A Wander at Lah Rec Reserve

After our last Yarrilinks Committee meeting on 7th November, we were joined by a few local community members for a walk around Lah Rec Reserve.

We checked out the dam, and had a bit of a play around with iNaturalist. INaturalist is a website, online community and mobile app that encourages people to get out and record the biodiversity they encounter, learn about flora and fauna, and contribute to research efforts by documenting species. These observations make a valuable record of what’s around in our own backyards and further afield.

Here is an example of a species that we recorded on our walk at the Lah Rec Reserve:

Screenshot from the iNaturalist app.

iNaturalist has great image recognition software, and as long as a couple quality pictures are provided, in most cases it will automatically suggest a few species. Usually this is pretty accurate, but your observation will also be made available to the iNaturalist community. This includes experts and enthusiasts on a variety of different species, and if they disagree with the automatic ID of your observation, they can add a correction. This makes it a really valuable learning tool for someone wanting to brush up on their local flora and fauna.

We also saw these amazing nests in a sand bank, which iNaturalist quickly identified as belonging to a fairy martin.

Wheel cactus

Unfortunately, there is a lot of wheel cactus (Opuntia robusta) at the site. It is public land, so any control efforts need to be done with permission of the Land Manager. We are hoping to be involved in control efforts in future.

However, while we were there we also came across another cactus that looked a bit different (see below). Alicia uploaded some photos to iNaturalist and just listed it as a general prickly pear (Genus Opuntia, so some cousin of wheel cactus and commmon prickly pear), in the hopes that an expert might swoop in and provide more information.

To our surprise, the observation created a bit of interest, with several cacti enthusiasts engaging in a debate about the correct ID for our observation. The consensus was that it was part of the brown-spined prickly pear complex, but there was interest from a cacti researcher in testing tissue samples to come up with a definitive answer. We are hoping to facilitate this.

Frolicking in the grass

All in all, it was an enjoyable day in the field. We usually pair an outdoor activity with our normal Yarrilinks committee meetings, and we are hoping to continue this format of having the activity open to the public where possible. Our next meeting is Monday 3rd Feb and we will be starting with a bird walk at Lake Marma with Ross Barlow - open to all!