Doesn't she look sweet, but she's a killer! |
CLUB OUTING: Sunday 03 September 2023 - Crows Nest.
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The tracks for the first part of the day |
Where: Crows Nest in the car park beside the swimming pool.
Doesn't she look sweet, but she's a killer! |
CLUB OUTING: Sunday 03 September 2023 - Crows Nest.
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The tracks for the first part of the day |
Where: Crows Nest in the car park beside the swimming pool.
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White-bellied Sea-eagles' nest, Cooby Dam Photo: K. Stephensen |
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Cooby Dam spillway Photo: K. Stephensen |
Loveday Cove Birds: Compiled by N. Thompson
Black Swan (11), Maned Duck (12), Pacific Black Duck (2), Hardhead (2),
Brown Quail (7), Dusky Moorhen (1), Eurasian Coot (20), Australian Grebe (2),
Great Crested Grebe (4), Masked Lapwing (2), Little Pied Cormorant (3),
White-faced Heron (2), Whistling Kite (1), Pale-headed Rosella (2), Superb
Fairywren (6), Red-backed Fairywren (3), Brown Honeyeater (1), Noisy Miner (2),
Weebill (2), White-browed Scrubwren (1), Pied Currawong (1), Willie Wagtail
(2), Magpie-lark (1), Australian Reedwarbler (2), Golden-headed Cisticola (1),
Chestnut-breasted Mannikin (5).
Cooby Dam Birds: Compiled by K. O'Dea
Black Swan, Australian Wood Duck, Hardhead, Pacific Black Duck, Australasian Grebe, Great
Red-browed Finch nest Photo: F. Mangubhai |
Reptiles: Eastern Snake-necked Turtle Chelodina longicollis, Murray Turtle Emydura macquarii
Dragonflies: Blue Skimmer Orthetrum caledonicum, Scarlet Percher Diplacodes haematodes
Time: 9.00 am (If carpooling, please meet at the Neil Street
Carpark, to set off at 8.30 am.) If you're not a Toowoomba Field Naturalists Club member, please let us know you're coming, toowoombafieldnaturalists@gmail.com, in case there are last minute changes.Australian Wood Duck
Chenonetta jubata - male
from Wikipedia
Where: at the lower picnic area of the Cooby Dam
Report adapted from the Club newsletter article.
Many thanks to our leader for pre-viewing and organising the Field Nats excursion, and to Gary Hearle for guiding the group of nine vehicles through the maze of tracks in the 86,000-hectare Kumbarilla State Forest, of which we visited a relatively small area. Ongoing logging occurs in some areas of the forest, along with some cattle grazing leases, which reduce the grass fire fuel load. Extensive coal seam gas development was evident, throughout the area we visited.
After
travelling through dry, sandy, open forest country, we
were pleased to arrive at a shady spot
beside the abundant clear water of Wilkie Creek. Aquatic vegetation flourished
in the shallows of the creek.
Kurrajong leaf tier moth bag (Photo: M. Ford) |
Francis Mangubhai checks waxiness of rare Acacia lithgowiae (Photo D. Pagel) |
Map of area for outing |
Where: Thomas Jack Park - entry off Pratten Street, Dalby
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Image by brgfx on Freepik |
The Toowoomba Field Naturalists Club Inc. would like to respectfully acknowledge the Jarowair people, Traditional Custodians, of the Coalbank area on which our outing took place, and pay our respects to both the past and present first peoples, their elders, languages, customs, culture and connection to this wonderful country.
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Morning tea in fine spring weather Photo: L. Moodie |
It was a bright sunny morning when members wended their way to Coalbank, A talk by the current owners was given during morning tea. The land (about 350 acres or 142 ha) was bought about fifteen years ago, when it was a dairy farm. The talk included an outline of some of their philosophy that underpins what they do on this property, e.g., every plant has its place, just need to find out where. One principle: anything cut, went back into the earth as mulch.
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Red Passion Flower Passiflora aurantia Photo: T, Gardner |
Then it was time to explore an area near a scree slope. (See more information about screes at the end of this report.) An Orange Olive Plum Elaeodendron australe var. integrifolium but no fruit at the moment caught some members' attention. There was also a lot of yellow-flowering Spur Goodenia Goodenia paradoxa covering a lot of the ground. A flowering native passion vine Passiflora aurantia var. aurantia which had both its pink/reddish flowers as well as some green fruit was admired. There were also some weeds that we noted: the Spear Thistles and Lantana.
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Warrigal Greens Tetragona tetragoinoides Photo: T, Gardner |
After lunch members explored the creek, disturbing a Lace Monitor Varanus varius, which dashed up a tree.
All in all, an outing in which the weather made it a very pleasant, late spring excursion.
T
On the Range from Toowoomba to the Bunya Mountains there are remnants of the many basalt flows mostly as hill caps. The basalts, some coarse and blocky some flowbanded and more finely layered, are mostly harder than the underlying sediments.
During weathering, the softer underlying rocks erode more easily leaving the basalt with steep, cliff like outcrops near the hilltops. As the basalt breaks and collapses down the slope a cover of basaltic fragments. sometimes as scree, forms over the eroding sediments.
scree (skrē) n. 1. Loose rock debris covering a slope.
The term scree is applied both to an unstable steep mountain slope composed of rock fragments and other debris, and to the mixture of rock fragments and debris itself. The term scree is sometimes used more broadly for any sheet of loose rock fragments mantling a slope.
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The scree slope Photo: D. Johnstone |
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Lace Monitor Varanus varius Photo: D. Johnstone |
Boomerangiana dimidiata Photo: G. Walter |
Cattle Poison Sawfly Lophyrotoma interrupta Photo: G. Walter |
A Weevil - Rhinotia species Photo: G. Walter |