CLUB MEETING: 7 pm, Friday 05 September 2025
An urban possum Photo: L. Beaton |
CLUB MEETING: 7 pm, Friday 05 September 2025
An urban possum Photo: L. Beaton |
The planned outing to Goombungee had to be cancelled because of the amount
of rain during the night. Instead, we were to meet at the James Byrne end of
the Highfields Falls Bushland. Ten members and a
visitor arrived by 9 a.m. on a sunny but cold morning.
It was an easy walk with a chorus of birds to keep us company. The stops made on the route were mainly to try to spot birds which were flitting about, quite often high in the canopy. These spots were where the sun broke through, as well as at the top of the waterfall, and again at the bottom of the Falls. Recent rains ensured that there was a good flow of water. Opposite the descent to the bottom of the Falls was a tree where Powerful Owls used to roost, but there was no sign of any owl, nor any giveaway signs on the ground to indicate they might have been there.
One of the non-avian things that caught our attention was some large galls on a quite small wattle tree (see photo). It was not the gall that poet Gerard Manley Hopkins was referring to in these few lines:
But
it is a bit of a curse for the wattle tree. The gall is a reaction to insects such as mites, thrips
and wasps, laying eggs in the plant tissue, and their larvae release chemicals
(like cecidotoxins) that stimulate abnormal cell growth, forming the
gall. The gall is essentially the tree’s defensive response - a kind of
botanical scar tissue - triggered by foreign substances or organisms. It walls
off the invader, but in doing so, creates a nutrient-rich shelter that
ironically benefits the pest. Gall shapes vary on different Acacias. [For more information on galls: gall
history in Aus.pdf.]
Straw-necked Ibis; Pacific Baza (probable sighting); Brown Quail; White-headed Pigeon; Galah; Sulphur-crested Cockatoo; Rainbow Lorikeet; Little Lorikeet; King Parrot; Pale-headed Rosella; Laughing Kookaburra; Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike; Eastern Yellow Robin; Grey Shrike-thrush; Grey Fantail; Eastern Whipbird; Superb Fairy-wren; White-browed Scrubwren; Brown Thornbill (probable sighting); Varied Sittella; White-throated Treecreeper; Noisy Miner; Lewin’s Honeyeater; White-naped Honeyeater; Brown Honeyeater; Mistletoebird; Spotted Pardalote; Red-browed Firetail; Olive-backed Oriole; Australian Figbird.
CLUB MEETING:
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Latham's Snipe Photo: Jason Girvan by CC BY-SA 3.0 |
7 pm, Friday 1 August 2025 at
St. Anthony’s Community Centre, Memory Street, Toowoomba.![]() |
Bird Beak Hakea Hakea orthorrhyncha |
Added information – There are
many different routes to travel to Glenmorgan with interesting stops along the
way. Some suggestions - Hugh Sawrey
Memorial Park Kogan, Caliguel Lagoon Condamine, Brigalow Creek Meandarra, Tara
Lagoon and many creek crossings with water.
Non members: please email toowoombafieldnaturalists@gmail.com for more information on accommodation and directions.
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Lagoon on the way into Myall Park |
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Myall Park entrance by the lagoon |
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Mud map of key birding sites near Myall Park (not to scale) |
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Rush-leaf Wattle Acacia juncifolia |
Where: Bottle Tree Park in the main street of Goombungee between George and Edward Streets. Car-pooling into high clearance vehicles is suggested.
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Boronia inflexa |
Adapted from the TFNC newsletter report of M.Simmons
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Rhyolite blocks and tuff Photo: K. Stephenson |
In the Muntapa picnic area we were given interesting little stories and information on the geological formation of the surrounding rocks and topography. ‘About 18 million years ago [this area] was subject to complex and violent volcanism where rising rhyolitic magmas superheated groundwater resulting in huge phreatic explosions. Craters between 100 and 200 metres deep were infilled with masses of material fallen from the sky. Both portals [of the tunnel] will show us the variety of this material – through which those who had constructed the tunnel had worked with hand tools.’
The tunnel has now been fenced giving a Gothic-like appearance through to the roosting and breeding colony of several thousand Bent-wing Bats, Miniopterus schreibersii. These bats cluster tightly together (up to 1,500 per square metre) on the ceilings of caves, mines, disused railway tunnels, storm water drains and old cement buildings. (‘Bats of Eastern Australia’ Qld Museum booklet No.12). The historical markers and information recording the history of the tunnel, the workers campsite and associated memories of long-term residents all added to making this a worthy revisit for the Nats.
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Black Bean Castanospermum australe pods at The Palms N.P. Photo: D. Pagel |
Bird list for July outing. (Muntapa
Tunnel and Palms Nat. Park compiled by L. Moodie.)
Oakey Rotary Park: Pacific Black Duck,
Australian Pelican, Australian White Ibis, Little Corella, Noisy Miner,
Grey Butcherbird, Australian Magpie, Magpie-lark.
Muntapa Tunnel: Red-backed Fairy-wren, Lewin’s
Honeyeater, Yellow-faced Honeyeater, Noisy Miner, Spotted Pardalote, Speckled
Warbler, Brown Thornbill, Varied Sittella, Grey Shrike-thrush, Pied Currawong, Australian
Magpie, Grey Butcherbird, Grey Fantail, Torresian Crow, Silvereye, Red-browed
Finch.
Palms National Park: Australian Brush-turkey, Brown Quail, Laughing Kookaburra, White-throated Treecreeper, Lewin’s Honeyeater, Spotted Pardalote, Brown Gerygone, White-browed Scrubwren, Golden Whistler, Eastern Whipbird, Grey Fantail, Eastern Yellow Robin.
CLUB MEETING: 7 pm, Friday 4 July 2025
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Dingo on K'gari Photo: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license |
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Map of railway route from Oakey to Cooyar |
Where: Rotary Park on Campbell Street, Oakey (next to the Park House Motor Inn). This route closely follows the original Oakey-Cooyar railway line.