… must come down! Or so the saying goes!
The Varied Sitella has a remarkable foraging method. It hops HEAD-FIRST down tree branches and trunks to find its prey (insects and spiders living under the bark).

Open the July version of Jim Butler’s “Feather Fascination” to see an image of the Varied Sittella on its way down a tree, and read more about these beautiful and uniquely-shaped residents of our Catchment.

Join Mike Humphreys and others from the Rural Environment Planning Association Inc (REPA) for a morning walk along Gap Creek on Sunday 9 July.

You will be guided through a riparian zone which has been lovingly nurtured for over 15 years by a group of dedicated volunteers supported by Habitat Brisbane.

Come along for a walk with nature and enjoy all they have achieved!

The walk will commence at 10.30am on Brookfield Road, Brookfield, near the tennis courts (UBD 177 C/D2). Bring your own lunch, water and sun protection and wear sensible shoes.

RSVP’s to Jenny Hacker are essential by phone on 3374 1468 or via email on: [email protected]

“Stingless Native Bees” is the topic of our Cottage Talk for MCCG members at 10am, Thursday 20th July.

Tony Goodrich will be bringing a working hive and demonstrating the features of native stingless bee-keeping.

For this popular talk, interested members will definitely need to book their place early by contacting our PR Officer, Dale Borgelt at: [email protected]

Native bees collecting pollen in the company of a lone honeybee. Photo: John Klumpp

The lucky attendees at our public meeting on June 15 were thoroughly entertained by Martin Fingland’s talk on Tracks and Traces of Wildlife. 
Martin showed us plenty of the tell-tale traces of wildlife visitors that we can look out for. 

And full credit must go to the birders in the audience, who were just great at identifying species from single feathers!

Our sincere thanks to Martin for once again sharing his knowledge and providing such an entertaining presentation!

  

“It is very satisfying to visit places that were bare ground 20 years ago and walk in the shade of trees that I remember as seedlings. Now 15-20 metres tall, they bear fruit and seeds for birds to carry off and drop elsewhere.”

These simple words from the MCCG’s first Chairman, Gordon Grigg, do not seek any reward for the many hours of care that our volunteer members have bestowed upon the Catchment during the past 20 years.

But they do provide the perfect illustration of a shared passion. Our members are driven by a yearning to protect and retain the simple and valuable landscape that welcomes us home each evening and allows us to shed the pressures of our busy daily lives, even if it’s just for a few hours by the creek each weekend.

The MCCG turns 20 in December 2017.

It has been a remarkable journey. In Gordon’s words:

“Every year the nursery gives out thousands of plants to members, the Photography Competition runs, Section Leaders still hold regular working bees (although not all are active to the same extent), and we still aspire to ‘restore the catchment to a state as practicable as possible to the fauna and flora existing in 1788.  We still have a very active association with BCC.  Our membership has grown considerably, about 500 now, and additional activities such as the Creek Health Management Program and Kids Day have since been added to our annual calendar.”

Keep an eye out for how we will pay tribute to the passion of our members and a celebration of our achievements over the group’s first 20 years.

WHAT A DAY!

There were many happy faces, with little and large hands and fingers alike busily engaged in colouring, make and do and art and craft activities at our Kids Day at the Cottage on 28th May.

The focus of Kids Day is to share information about the natural environment.

Kids of all ages (and, just quietly, grown ups too!) learnt as they enjoyed close-up contact with the real thing.  We saw wonderful displays and presentations, as always, including all the wildlife Martin Fingland brought along with him for his Geckoes presentations.

There were plenty of fun activities.  Kids wore home-made neckwear (created using natural products) and some even modelled their Richmond Birdwing Butterfly ‘light-captures.’

Making jewellery to proudly wear home!

At different stands, we all learnt about the different features of native flora and fauna—having fun looking at and sorting, tracks, shapes, seeds and shells.

Holding friendly giant burrowing cockroaches is ALWAYS FUN!

And we all enjoyed the fishing game devised by the Girl Guides. Thanks girls!

The tricky Fishing Game!

We extend sincere thanks to our new sponsor Seqwater.

Water was the drink of the day and everyone appreciated the Seqwater filtered refills!

We are also grateful for the continuing support of Lord Mayor’s Suburban Initiative Fund, the Pullenvale Ward Councillor and the Brisbane City Council Creek Catchment Program for their generosity and support.

A big gold star also to our young Star Helpers for pitching in and making the day so happy!

And we must acknowledge the tireless efforts and energy of our Public Relations Officer, Dale Borgelt, who is the dynamo behind these wonderful days. (All images on this page were kindly supplied by Dale). 

CAN’T WAIT FOR NEXT YEAR !!! (Keep it free – the 2nd Sunday in June)

Healthy Land and Water is launching a new database which will house all existing and future water quality and environmental monitoring data collected by community and school groups throughout South East Queensland.

And they are providing training to interested volunteers and teachers during July and August 2017.

If you are interested, please register for a session to be held at various locations throughout South East Queensland. Click here for the dates, venues and the links to RSVP.

If you have any questions please contact either Karen Toms or Nat Parker:

• Karen Toms: email: [email protected]  or by phone: 0448 069 226
  (please note Karen will be on annual leave and unavailable from 16th June – 10th July)
• Nat Parker: email: [email protected] or by phone: 0447 789 273

Note: This training and database is supported by Healthy Land and Water through the Regional Landcare Facilitator program supported through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Programme and Healthy Land and Water, Brisbane City Council, Ipswich City Council, Logan City Council, Redland City Council and Moreton Bay Regional Council.

Want to know more?

You can get involved important work to compile baseline data about fish, aquatic macro-invertebrates, habitat and water quality at one of 12 sites in our catchment. This fascinating and hands-on work will assist decision-making about where effort should be directed in land and water management. Monitoring sessions are held twice a year, in April/May and October/November.  Check out our Creek Health Monitoring Project web page.  You can also email our Secretary for more info at: [email protected]

Keep Friday afternoon 23 June free!

Here is a window of opportunity to view Kenmore State High School’s showcase of environmental projects at Kenmore Library from 1.30 to 2.30pm.

So stop your shopping for a while and come and be inspired by just how environmentally aware these Year 9 students are!

The quality of the showcase is testament to the fact that our environmental future is the hands of some very competent and talented young leaders.

For more info, email:  [email protected]  or phone 3327 1587.

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Do you know someone aged between 16 and 35 who is interested in fun land care activities and networking with other young people?