glen believes should be listed as endangered due to its restricted distribution. They also found the South-west Crevice Egernia (Egernia napoleonis) and the Black-striped Snake (Neelaps calonotus). Larger reptiles included Rosenberg’s (or Southern Heath) Monitor (Varanus rosenbergi). Among the images captured by the cameras were several of Quenda (Southern Brown Bandicoot) and one of a Painted Button Quail. However, the find of the program was a small population of Brush Wallabies (a P4 Priority species) in Anstey Road—the first record of this species being present.
Bats were surveyed using an ‘Anabat’ recorder and associated software to analyse the recordings. Species recorded were White Striped Freetail Bat, Southern Freetail Bat, Gould’s Wattled Bat and the Southern Forest Bat. Glen showed us a series of lists of all the species found during the surveys; there were far too many to include them all in this report.
Waterbirds have been documented in the past, so this survey was limited to birds of the heath and woodland areas. A total of 60 species were recorded, mainly from active surveys. The findings of the survey have been provided to DBCA and it is hoped this will result in ongoing protection efforts for these reserves.
Glen concluded his presentation by outlining that the effort put in by the team of volunteers totalled 306 hours. A second survey will be conducted in the spring of 2018 (probably in November) before the permit expires at the end of 2018.
There were several questions from the audience together with congratulations to the Friends of Forrestdale for undertaking this work. It is no mean feat for a small Friends group.
Colin Prickett