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Upcoming BCC Events

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The Community Conservation Partnerships Program of the  Brisbane City Council holds a range of range of excellent environmentally-focused workshops and seminars throughout the year. Two seminars are coming up in November:

1. Thursday 16 November:  The art of Community Engagement

Join speakers from Brisbane City Council, Logan City Council and Intrepid Landcare to learn from their experience with community engagement practice. Listen to case studies and generate new ideas during this jam-packed evening.

2. Sunday 12 November:  Restoring Habitats – Beyond the trees – The importance of people to bushcare

Hear from a variety of guest speakers, Habitat Brisbane and catchment groups on how they work with and support their volunteers, followed by practical workshops.

Bookings for both sessions are essential. Check our Events Calendar for details.

Is there a Tuan in your backyard?

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Is something eating your chickens? Backyard poultry is  the target of many predators, including the somewhat elusive and little known Tuan.

The Brush-tailed phascogale is a tree-dwelling marsupial found in parts of the East coast of Australia and more specifically, in the fringe suburbs of Brisbane.

The Tuan is a voracious nocturnal hunter. It forages on insects and small vertebrates but will also attack poultry. 

The Tuan has grey fur on its head and is recognisable by its bushy, black “bottle-brush” tail.  

Click here to see a short Bush Bites article about an encounter with a local Tuan.

For more local information, you can visit the Queensland Museum website. 

Tuckett Street Park on a Sunday

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Looking for a quiet and grassy creekside parkland so you can enjoy nature on a lazy Sunday morning?

Why not try Tuckett Street Park?  Nestled away in Kenmore Hills, this picturesque parkland has wide areas of grassland and a playground for the kids. 

Its great for picnics or a walk by the creek!

A bushcare group meets here on the last Sunday of each month. They do some general maintenance to keep the weeds down, put in new plantings and essentially make the area the inviting haven it has become.

If you can spare some time to help look after Tuckett Street Park, Jim Pope can give you all the details. His phone number is 3374 4181 or email: [email protected]

The group has been meeting for many years and are very welcoming to new starters. Here are some photos from over the years to show what a typical Tuckett St. working bee looks like! 

 The flood aftermath in February 2015   

   

Brushcutting – May 2016:   

  


Time for a break! May 2016:



Into the thick of it! – May 2016:


Watering in new plantings – May 2016:



Simply enjoying the outdoors – May 2016:



The smile says it all: bushcare is not all that hard! May 2016:



Photos on display from Monday 23 October 2017

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Come and browse through the fabulous entries from this  year’s Photography Competition! 

Entries will be displayed at Kenmore Shopping Village from Monday 23 October until Saturday 28 October 2017.

An Awards Ceremony will be held at the Shopping Village at 2.00pm on Saturday 28 October. Make sure to keep it free!

  

Last day for Photo Comp entries!

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Your photo comp entry is due by Saturday 21 October! … Need help?

Click here to see some tips about photographing birds from local award-winning photographer, Ed Frazer 

And click here to see all the details you need to know to submit an entry!

Good luck !!!

Courtesy of Ed Frazer 

Australian White Ibis count

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Can you spare some time to participate in this national community survey?

It runs between 21 and 29 October, coinciding with National Bird Week.

We seem to spot the White Ibis everywhere, every day! In our local parks, at shopping centres, on the roadside – they’re very prevalent. 

Why not record your sightings and contribute to the survey?

For more info, please click here. 

A different sort of blowfly – Ed Frazer

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Blowflies are not my favorite photography subject!  When one with a bright yellow head and huge compound eyes showed up I took this photo – there was nothing else of interest around!


I had never seen it before so I looked it up and found that it was a Parasitic Snail Blowfly.

Probably Amenia imperialis, though the taxonomists as usual are looking to do more “splitting” so it will probably have a name change soon!

What was interesting is that very little is known about its life history, but what is known is fascinating. It seems that the adult Parasite Snail Blowflies feed on pollen and nectar, and that’s when it gets really interesting.

The females lay well developed larvae rather than eggs. The scientists call that “macrolaviporus” which is so obscure I couldn’t even find in a dictionary!

They lay larvae on land snails, which they eat alive. If they kill the snail before they are fully grown, they still pupate and emerge as small versions of the adult blowfly.

Blowflies are hardly beautiful, but this one is at least a bit different!

 

Return to  Bush Bites

CATS CLAW CREEPER ALERT!

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Cats Claw is on the move!  To stop it dead in its tracks, now is the time to:

CHECK YOUR CATS CLAW CREEPER’S MARCH UP THE TREE TO THE CANOPY!
 
It is in full flower in some areas RIGHT NOW!


STOP IT FROM SEEDING!


Need help or advice? 

The following update may help. It holds a list of contact people who are standing by to assist: {module_literature,i,162312}

The Cats Claw fact sheet is another useful reference: {module_literature,i,120219}

And the Brisbane City Council also has a comprehensive online identification tool.

A Never Ending Story

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Our Catchment abounds with resilient people and amazing stories!  …. not to mention postcard-perfect scenery and diverse plant-life and wildlife!

We invite YOU to share your stories in our new online feature called “Bush Bites”.


Tell us about your encounters with wildlife, nature and people, your love of the Catchment and its characters, forgotten pieces of history, stories of today – we have a captive audience!

To start the ball rolling, Ed Frazer has provided some wonderful stories about the myriad of life on his Brookfield property – and he has some amazing photos to go with them!

Take a look! His first piece is a Never-ending Story about his encounters while taking photos of Mistletoe birds – it’s a great read!  

Click here and prepare to be entertained!

And if you’d like to share your own story, please send an email to:
[email protected]