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Thurs. 4 September 7.45p.m.: Karen Richards will speak on the Habits and Habitats of the Humble Hydrobiid, a family of freshwater molluscs.
Sat. 6 September 7.00p.m. An evening excursion is planned to the Waterworks Reserve with a view to finding nocturnal fauna including mammals, birds and invertebrates; possibly also luminous fungi.

Thurs. 2 October 7.45p.m.: Graham Edgar, a local marine biologist and author will talk abm`      recent experience on the Conservation, Fisheries and Management of the Galapagos Marine Reserve
Sun. 5 Oct. Excurs.  9.00 a.m.: We will visit the Coal River Gorge, primarily dry sclerophyll habitat north of Hobart.

Thurs. 6 November 7.45p.m.: Randy Rose from Univ. Tasmania Zoology will speak on the biology of the Tasmanian Bettong.
November Excursion  We will visit the Esperance River near Dover.  Detail to follow.

Message from the Treasurer
I don't normally post out the receipts for subs but if anyone wants them please let me know, or see me at a meeting. There are a few subs that haven't been paid for 2003 so if you aren't sure if you have paid either email me at Anna.McEldowney@utas.edu.au ,give me a ring on 62396326 or ask at a meeting. It is $25 for single membership, $30 for family membership and $20 Concession for seniors and students.
If a large red cross appears on your Bulletin envelope, your 2003 Subs are overdue.  If you have also not paid your 2002 Subs., you will soon be deleted from our mailing list.
 

Excursion Reports 
Bird List; Lower Track to Pelverata Falls 6 April 2003 
Weather; fine, sunny, light north wind and a little cloud This list was omitted from the April Bulletin
 

Black Currawong	Strepera fuliginosa	Grey Shrike-thrush	Colluricincla harmonica
Spotted Pardalote	Pardalotus punctatus	Yellow Throated Honeyeater	Lichenostomus flavicollis
Grey Fantail	Rhipidura fuliginosa	Black Headed Honeyeater	Melithreptus affinus
Superb Fairy-wren	Malurus cyaneus	Strong Billed Honeyeater	Melithreptus validirostris
Forest Raven	Corvus tasmanicus	Golden Whistler	Pachycephala pectoralis
Tasmanian Thornbill	Acanthiza ewingii	Crescent Honeyeater	Phylidonyris pyrrhoptera
Tasmanian Scrubwren	Sericornis humilis	Eastern Spinebill	Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris
Scarlet Robin	Petroica multicolor

John Reid 

Report on the T.F.N.C. May excursion for 2003:
"The Pond of Death" starring John Gooderham with a supporting cast of 10 members from the T.F.N.C
Its harmless appearance belied the sinister name, as it was nothing more than a long narrow culvert in a pasture across the road from the Richmond football oval rather than a round deep pond. First find of the day was Coprinus comatus, growing under the pine trees near the oval. This is a fungus of noteworthy significance as it is one of only three true Coprinus species left after DNA studies have hashed and rearranged the taxonomy. The central strand of tissue, which is a key feature of this genus, was easily seen running down the inside of the stipe. 
As all the members had gathered we moved onto the pond. We came very well prepared with dissecting microscopes, dishes, nets, containers, spoons and field guides, and as John did the wading we didn’t even have to don our wetsuits. Pond ecology is a bit more complicated than one might expect. Such a shallow stretch of water as this is subject to temperature and pH changes, desiccation and even the aspect and morphology can affect the biota living within its enclaves as well as the many micro-environments present .For example, many bugs live on the surface of the water, others live around the plants just below the water surface, others are found in the shallower marginal waters, and others burrow in or move over the sediments on the bottom. These environments each host a specific fauna which all have varying problems to overcome and which have adapted to enable them to take advantage of each ecological niche. 
Ah, John has emerged out of the pond and deposited the booty in one of the flat-bottomed white dishes. An array of small crustaceans is soon zipping around much to the delight of the observers. The most obvious were the many tadpoles but as we got our eye in we could see other remarkable individuals. These included freshwater mites of a lovely red colour (and that is as far as we need go with their taxonomy says John!), water fleas (Order Cladocera), copepods (Copepoda), clam shrimps (Conchostraca), seed shrimps (Ostracoda), and find of the day - a huge tadpole shrimp (Notostraca) that goes by the name of Lepidurus apus viridus. This was about 3.5cm in length and the book says it has 60 legs but we didn’t count them .We also found Dytiscid beetle larvae and adults, Physid snails, chironomid larvae, caddis fly larvae, soldier fly larvae, water boatmen, and an unknown egg sac. Some of the adaptations freshwater bugs have to avoid desiccation are that they produce eggs with hard cases or they keep the eggs within their body and when they die the body hull protects the eggs until conditions are favourable for hatching.
 A quick lap around the pond found me a Marasmius oreades, which is a Fungimap species as is the Coprinus - so quite a good total for a freshwater ecology excursion.
Many thanks to John, for a very informative and fascinating few hours, and how lucky we were to have one of the authors of the “The Water Bug Book” leading this excursion. 
David Ratkowsky

Seaford Revisited - T.F.N.C. Excursion, 7 June 2003
“Seaford”, the property belonging to Col and Sue Dyke, is on the East Coast near Little Swanport. Sue and Col are oyster farmers and the Club had visited the oyster beds on a previous occasion to look at the eradication of rice grass. At the end of that excursion we were invited back to have a look at anything we were interested in on the property. As Sue had recently found some unusual mammal burrows, Don was very keen to inspect these and as the East Coast had seen a fair bit of rain, Gen and David were hoping to add to the fungi list from their first visit to this coastal heath and dry sclerophyll habitat. This is also good bird watching forest so John and Maggie had their binoculars ready. After a welcoming cup of tea with Sue and Col during which Col filled us in on his latest environmental efforts concerning water quality, we set off to find the burrows. The weather was windy and fine, a vast improvement on the miserable day we had left in Hobart and everybody (as usual) enjoyed the outing. 

Fungi List (Seaford 7 June 2003)
 

Agaricus sp.	Agaricus sp., pink and yellow with almond essence odour	Bovista sp.	Calocera sp.
Clitocybe sp., grey	Collybia sp.	Coltricia cinnamomea	Cortinarius sp., downy
*Coprinus comatus	Cortinarius sp. lilac	Descolea recedens	Entoloma sp., grey cap, gills and stipe
Entoloma viridomarginatum	Galerina sp.	Geastrum sp.	Hebeloma sp.
Hygrocybe aff. coccinea	Hygrocybe astatogala	Hypholoma fasciculare	Inocybe sp.
Laccaria sp.	Lactarius eucalypti	Lepiota sp.	Lepiota sp., “sooty”
Leucocoprinus sp.	Macrolepiota konradii	Marasmius sp., horsehair	Mycena “bleach sulcate”
Mycena austrofilopes	Mycena sanguinolenta	Mycena sp., yellowy brown with dark brown centre	*Omphalina chromacea
*Omphalotus nidiformis	Panaeolus sp.	Pholiota squarrosipes	Pisolithus sp.
*Poronia ericii, on wallaby dung	Psathyrella asperospora	Psilocybe “bruni-islander”	Resupinatus applicatus
Rhodocollybia butyracea	Rhodocybe sp., small grey	Rickenella fibula	Russula clelandii
Russula neerimea	*Stereum hirsutum	Stereum illudens	Stropharia semiglobata
Trametes versicolor	*Tremella mesenterica	Amanita sp., with pink partial veil remnants

Note: *Indicates a FUNGIMAP species     David Ratkowsky

Seaford Bird List (Maggie Cashion-Bailes)
 

White-bellied Sea Eagle	Haliaetus leucagaster	Wedge-tailed Eagle (3)	Aquila audax
Green Rosella	Platycercus caledonicus	Eastern Rosella (25)	Platycercus eximius
Black Currawong	Strepera fuliginosa	Grey Shrike-thrush	Colluricincla harmonica
Grey Fantail	Rhipidura fuliginosa	Yellow Throated Honeyeater	Lichenostomus flavicollis
Yellow Wattlebird	Anthochaera paradoxa	Noisy Miner	Manorina melanocephala
Superb Fairy-wren	Malurus cyaneus	Australian Magpie	Gymnorhina tibicen
Brown Thornbill	Acanthiza pusilla	Eastern Spinebill	Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris
Scarlet Robin	Petroica multicolor	(Male and Female)
Golden Whistler	Pachycephala pectoralis	(Male and Female)
Cattle Egret (5)	Ardeola ibis (Triabunna)

Bedlam Walls, Sunday 6th July, 2003
15 of us set off to the end of Geilston Bay Road on Sunday 6th July, where it looked like Grand Central with a large group of ? scouts. We slowly made h     ( around the foreshore track to the eroded aboriginal midden site, Genevieve and David found the inevitable fungi, Quag discovered prickly acacias and Don - possible bettong shelters in a sagg tussock. We waited for the scout party to move on, allowing us to descend to the caves on the cliff face. The cave site is quite spectacular, reached by a narrow, winding boardwalk, with views across the river to Pasminco. Unfortunately we missed the whale sighted there about an hour or so later! Following the hillside around to Shag Bay we passed a stand of E. risdonii. While lunching at Shag Bay we found a large area of recently disturbed/ dug ground exposing hundreds of ? dog bones, skulls and body bones even hair. This area is covered in luxuriant weed growth and the bones extend into the water! David Leaman informs us it was a blood and bone factory in the 1880 - 90s.
Birds seen on the walk included - forest ravens, black headed honey-eaters and a white-faced heron.
I found a well camouflaged spider on a tree trunk - 'Stephanopis scabra' - only spotted because it moved. They have a knack of impregnating their body with bits of bark to complete their camouflage. In Shag Bay itself there seemed to be a big fish, possibly a trout, chasing schools of tiny fish around the shallows. Those who stayed on saw a seal, but not the whale reported near the Tasman Bridge that day ! An interesting and enjoyable trip close to the city.
Amanda Thomson
  A couple of interesting plant sightings at Bedlam Walls - one was a small member of the Epacridaceae, Lissanthe strigosa or Peach Berry growing on the northern side of Shag Bay and another was Spyridium eriocephalum which is apparently quite rare but local at Risdon. It was growing on the southern side of Shag Bay in a very dry exposed position. It has small bright green shiny leaves and compact whitish flower heads about 5mm across. Anna McEldowney

Fungi List
 

Arrhenia acerosa, on earth	Ascomycete sp. small white disc	Bisporella citrina	Bisporella sulphurina
Calocera sp.	Clitocybe semiocculta	Coltricia cinnamomea	Coprinus sp.
Cortinarius sp., brown with white bloom to stipe	Cyphella sp.	Dacrymyces sp., orange jelly, spathulate	Dermocybe sp. yellowy brown
Discinella terrestris	Fistulinella mollis	Galerina sp.	Galerina sp., like “patagonica “ but on soil
Galerina/Tubaria sp. Grey corticoid	Laccaria sp.	Mycena “bleach sulcate”	Mycena albidocapillaris
*Mycena nargan	*Oudemansiella radicata	Pluteus “yellow”	Psilocybe sp.
Pycnoporus coccineus	Resupinatus applicatus, on underside of eucalypt bark	Scleroderma sp.	Steccerhinum sp.
Stereum “drab” on sheoak	*Stereum hirsutum, on sheoak	Stereum illudens	Stropharia semiglobata
Trametes versicolor	*Volvariella speciosa, in weeds

 Note: *Indicates a FUNGIMAP species

Foxes in Tasmania (??) – conserve “threatened” prey species anyway !
Amidst the clamour of this largely tabloid debate came expressions of concern about potential mammalian prey species for the Red Fox in Tasmania; primarily the Eastern Bettong and the Barred Bandicoot.  Both species were widespread and common on mainland Australia prior to the introduction of foxes and their demise there is often attributed to fox predation.
In Tasmania neither the Eastern Bettong nor the Barred Bandicoot has adequate reserved habitat.  The habitats of both are subject to ongoing threats from landclearance and 1080.  These issues are poorly recognised officially but, even without foxes, habitat loss continues to adversely impact on populations of each species. 
Don Hird

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