Hi Ian and All,
Cox Scrub comprises 544 hectares and is one of the larger parks on the
Fleurieu Peninsula, south of Adelaide.
From http://www.facebook.com/countryfireservice - Department of
Environment, Water and Natural Resources (DEWNR) conducted a controlled
burn in the park on Wednesday 1st May that subsequently became
uncontrolled and burnt out 500 hectares of the park on Friday.
I dearly hope the population of reintroduced endangered Southern
Emu-wrens have survived !!
Regards
TerryG
On 5/05/2013 9:26 PM, Ian Reid wrote:
I have just returned from a late afternoon visit to Cox Scrub on the
Fleurieu Peninsula an hour from Adelaide. This was flagged by others
as the site most likely to produce CRHW as per my request from last
week (thanks to all who replied) -- though I didn't harbour any
expectations of finding one at that time of day or at this time of
year, it was more a recce since I had never been before.
I was horrified to find that what looked like about 2/3 of the entire
area (or at least from what I could see on from the eastern boundary)
has been burnt out. It is very recent, probably in the last week --
the smell of charcoal is still in the air. Though most of the ground
is now cold, in one or two places I could see smoking logs, and in one
place there were still small flames. I covered them with sand as best
I could and hope it rains tonight, though it looks like the damage has
been done.
The burnt area goes from the firebreak adjacent to the Asbourne Rd up
the hill as far as I walked (not quite to the top of the hill), and
much of the way south. There is an unburnt area in the SE corner.
The understory is completely gone in all but a few isolated pacthes.
The birds I did see well were all concentrated in the area close to
the carpark where there was less damage: dozens of New Holland and
Brown Honeyeaters, Several Red-rumped Parrots, Musk and Purple-crown
Lorikeets, Grey Shrike-thrush, and a few parties of Superb Fairywren.
Probably bad news for the dense heath dwellers though :-(.
regards, Ian
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