Is it a crim or an eastern?

Crimson Rosellas and Eastern Rosellas are two of Australia’s most common and colourful parrots. 

Crimson Rosella - note full crimson belly and rump, blue cheeks, etc.

Ever since first settlement, both these birds have been recognised for their beauty. 

Eastern Rosella - white cheeks, yellow belly, black and yellow back, etc.

There are two theories on the derivation of ‘rosella’.

The artist John Gould, (who named the Gouldian Finch, Erythrura gouldiae, after his wife, hence the feminine gouldiae rather than gouldii but pronounced the same), is believed to have used the name Rose Hill Parakeet after early settlers using that term for Eastern Rosellas often seen in the Rose Hill area. Rose Hill Parakeet was thought to be shortened to ‘Rose-Hiller’ and eventually ‘Rosella’.

Gouldian Finch or sometimes Lady Gouldian Finch (Image - Wikipedia)

Another story is that in 1830, John Gilbert named the birds ‘Rosetta Parrots’, (in a list of wildlife commonly shot!), and a slip of the pen resulted in ‘Rosella’.

Who knows? Doesn’t matter, both the Eastern and Crimson Rosella that inhabit our parks and gardens in Drouin are welcome visitors simply for their attractive plumage.

Next time you see an ‘eastern’ or a ‘crim’, take a good look, you may notice something a bit different about the odd individual bird.

Eastern Rosellas belong to the ‘white-cheeked’ branch of the ‘rosella’ family and Crimson Rosellas are ‘blue-cheeked’ birds. (I don’t want to confuse matters too much further, but there are also Yellow Rosellas, Northern Rosellas, Green Rosellas, Pale-headed Rosellas and Western Rosellas but not around here). 

Yellow Rosella, South Australia - note blue cheeks.

Anyway, every now and then a bird will come along that looks very like an Eastern Rosella but has blue cheeks, (and is more extensively crimson than red, less yellow on the back, etc).

Crim or eastern? Blue(ish) cheeks, etc. (Drouin backyard)

Crimson and easterns will sometimes hybridize. Also, it is suspected that colour variation in some Crimson Rosellas is due to a virus.

Eastern and 'Crim-eastern' beside one another.

I know, I am a sad individual!

Why is tree canopy important?

National Tree Day
Sunday 28th July 10am - 12noon Clifford Dr Drouin (External link)
Come and meet the 'friends' and plant a tree.

All of Australia’s capital cities and many regional centres are conducting urban tree planting projects to provide a multitude of benefits to the environment, the economy and the community.

Urban tree cover can:-

·      Remove pollutants from the air, soil and water.

·      Reduce the urban heat island effect. (Internal link)

·      Save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions

·      Mitigate the effects of run-off.

·      Sequester carbon. (Internal link)

·      Increase property values.

·      Encourage physical activity through recreation.

·      Provide habitat for wildlife

·      Conceal unattractive areas and soften buildings and developments.

Research around the world suggests that urban tree cover can reduce crime rates, reduce stress levels, improve academic performance and lower infrastructure maintenance costs.

The ACT is the best urban area in Australia for tree cover – about 56%. Melbourne’s tree cover varies greatly between the local government areas but averages out at about 14%. Many other world cities have greater tree cover than ours – Singapore with a population about the same size as Melbourne (5+ million), has a tree canopy coverage of nearly 30%.

Without the aid of 3D laser scanning equipment or orthophotographic techniques, and rather crudely but simply by drawing polygons on Google Earth Pro, Drouin has a tree canopy cover of about 10%.

The unprecedented development that Drouin is currently experiencing would almost certainly mean we are losing our tree canopy.

We should be modifying development to suit the environment rather than modifying the environment to suit development!

Drouin Significant Tree Register

Now available online from the Baw Baw Shire website. (External link).

Click on a tree on the map and the citation details will appear.

The evolution of trees

A tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, supporting branches and leaves (in most species).

Strzelecki Gum Drouin

The first plants to exist on land appeared about 430 million years ago. In the Devonian period, around 400 million years ago, the first land plants were little more than a metre or two tall. Competition for sunlight ensured that the tallest plants grew best. Evolution helped for the taller plants to support their extra weight plus develop a system of delivering water and nutrients to their leaves and roots through a structure of vascular cells – a ‘tree’ is born.

Australia’s tree ferns, (while not strictly being trees), in evolutionary terms, are some of the oldest tree structures still existing today.  

 

Tree Fern Gully, Glen Nayook

Tree Fern fronds

Bushy Clubmoss, a fern ally, is another ancient descendant of a large tree that grew 300 million years ago and reached heights of 20 metres.

Bushy Club Moss, Bunyip State Park - a tree relic.

Mountain Ash trees which grow in the higher rainfall parts of the shire are the tallest flowering plants in the world, sometimes towering to 100+ metres. Many of the Mountain Ash trees in this district were killed in the devastating 1939 bushfires hence many of the E.regnans we see today in places like Noojee and Neerim, are quite young in eucalypt terms, around 80 years old.

Regal giants. Mountain Ash, Noojee

So significant, so priceless.