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Hoses needed!

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Our Huntington on Tuckett  bushcare group has put out a call for hoses!

They will meet on Sunday (8:30 – 11:00am) to water their recent plantings. 

But since the creek is not flowing at present, they’re not able to pump water from it and will need to use water from the taps, which are some distance away from where the water is needed.

If anyone can help with some long garden hoses (and associated couplings to join them together etc.) it would be very helpful. 

Please contact Jim Pope on 3374 4181.

Remember your membership

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Just a friendly reminder to all members that your annual 2018-19 membership fees are due for renewal in November.

The fee is $20 per person.

Please download the application form if you wish to email or post your renewal:

2020 A5 Membership Renewal

Alternatively you can transfer your renewal directly to our bank account as follows:

Account name: Moggill Creek Catchment Management Group Inc
Bank: Suncorp
BSB: 484799
Account Number:  001500881
* Please quote your Full Name as Reference on your payment

We would like to request that you opt for electronic copies (rather than posted copies) of your newsletter.  To do this, please send Dale an email at: [email protected]

Thank you so much!  

Every membership is important. We value your ongoing contributions and support.

 

Not a member? There’s plenty of benefits and it’s easy to join! Click here to learn more!

We have an exciting opportunity

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We have an exciting opportunity for one of our members  to join the MCCG Committee.

Unfortunately, Sanja Oldridge has to relinquish the role of Secretary very shortly for personal reasons. We are therefore seeking a volunteer to take over the position of Secretary, at least until the AGM in November and ideally longer-term.

Duties include attending and taking minutes at our monthly Committee Meetings (currently on the fourth Thursday morning of each month) and circulating notices to the Committee and the wider membership via email. 

Some proficiency in using email and word processing (in MS Word) is a requirement of the position. 

Sanja has offered to provide an induction and support for anyone wishing to take on the role. Overall time demands average around half a day per week.

Please contact Jim Pope on 3374 4181or via email at [email protected] if you are interested in this fulfilling role. 

Please also feel free to spread the word to anyone else who you think might be interested.

Tuckett St Park vandalism – do you have any info?

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Some of you may have noticed the creation of trail bike tracks in Tuckett/Huntington parks by kids. Initially they simply dug obstacles in the grassed area opposite Boyd Terrace.

We believe a neighbour reported this to Council who levelled it out, but the area is still bare of grass. 

The culprits then seem to have moved to Tuckett St. Park where they are using part of the steep creek bank near the old trailer. 

They have destroyed several quite mature native trees that we planted several years ago on the upper banks by pulling them down and snapping the trunks. They have also caused considerable erosion to the bank.

The damage has been reported to the Council (11 September). They will send someone out to inspect it as a matter of urgency.

If anyone living in the area or passing by sees the culprits, PLEASE phone the Council hotline on 3403 8888.

These pictures tell a story of crude destruction:

 

  

Note: we have also noticed a number of trees cut down near the Western end of Creekside Park, close to where we did our July working bee. There is a point there where people have placed logs across the creek, but the track is now partially blocked by the fallen trees. Does anyone know anything about this? If so, please contact our Chairman, Jim Pope, or send an email to the MCCG Secretary at:  [email protected]

Position Vacant

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Do you use internet banking?
If so, we have a great opportunity for a you to become MCCG Treasurer!
As the following indicates, we will soon bid farewell to our long-standing Treasurer Joanna Yesberg. 
Joanna has been pivotal to the success of the MCCG for the past 12 years.
We extend to her our sincere gratitude for her dedication and “can-do” support to us all … and our collective admiration for a job so professionally done!
 
Could our new Treasurer be YOU?
All you need is a computer (the software program used is Quicken Personal Plus) and enthusiasm to learn the role. 
Committee meetings are currently held during business hours, so this might suit someone who works from home, works part-time, or is retired/about to retire.

Mating behaviours of the White-browed Scrubwren

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The tiny White-browed Scrubwren is only 12cm long. Yet  the male bird exhibits some remarkable behaviour when it comes to reproduction.

The White-browed Scrubwren is a cooperative breeder, with the male birds sharing reproduction rights based upon their paternity. 

Jim Butler’s latest issue of Feather Fascination explains the concept of Reproductive Skew Theory. This dictates how the male birds assume their place in the group’s hierachy and it also determines their mating frequency. 

Click here to learn more! 

Image courtesy of Ed Frazer

Changes to Nursery Plant Orders

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If you’d like to collect plants from our Nursery between late August and early October, please contact Damien on 0400 737 122 (rather than our usual contact, Bryan Hacker). 

Additionally, plants can be collected as usual at the Nursery when it is open – ie: first and third Mondays of each month.


Our native Moreton Bay Fig – Ed Frazer

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Our native Moreton Bay Fig (Ficus macrophylla) makes a wonderful habitat and is one of the best food resources for a large number of birds, insects and flying foxes.

We have a number of them, but one, deep in an area of native bush, has not been touched since it was logged for Red Cedar about 100 years ago.

It is a beauty! It has a huge crop of fruit, usually in February, and another crop in winter.

This tree started life as a seed deposited by a bird on a tree the loggers probably didn’t want. The dead tree is still visible. It was a Eucalyptus about 80cm in diameter at its base. The fig seedling grew up and strangled the Eucalyptus and now the Moreton Bay Fig has a massive buttress and at chest height it is more than a metre through and more than 30 metres tall. It has a huge canopy and stands well clear of the other trees.

The Fig attracts masses of flying foxes that come in at dusk and feed noisily right through the night. During the day the birds take over and the range is impressive.

Most interesting to me and my birder friends is a pair of the rarely seen Barred Cuckoo-shrikes that come in to feed on the fruit. They quickly feed on a number of the orange fruit and then move to a horizontal branch on a nearby tree where they sit quietly while they digest their meal. That takes about 25 minutes and they return to the Fig for another feed.

Barred Cuckoo-shrike – courtesy of Ed Frazer
 

They are joined by lots of Figbirds, Orioles, Rose-crowned Fruit Doves, Currawongs and Lewin’s Honeyeaters. Sometimes a flock of Topknot Pigeons comes in and also the odd Bowerbird.

Underneath the fig, Emerald Doves, Wonga Pigeons and Brush Turkeys pick up the figs dropped by the birds above them. 

Even when the Fig is not fruiting it provides a safe habitat for a lot of small birds including Superb Fairy-wrens, Spectacled Monarchs and Willie Wagtails. Possums also play in its  branches.

The figs have an interesting pollination method involving Fig Wasps and there are a few moth caterpillars and a Longhorn Beetle found on the foliage.


Olive-backed Oriole eating Moreton Bay Fig

Return to Bush Bites

Meet the Mammals of Moggill

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We’ve just released a new field guide!    

Mammals found in the Moggill Creek Catchment

To our knowledge, this is the first list of mammals in the area. It has been methodically crafted by our own local wildlife photographer, Ed Frazer.

There are nearly 50 photos in the list, taken by Ed and other MCCG members and local residents. Each listing includes a photo, together with a localised description of the animal.

The result is a comprehensive listing of mammals living beside us right here in the catchment!  

You will see native fauna of all shapes and sizes, animals with fur and animals with scales, water-dwelling and ground-dwelling mammals like this Red-necked wallaby with her joey:

Some photos are of nocturnal mamals, taken with a camera trap at night. And we have shots of feral animals as well.

You can open the guide from the Catchment Field Guides menu item on the home page. Click on each thumbnail to open a larger photo.

CAN YOU HELP US BUILD OUR LIST? 

If you have any photos you’re willing to share, we’d love to include them! Please send an email to Ed at:  [email protected]


Photo courtesy of Ed Frazer

Tick tock

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Time is ticking away and Spring is nearly upon us! Unfortunately, the warmer Spring weather often brings with it an increase in ticks and tick bites! 

We have found a video about these little parasites which feed on human and animal blood: 

Interestingly the creators claim that it doesn’t matter if the mouth parts of the tick are left behind when it is removed, provided that it is pulled straight out as close as possible to the surface of the skin and is not squeezed or twisted in the process.

The best way to avoid tick bites, however, is to spray the skin with insect repellent, which we always provide at our MCCG working bees.

Click here to view the video.

We have some additional info on our Ticks page and some useful tips and observations from Ed Frazer and Gordon Grigg in a Bush Bites article about ticks.