Deep Listening to Nature: Andrew Skeoch in Toowoomba - 7 September

Don't miss out on this wonderful opportunity to discover nature in a deeper way - Deep Listening to Nature. 
Bookings are essential.

 

July Outing Report - Glencoe Mountain, 07 July 2024

 Adapted from the Toowoomba Field Naturalist Club newsletter, Issue 798, August 2024

Brachychiton x turgidulus
in bloom November 2023
Photo: D. Pagel

When members met at Gowrie Junction they were not deterred by the wind, icy and bracing. On arrival at the property hot drinks seemed in order and while we enjoyed morning tea in a sheltered sunny spot beside their house, our hosts spoke to us about the history of the property, its development and their future plans. 

After morning tea, we explored below the house with our hosts, following various interests. There was no flora expert with us to compile a plant list, though we were provided with a comprehensive list compiled by botanists in 2019. Insects were elusive and many birds were sheltering elsewhere. 

Weathering and soil formation
Photo: D. Johnston

A shallow embankment beside the shed caught the attention of our geologist, Dougal, and those nearby learned from its profile something of the weathering of basalt rock and associated soil formation. The basalt on the property supplies many soluble elements through weathering and with little quartz the thin soil is dominated by dark-coloured swelling clays with organic content. Below, the subsoil has prominent weathered rock fragments and below that again, larger pieces of basalt. On the slopes the thin soil dries out and moves downhill with rainfall, limiting the plants that can grow well there.

When we re-gathered late morning, we drove up the hill to the ridge top. A gate was left open for us to explore remnant dry vine scrub and take in the expansive view to the north-west. A second walk along the road south took us to another open gate and we strolled back along the fence line birding and observing vegetation. 

At lunch, notes were compared and members expressed their appreciation for the hospitality shown them and the opportunity to visit a property cared for and developed with such commitment and passion. The outing did not produce the significant lists it might have done if the weather had been different, but it was certainly stimulating and enjoyable. 

Bird list for the day from members' observations:

Black shouldered Kite, Wedge-tailed Eagle, Nankeen Kestrel, Superb Blue-wren, Brown Honeyeater, Noisy Miner, Striated Pardalote, Brown Thornbill, Australian Magpie, Pied Butcherbird, Torresian Crow, Willie Wagtail, Grey Fantail, Restless Flycatcher, Double-barred Finch, Silvereye (Tasmanian race). A small list but such a windy day. 

Costa's Video

 

 

Take a walk on the wild side with Costa Georgiadis. Popular host of ABC television series Gardening Australia, Costa speaks to us about the "Wild About My Garden" project. 

August Activity Details: Friday, 2 August 2024 and Sunday, 04th August, bus trip to Nudgee Beach and Boondall wetlands

CLUB MEETING: Friday, 02^nd  August, 7 pm - St. Anthony’s Community Centre, Memory Street, Toowoomba.

Threatened Flora and Vegetation Communities of the Darling Downs with Will Gibson

Will Gibson

Will is a locally based ecologist and environmental planner with a range of experience working for Councils and private environmental consultancies across Southern Queensland. Will leads a team of ecologists based in Toowoomba at Range Environmental Consultants and is passionate about balancing the needs of the environment we live in, conservation and the pressures of modern society. 

Since moving to Toowoomba in early 2021 Will has become a passionate advocate for the conservation, protection and management of the region's threatened plant and vegetation communities. Will's talk will provide an overview of the variety of flora species which have faced threatening processes across the region and how ecologists like himself manage these pressures and work to ensure their conservation with some local examples included. Will's talk will also discuss the value of citizen science and the important role that clubs like TFNC play in supporting knowledge of flora and fauna species distribution.

CLUB OUTING: Sunday 04^th August, bus trip to Nudgee beach and Boondall wetlands

The bus is fully booked. Commiserations if you missed out.

Nature Journaling Workshops

Sat 31 Aug 2024

‘Nature journaling for teachers’ workshop.

This is a workshop for anyone who would like to teach nature journaling, including but not limited to teachers. 5 hours duration, plus 1 hour break for lunch. Includes some art materials, a morning tea and light lunch provided by TFNC.

Tickets for Saturday here

Sun 1st September 2024

‘Introduction to Nature Journaling’ workshop.

For ages 15 years and over (interested kids 10 years and over are welcome if accompanied by an adult). 3 hours duration, plus morning tea break. Includes some art materials and morning tea provided by TFNC.

Tickets for Sunday here

The Toowoomba Field Naturalist Club is hosting a project called "Wild About My Garden", in collaboration with Toowoomba Gardens for Wildlife (G4W). We are inviting contributions from the public which convey a special moment with nature, either as photography, nature journaling, poetry and prose, or works of art. For more information click here.

About the Presenter:

Paula Peeters has a PhD in ecology, and spent 13 years working for state government environmental agencies. During this time, she realised that facts alone were not enough to change the way people thought about conservation and environmental protection. In an effort to engage more people in protecting the environment, Paula took a year of leave in 2015. She spent the year writing, making art and blogging. The year of leave turned into forever, and Paperbark Writer was born. 

About the workshops: 

Nature journaling is the practice of drawing or writing in response to observations of nature. The practice slows you down, increases your mindfulness (or clears your mind), and increases your attention to detail and appreciation of beauty. It helps you to notice the details in nature, and improves your recognition of different species, and your understanding of where and how they live. With time, it also improves your ability to observe, to draw and to write. Spending quiet time in nature has many wellness benefits, and nature journaling is a practice that encourages this ‘quiet time’ and reflection.

The Joan Kolbe Project, 'Wild About My Garden'

The Joan Kolbe Project,

Wild About My Garden

The Toowoomba Field Naturalist Club Inc. is inviting community members of all ages and interests to share a special moment with nature, either through photography, a nature journal page, poetry or prose or a work of art. 

Hosted by the Toowoomba Field Naturalist Club Inc. (TFNC), this project is supported by a donation from the family of Joan Kolbe, a former member of TFNC. 

Joan Kolbe 

The club is honouring Joan’s legacy through this project.

For more information about the project, click here.

Aims of the project:

• To focus attention on gardens that provide a safe and welcoming habitat for wildlife.
• To create an event that invites people of all ages and interests to connect with nature.
• To highlight the activities of Toowoomba Field Naturalist Club Inc. and other environmental groups within the Toowoomba Regional Council region, including Gardens for Wildlife Toowoomba Region (G4W) and other groups supported by the Darling Downs Environment Council (DDEC).

How to Become Involved

Enter artwork and/or writing to be eligible for inclusion in an eBook and/or an exhibition of work to commemorate the project.

Watch Costa's video about the project.

Categories of Artwork and Writing:  

• Photography
• Nature Journal page
• Poetry or Prose
• Work of Art

Age Levels:
Under 16 

Open (16 and over)

Entries open:
25th August to 22nd September, 2024
An Honorary Award will be presented in each category and in both age levels.
All contributors will receive a certificate of participation as a downloadable PDF.

Entries will be displayed at:
DDEC Eco Hut,
1A Heller St., Toowoomba
on Saturday 28 September from 2pm – 5pm.

Rules for Contributions

• Anyone can enter free of charge but ALL entries must pertain to the Toowoomba Regional Council region.

• All entries must be the original work of the entrant.

• Entries should convey a personal connection with the chosen topic, gained through time spent with some aspect of nature found in your chosen space. 

• All entries must be digital, as a .pdf or a .jpg or a Word document, and no larger than 5 mb.

• Each entry is to be submitted separately as an attachment to an email to: tfncwildaboutmygarden@gmail.com. Before attaching an entry, the image must be saved with your name and age category. e.g., Jemma Lawson U16.  (Any images incorrectly identified will be returned for editing.) Your accompanying email must include your name, contact details, entry title and category. 

• Total number of entries per person is three (3) e.g. one in each of three categories OR any other combination.

• Poetry and/or prose must be a maximum of 300 words.

• Written works may include an original hand-drawn illustration on the page.

• The entrant agrees that entries can be used by TFNC for educational or promotional purposes including on the TFNC’s web site, Facebook page, Newsletter and in an eBook, and may also be shown on other platforms. The entrant will always be acknowledged where the image is used.

Other Information

• Entry is FREE 

• By submitting an entry, you are confirming that you have read the rules of entry and the following information.

• There is no restriction on the size of the garden space, and includes private gardens, community gardens, parks, school grounds etc.

• Images may include man-made items including frog ponds, nest boxes etc.

• Topics and titles are the entrant’s own choice, in keeping with the theme: Wild About My Garden.

• Copyright and intellectual property remains with the entrant and no commercial use of entries will be made without their prior consent.

• The TFNC organizing committee’s decisions are final.

 

Other Activities

•      A Paula Peeters workshop on nature journaling. 
•      A nature photography workshop with James Sparshott. 
•      Specialist talks by published naturalists are also planned.

For more information on nature journaling, we recommend the following link: paperbark writer - nature journaling.

For more information on Gardens for Wildlife Toowoomba Region (G4W) please follow the link: g4w Toowoomba Region 

Keep an eye out for workshops, talks, etc. throughout July, August & September that will contribute to Wild About My Garden on our Facebook page.

If you have further questions, please contact tfncwildaboutmygarden@gmail.com. 

May Outing Report - Ravensbourne, 05 May 2024

Adapted from the Toowoomba Field Naturalist Club newsletter, Issue 796, June 2024

artificial nesting hollows
in situ
Photo: F. Mangubhai

Sunday’s outing turned out to be fine day as members made their way to the Ravensbourne property of 40 hectares surrounded by gardens and beyond that a wet sclerophyll forest. Our first walk was along a track that led through the forest where hollows for birds and bats were made using a chainsaw, the round one for, hopefully, a glider, while the slit was for microbats. Amongst the trees in the forest was Sydney Blue Gum Eucalyptus saligna, Brush Box Lophostemon confertus and stringy barks. A Moreton Bay Fig Ficus macrophylla, likely propagated from bird droppings, showed all the signs of turning into a magnificent, shade-giving tree.

An artist was at work in the forest; we came across a Sydney Blue Gum with designs on its trunk. The artist was the Red Triangle Slug Triboniophorus graeffei. Also, on this walk we saw a dragonfly, the Australian Emperor Anax papuensis, which looked to be petrified by us as it stayed perched on a leaf for all our photographers who approached it. 

Red Triangle Slug
Triboniophorus
graeffei
Photo: R. Hobson

Red Triangle Slug trails
Photo.: F. Mangubhai

   

Australian Emperor
Photo: J. Gundry

    

After morning tea, members walked around the extensive gardens.

Lunchtime was spent chatting about what had been seen, and a species list compiled. We also learned why there was no vegetable garden currently, as the Pale Field Rats Rattus tunneyi, Black Rats R. rattus, Bush Rats R. fuscipes, and two local bandicoot species had managed to burrow under the fence and eat anything that was growing. Rather than fighting them with poison, they’d opted to cease planting vegetables.

Thank you to our hosts, for sharing your home with us and making it such a wonderful day for the Field Nats members. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the species list below, as well.

Usnea sp. (a beard lichen)
Photo: G. Spearritt

Horehound Bug 
Agonoscelis rutila 
on salvia
Photo: G. Walter 

Golden Mistletoe
Notothixos subaureus
on Box Mistletoe
Amyema miquelii 
Photo: G. Spearritt

Click on images to enlarge.   

 

Species Lists: Mammals: Red-necked Wallaby, Red Deer* Birds: Pheasant Coucal, Shining Bronze-Cuckoo, Wedge-tailed Eagle, Laughing Kookaburra, Galah, Australian King-Parrot, Crimson Rosella (nom. subsp.), Satin Bowerbird, White-throated Treecreeper (southern), Variegated Fairy-wren, Brown Honeyeater, Blue-faced Honeyeater, White-naped Honeyeater, Eastern Spinebill, Lewin’s Honeyeater, Noisy Miner, Striated Pardalote, Weebill, White-browed Scrubwren, Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike, Rufous Whistler, Golden Whistler (south-eastern Australia), Eastern Whipbird, Pied Currawong (eastern Australia), Australian Magpie, Grey Butcherbird, Grey Fantail, Torresian Crow, Eastern Yellow Robin, Red-browed Finch, Welcome Swallow, Silvereye (eastern); also, of interest, a male Common Blackbird seen on the side of the Esk Hampton Road just below its junction with the New England Highway, Hampton on the way to the outing. Reptiles: Dark-flecked Garden Sunskink Lampropholis delicata, Eastern Small-eyed Snake Cryptophis nigrescens** Flatworms: Blue Garden Flatworm Caenoplana coerulea Molluscs: Red-triangle Slug Triboniophorus graeffei Spiders: Golden Orb-weaver Trichonephila plumipes, Silver Orb Spider Leucauge granulata Dragonflies: Australian Emperor Anax papuensis Cockroaches: Common Trilobite Cockroach Laxta granicollis Grasshoppers: Hedge Grasshopper Valanga irregularis Sucking Bugs: a water strider Tenagogerris euphrosyne, Horehound Bug Agonoscelis rutila*** Butterflies: Narrow-brand Grass-dart Ocybadistes flavovittatus vittatus, Pink Grass-yellow Eurema herlia, Large Grass-yellow Eurema hecabe, Monarch Danaus plexippus, Glasswing Acraea andromacha andromacha, Tailed Emperor Charaxes sempronius sempronius, Evening Brown Melanitis leda bankia, Brown Ringlet Hypocysta metirius Ants: Jumper Ant Myrmecia nigrocincta, a spiny ant Polyrhachis brisbanensis, a spider ant Leptomyrmex cnemidatus, a spider ant Leptomyrmex tibialis Fungi: Redlead Roundhead Leratiomyces ceres, Southern Cinnabar Polypore Pycnoporus coccineus, Turkey Tail Trametes versicolor. 

* several trees used as stag rubbing posts observed
** pair found under sheet of tin later in day
*** found on ornamental salvia; 34 x colour varieties represented in garden (owner's personal comment), but bug restricted to blue-coloured variety (observer's pers. obs.)