Be inspired by previous winners and download your entry forms from the Photo Competition page
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Great Southern Bioblitz – What lives at Gold Creek Dam?
Join in the Great Southern Bioblitz 2024: Gold Creek Dam
Sunday September 22
Reserve your spot through Eventbrite
Waterway Health Survey & Bioblitz
Join us for an engaging morning of exploration as we dive into the vibrant world of biodiversity through Citizen Science! Set against the stunning backdrop of Upper Moggill Creek, this event offers an enriching experience for nature enthusiasts of all levels.
What to Expect:
🌿 Waterway Health Survey: Become a citizen scientist for the day and help safeguard our waterways. You’ll assess the health of the local ecosystem, measure water quality, and identify aquatic life.
📸 Great Southern Bioblitz: Channel your inner naturalist during the Great Southern Bioblitz on iNaturalist. Capture the beauty of local flora and fauna, contributing valuable data to enhance our understanding of regional biodiversity.
📱 Tech-Savvy Participation: Bring your smartphone or camera to document your findings and upload them to iNaturalist in real-time. This isn’t just an event—it’s a collaborative scientific mission!
🍕 Refreshments Provided
Who Can Attend:
Open to individuals with a reasonable level of fitness
Young Citizen Scientists aged 10 to 15 are welcome when accompanied by an adult guardian.
What to Wear & Bring:
Dress in suitable outdoor clothing for the weather conditions.
Wear enclosed shoes that you don’t mind getting wet.
Don’t forget your hat, sunglasses, and a reusable water bottle.
A sense of wonder and curiosity
Additional Information:
Stay updated: Check your emails leading up to the event for important updates and the meeting point location.
For inquiries, email us at [email protected].
There is limited reception at site, email or landline @MCCG Cottage on 33744240 are the best forms of communication on event day.
Registration is FREE, but space is limited. Reserve your spot today and join this exciting Citizen Science adventure
Let’s make a positive impact on our environment together. See you there!
The ‘Great Southern BioBlitz’, or ‘GSB’ for short, is an international period of intense biological surveying in an attempt to record all the living species within several designated areas across the Southern Hemisphere in Spring.
The purpose of this event is to highlight both the immense biodiversity spread across the Southern Hemisphere in the flourishing springtime and engage the public in science and nature learning using the citizen science platform iNaturalist.
Supporters
The Creek Health Monitoring Project is a Citizen Science initiative led by the Moggill Creek Catchment Group. This project is proudly supported by the Queensland Government through the Queensland Citizen Science Grants, Brisbane City Council, and sponsorship from Brisbane Airport Corporation.
If you have any questions relating to the event, please email [email protected]
Wildlife Matters! Unlocking Moggill Creek’s Secrets with Environmental DNA
Annual Platypus survey – register now or volunteer
The annual MCCG Platypus Survey is Sunday 8th September starting 4:30AM – 9AM. Set your alarm for this one!
Registrations essential. Use this link for registration and additional information
Will you spot one of the fascinating monotremes in our catchment?
Volunteers also needed …
Three options:
1. General platypus spotting – see details above.
2. Team leaders – 2 required please. This is an essential role to supporting the platypus survey leader with assisting allocated teams to locate their sites. This requires an hour of your time prior to the survey day to view the sites with the platypus survey leader, and then leading teams to those sites on the morning of the survey. You may also wish to have a site allocated for spotting platypus yourself as well. Please ensure you are registered for the survey, as per the link above AND also email [email protected] to volunteer as a team leader.
3. Catering helpers 2-3 people Approx. 3 hours volunteer time on the morning of the survey and buying breakfast items the day before the event.
We are looking for volunteers to help organise breakfast for the MCCG platypus survey. It is a continental style breakfast with pre-purchase of items the previous day and setup of food outside the Cottage, Gold Creek Reservoir on the morning of the survey. Breakfast will be served from 7:30am for volunteers. Support will be provided re recommended items etc.
Platypus having a scratch. Platypus vary in colour but most have lighter colour underneath. Photo: Ed Frazer
Photo: Ed Frazer
Get snapping for the 2024 Photo competition!
CLICK! CLICK! CLICK!
Entry forms can be downloaded now on the photo competition page.
See the flyer below for all the key dates, categories and prizes!
The Ever-fascinating Echidna: Pouch Development Wildlife Matters!
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Wildlife Matters! The Masked Owl: – an enigmatic and mysterious nocturnal bird
The Masked Owl – an enigmatic and mysterious nocturnal bird
The photos below of a Masked Owl taken by Moggill Creek Catchment Group (MCCG) committee member Chris Bruton on his property near Gap Creek. The Masked Owl (Tyto novaehollandieae), is distinguished from its relative, the Barn Owl, by its dark-ringed facial disc markings, white spots on checkerboard-dark wings, dark spots on a pale chest, and very large, apparently oversized talons. This was a very exciting observation, as these birds are not often seen, and very seldom as clearly and distinctively as this. Quite by chance, another acquaintance showed me a picture of another individual of this species beside a bikeway near Jindalee Bridge a few days later. This bird had all the same features, but with somewhat darker plumage.
The general impression of a Masked Owl is of a large dark owl with a knowing and somewhat unnerving gaze, often flying off silently and unexpectedly. One comes away with a notion of a formidable, shadowy, and silent bird of prey. In fact, Masked Owls are our second-largest nocturnal bird (the largest being the Powerful Owl). They have several plumage forms, some of which are dark rufous below, with other forms being much lighter-coloured (which Chris’s bird appeared to be).
Masked Owls have a distinctive call, rather like a set of rasping, far-carrying (and even more unnerving) screams, and often are quick to fly on disturbance, usually after being seen from a distance in a spotlight beam. Sometimes the call alerts one to their presence, but mostly they appear to be difficult to find. Like most other owls, they have a very bright greenish eye-shine, demonstrating their powerful ability to find prey in poor light. Their large rounded to heart-shaped facial disc acts as a “radar-dish” to concentrate sound that these animals also use to hunt by.
Their very large talons point to their primary food source: rats and other small mammals, usually taken on the ground. In southern Australia, rabbits are often caught. For this reason, Masked Owl habitat often seems to be a combination of both well wooded open forests with tall trees, and open grassy unwooded areas of either cleared land or heath. It is along these boundaries that these owls wait for prey, with the excellent view of the ground that is afforded in such locations. The related and relatively abundant Barn Owl tends to be found in more open habitats, often grassy areas within farmland and croplands.
Atlas of Living Australia records suggest that this species is more often observed between September and January, and very seldom recorded in other parts of the year. However, even in known locations, they are only irregularly observed.
An interesting and engaging account of Masked Owls in Australia can be found in “Birds of the Night: Owls, Frogmouth and Nightjars of Australia” by Dr David Hollands, published by Reed Books in 1991. I was lucky enough to meet David, an engaging ornithologist and country doctor, who just happened to live in the same town in Victorias’ East Gippsland where I was working at the time.
Sandy Pollock
Masked Owl Photos: Chris Bruton
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The Winter Newsletter is out now
Another fantastic newsletter is out now. What can you expect in the Winter Newsletter?
There are awards, echidnas, gliders, koalas, weeds and orchids and much, much more. Meet our new secretary and find out all you need to know about the MCCG photo competition.
Powerful Owl
Photo: Anne Love 2023 winner photo composition
Evening Talk June 25th: Large-Footed Fishing Bats by Dr Vanessa Gorecki
Please join us for the next MCCG public talk:
Tuesday June 25th
6.30 pm for 7 pm start (9 pm finish)
Kenmore Library
Refreshments served
The extraordinary fishing bat, the Large-footed Myotis (Myotis macropus) of the creeks of Brisbane’s western suburbs.
Come and hear Dr Vanessa Gorecki, QUT zoologist, discuss the findings of her detailed studies into the fascinating ecology and population dynamics of this river-foraging microbat. Dr Gorecki is a highly-respected zoologist, ecologist and consultant, who as a former Brookfield resident, has closely studied one of our most interesting local mammals.
Photo: Les hall
Kids’ Day at the Cottage – Sunday June 9th
This much loved Moggill Creek Catchment Group event is just around the corner.
10am-1pm on Sunday 9th June.
Looking for tiny creatures in water from the creek is just one of the activities at the free annual KIDS DAY AT THE COTTAGE.
Kids can see, make, and do, while they find out more about nature, beetles, bugs, butterflies, native bees, and snails. They can meet furry, feathery, or leathery, native animals in one of the two Geckoes Wildlife Shows.
It is on the grounds of the Cottage on Gold Creek Dam Reserve, a bush setting with no refinements (and unfortunately no wheelchair access). It features outdoor marquees and display areas with expert presenters and plenty for kids to see and do.
There’s a lunchtime sausage sizzle and fresh town water to refill your water bottle.
Bring your youngsters to Kids Day at the Cottage 10am-1pm Sunday 9th June.
