Brennan Reserve, near Bindoon, Noongar Country, Western Australia
Recently, I spent the day in a piece of Banksia woodland north of Perth, called Brennan Reserve, helping my friend Bron Ayre with some bee-related fieldwork. Bron has been working on a project investigating the role that introduced honeybees (Apis mellifera) play in the pollination of the iconic Banksia menziesii. Honeybees have been shown to have varying impacts on the pollination success of native species, and can be helpful or harmful depending on the plant species in question.
Brennan Reserve, WA
Our job for the day was to survey previously tagged Banksia inflorescences (aka the flowers), to see if honeybees were visiting them to feed on the nectar. We watched the inflorescences on each tree for 5 minutes, and recorded any visitors. While there were a lot of bees in the site, we didn’t observe many actually visiting the Banksias. Instead they were feeding on a Styphelia species (possibly Styphelia xerophylla) , an understory shrub with small white flowers.
An introduced honeybee feeding on a Styphelia sp. Look at the size of the pollen baskets on her back legs!
Several of the Banksia inflorescences were very popular with ants, and it was fun to watch them swarm all over the plants. Like bees, many ant species also harvest nectar from flowers, and can also play a role in pollinating some plant species.
Unknown ant species on a Banksia menziesii
Most of the Banksia menziesii were in the standard colours of pink and yellow, but we did find one mutant with a yellow inflorescence!
Classic Banksia menziesii
Yellow morph Banksia menziesii
There were also a lot of other wildflowers out and about, though nothing compared to the big wildflower blooms that happen in spring. (Select a photo to view it full screen)
Prickly Moses Wattle (Acacia pulchella)
Globe Heath (Brachyloma preissii)
Red Ink Sundew (Drosera erythrorhiza)
Pricklybark (Eucalyptus todtiana) - young fruits
Daviesia sp.
Silky-leaved Blood Flower (Calothamnus sanguineus)
Dwarf Sheoak (Allocasuarina humilis)
Pricklybark (Eucalyptus todtiana) - old fruits
Common Hovea (Hovea trisperma)
While stopping for a cuppa we heard a bunch of the standard Banksia woodland bird species, like White-cheeked Honeyeaters, Splendid Fairy-wrens, and Woodswallows. There were also a lot of animal tracks in the soft sand, including feral foxes, feral goats, kangaroos, and emus! Looking at tracks is a good way to know which species have been in a place in the recent past.
Feral fox tracks
Feral goat tracks
Emu tracks!
It really was nice to get out of the city for a while. Here’s to more fieldwork and adventures in the near future!
Thanks to the folks in the Wildflower Society of WA Facebook group for help with plant IDs!