Over the past two weeks, the students of the year 2 neighbourhood have participated in a City of Melbourne Ranger Program. Our adventures have taken place down at the Australian Native Garden at Royal Park. The rangers have focussed on birds and invertebrates. We were fortunate enough to share in the expertise of the rangers and see first hand many examples of the beautiful wildlife at the gardens.
The first session investigating invertebrates focussed on the Eltham Copper Butterfly and bees. This butterfly is extremely endangered and relies on one particular plant for its survival – the Sweet Busaria. The busaria was a popular tree for bakers to use – it burnt extremely hot, so it was great for bread ovens!
The rangers then discussed with the group how important bees are to the environment. Pretty much everything we eat has been pollinated by bees and unfortunately they are starting to disappear. Use of pesticides and introduction of parasites play a factor in the declining population. The students were told about a few different types of bees – honey bees, teddy bear bees and blue banded bees.
Rangers Johnny and Jim told us about how the blue banded bees pollinate differently – they hold onto the stem of the flower and then buzz their wings and make the pollen go all over their body and then their wings spread the pollen.
The second session had a focus on birds. We looked at how the male bower bird collects blue objects to put in their nest, in particular to attract female birds. They do a spectacular dance to impress their mates! Bower birds are also a little sneaky, they sneak into their neighbours nest to steal their loot.
We went on a ‘twitch’ with our bird guides, managing to spot some galahs, noisy minors, rainbow lorikeets and ravens.
The kids had a great time in both sessions and made some great contributions. The next two sessions will be wetland wildlife and mammals.