Come join a member of the Queensland Urban Utilities SAS Laboratory team and Creek Catchment Officer, Anna Bourke, to explore the options for storing your water quality data and how to interpret and make sense of what you have collected.

The August Waterway Health and Assessment Training (WHAT) will get you thinking about your water quality monitoring program and drill down to really clarify the purpose of your program.

This is critical info for anyone interested in monitoring creek health and providing and protecting aquatic habitat!

RSVP’s are due via email by 31 August! Check our Creek Monitoring Calendar for all the details.

 

Could you have a WILD MACADAMIA TREE  on your property?

There are potentially thousands of wild macadamia trees hidden away on private properties or in bushland so Healthy Land and Water, in conjunction with Brisbane City Council, is calling for your help to find them! 

If you know of an old macadamia tree that could be more than 100 years old, they would love to hear from you!

While plantation macadamia trees are abundant in Australia, their once-plentiful wild relatives are under threat, with estimates suggesting 80 per cent of all wild macadamia habitat has been lost since European settlement.

So Healthy Land and Water has launched ‘The Wild Macadamia Hunt’ which is calling on Brisbane residents to find and register macadamia trees. Leaves will be genetically analysed to help determine the best way to conserve the species for the future.

This is a citizen project you can be part of from your home!

For more information visit the Healthy Land and Water website.

“Last evening we went up and watched the male Powerful Owl bring a bat to the butchery tree and feed the female and then she flew into the nest hollow and fed the young.”

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The Powerful Owl (Ninox strenua) is Australia’s largest owl.

These impressive birds are being seen in suburban locations more often these days and many call our catchment home.

Birding enthusiasts Ian Muirhead and Jim Butler are tracking the behaviour of a particular breeding pair of Powerful Owls. Our opening sentence gives an indication of just how special this experience is.

In their latest Bush Bites article, Ian and Jim share some of their tracking methods and invite you to contribute to the Birdlife Australia Citizen Science Powerful Owl Project.

To read more, please click here.

Can you contribute to a road kill map of Brisbane?  

Alex Vanek from the Bulimba Creek Catchment Coordinating Committee (B4C) is developing an app to allow people to report wildlife road injuries and deaths.

Alex is encouraging us to attend workshops and download the app, which provides insight into exactly where wildlife road crossing actions need to be implemented across Brisbane.

The intention is to gather enough data to send to Brisbane City Council, providing them with concrete data about road kill and crossing hot spots in order to build fauna infrastructure in these areas.

The workshops will be held at 3:00pm Tuesday 13th August and 9:30am Friday 16th August at the B4C Sustainability Centre Carindale.

If you are able to find and take a picture of road kill, please bring the image and location to the workshop on your electronic device to upload during the demonstration.

For more info, please email Alex at: [email protected] or phone him on: 0457 576 907.

You can also visit the Bulimba Creek Catchment Coordinating Committee website.

We have a wonderful photo to share with you, graciously provided by Janet De Vivo. It is a photo of a coot!

You may recall Jim Butler’s July Feather Fascination article, entitled “Salute a Coot“.

Jim introduced us to the world of the Eurasian Coot, a waterbird which most of us have seen around our waterways, wetlands and ponds.

Eurasian coots belong to the rail and crake bird family, the Rallidae. They are found in Europe, Asia, Africa, New Zealand and here in Australia.

The bird is mainly black in colour, but has a white shield (which gave rise to the expression “bald as a coot“).

In his article Jim also mentions that coots put their feet to good use!

The feet of a coot are not webbed but have “diagnostic flattened lobes” which serve the same purpose as duck webbing. Their legs are quite noticeably positioned a long way back which increases their ability for underwater thrusting.

Jim describes coots as “reluctant fliers” which take off by running across the surface of the water with much ado and splashing.

They attract partners by chasing them around on the water on their feet and flapping their wings, and are also very territorial, using their feet and wings to fight off invaders.

Janet De Vivo’s photo, taken recently in Cardiff, Wales, gives us a lovely view of the somewhat ungainly but very purposeful coot’s feet! Janet kindly agreed to share her photo after reading Jim’s article.

A little known fact is that birds see do not see colour in the same way we do.

Birds can see into the ultra-violet (UV) wavelengths so their eyes perceive colours on a wider spectrum than us and they pick up more shades and contrasts.

This interesting fact was only discovered in the 1970’s.

To learn more, head to Jim Butler’s Feather Fascination August 2019, in which he elaborates on avian eyesight, and provides an insight into the life of the wonderful King Parrot.

The striking colours of a male King parrot, but the colours we see are different to how other birds view him. © Ed Frazer 

Celebrate the launch of the Moreton Bay Foundation, share your concerns about the Bay and discover how you can help to preserve this delicate ecosystem and natural wonder for future generations.

His Excellency, the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC, Governor of Queensland, will officially launch The Moreton Bay Foundation at a community discussion afternoon on Friday 30 August 2019 at Brisbane City Hall.

This is a free event, with lunch served at 12.30pm. Bookings are essential as spaces are limited.

To book a place, please click here.

MCCG member Phil Bird, who is also a member of the Queensland Frog Society, will present a talk about frogs, their needs and how to conserve habitats for refuges and breeding opportunities at the Pullenvale Environmental Education Centre.

This event is being run by the Pullen Pullen Catchments Group on Sunday 18th August from 9.30-10.30am.

For more information and to RSVP, please send an email to: [email protected].

The Butterfly and Other Invertebrate Club invites you to bring along any vegetable pests, butterflies, moths, native bees, cicadas, ladybirds, dragonflies etc for identification.

A panel of experts and Chris Sanderson from the Butterflies Australia Project will be in attendance to identify your bugs and answer questions.

The event will be held on Saturday 10 August at the Downfall Creek Bushland Centre, 815 Rode Road, McDowall, starting at 11am.

For further information write to [email protected]. 

RSVP to Dawn Franzmann at [email protected].

A cluster of Harlequin bugs – ©  Prue Cooper – White

The ABC recently published an article questioning the success of Biosecurity Queensland’s fire ant eradication program.

It suggests that red imported fire ants have now moved beyond detection zones to an area around Gatton, and that there are up to 13,000 reported sightings which are awaiting confirmation.

These claims have been denied by the department.

To read more, head to the ABC website.

Note: some suburbs in our vicinity are classified as being within Fire Ant Biosecurity Zone 2, which imposes a general biosecurity obligation on residents to ensure we do not spread fire ants.

For more info, please visit the Queensland Government website.