Spring has well and truly sprung

THERE are lots of things to see in the Dawn Road Reserve at the moment and the best way to get to know about the range of interesting plants and wonderful wildlife is to join us next Sunday on an "interpretive bushwalk" with local naturalist John Bowden.

Organised through the Moreton Bay Regional Council's BushCare program, this unique, free, two-hour gentle walk will begin at 8am sharp at the south-eastern end of Fred Campbell Drive, Albany Creek, in the cul de sac.

Children are welcome, accompanied by an adult, and it's strongly advised that you wear closed shoes, a wide-brimmed hat, long sleeves, long pants, a sunscreen and a repellant. Bring along some drinking water, too, as the weather's already quite warm.

There are so many things to see and understand, that you might also want to bring along a camera. Feel free to contribute images to this blog afterwards.

By the way, with the warmer weather returning, you might want to review your bushfire preparedness as we head into peak danger season. If you're new to the area and not familiar with these preparations or want to be reminded of some of the essentials, check an earlier post on this blog.

Look forward to seeing you and your family on Sunday.

TrinaMcL

BushCare this Sunday (July 13)

WELL it was wonderful to see a handful of keen residents from the Parkland Estate rock up for the last BushCare activity on June 22.

While we had a fascinating guided tour of the southern end of Mahaca Park (which is part of the Dawn Road Reserve) with Amanda from the parks section of the new Moreton Bay Regional Council, we soon realised that we have a long-term challenge ahead of us to get on top of some pesky weeds that have invaded the bushland to the east of FCD.

So the call's going out to more residents to join the effort. The work's not hard, the equipment's provided for us and we get plenty of guidance and instruction from people who really know their stuff.

If you're interested, come to the south-eastern end of FCD at 8am on Sunday (see below for recommended clothing). An added bonus is that you can learn about what common plants can in fact be weeds in our neck of the woods. (Sigh, I think our Jacaranda will be going soon, to be replaced by a less-invasive species!)

And this week's rains will mean any weed-pulling will be significantly easier!!

See you there.

TrinaMcL

Bushcare event @ Albany Parkside

DON'T you just love the bushland around our estate, peppered as it is with beautiful flora and interesting fauna? Even when it's raining and Albany Creek begins to babble, it's a wonderful landscape.

Well, one of the ways we can keep our bushland not only looking good but also free of invasive or destructive weeds (which could also spread to your garden), is to join in the fun activities organised by our local BushCare group.

The great news is that the next BushCare activity will be held on Sunday, June 22, from 8am to 10am in our Albany Parkside side of the Dawn Road Reserve.

In fact, those who want to participate will be helping to improve a segment of creekside parkland behind homes on the eastern side of Fred Campbell Drive.

The new Moreton Bay Regional Council sponsors our local BushCare activities, supplying volunteers with tools, equipment and cool refreshments in return for two hours of our time. The range of tasks can include:

• Plant and weed identification
• Encouraging natural regeneration
• Tree planting
• Mulching
• Weeding
• Habitat creation
  

BushCare is a community based conservation program aimed at restoring our natural bushland areas. The local group has been working successfully for once a month over several months on a patch of bush that runs along a rather pretty gully at the end of Hengis Court (in the adjacent Woodlands estate).

The transformation has been amazing as a group of a dozen or so local residents pitched in - under the watchful eye of MBRC BushCare officer Adam Christison and our local BushCare co-ordinator Janet Mangan - to remove invasive madiera vine, climbing asparagus, its groundcover form, asparagus fern, glycine and other pesky weeds.

Volunteers have included singles, couples, mates, parents and their children, people aged from 10 to 70+ who spend two hours once a month working together on a fun project.

It will be terrific to start such a project at this end of the Dawn Road Reserve. Why not join in the gathering at 8am adjacent to 35 FCD (cul de sac on the far south-eastern end)?

All you need is a broad-rimmed hat, gloves, sturdy enclosed shoes, long-sleeved shirt, long pants and to splash on plenty of sunscreen and insect repellent. And, of course, bring a friend, partner or child.

See you there.

TrinaMcL

We're back

I'M afraid it's been a bit busy on the family front these past couple of months and the posts have had to wait, but we're back and ready to roll.

The Dawn Road Reserve is looking pretty good right now and the wildlife are still fairly active, despite the arrival of cooler weather.

We've been glimpsing/hearing the wallabies - we think they're black-striped wallabies (macropus dorsalis) but we've also been told they could also be red-necked wallabies (macropus rufogriseus) - quite often at night, their preferred time to roam the edges of our bushland and nibble on the dewy grass. But they're pretty flighty and will bound off into the heavier undergrowth as soon as they hear any movement. We think there's a large male as well as a few smaller animals grazing at our end of the Reserve. Have you seen any?

Sadly, we've also noted evidence of a growing number of small wildlife being struck and killed by vehicles on Albany Creek Road and other nearby roads. The upside of this may be that there are more possums, sugar gliders, etc. traversing the territory. Let's hope so.

But there's no time like the present to take a walk through the reserve and see the wonderful diversity of plant and animal life ... it's fun to be still for a few moments to not only hear the array of birdlife but to check for evidence of other animals. Don't just check out the ground, look up into the trees and canopy and you'll be amazed at what you see.

We took a walk along one short track last week with a large rubbish bag and collected discarded rubbish. I'm pleased to report the amount collected wasn't too onerous.

But this raises a point. If you're going in to enjoy the Reserve, please bring everything out that you take in!

Happy wanderings.
TrinaMcL

PS: There will be a BushCare activity this coming Sunday (May 18) from 8am to 10am which all residents who live around the Reserve are welcome to attend. For more information, during work hours, call 3480 6666.

FUN ALERT: Hays Inlet Festival

FROM Friday, May 23, to Monday, June 9, there’s a fabulous array of free or inexpensive activities for families to be enjoyed as part of the Hays Inlet Festival.

Events will include:
· bridge, beach, river, bush, nature and bird-watching walks
· fishing, photography and garden competitions
· a boat cruise
· sailing on Lake Kurwongbah
· a kite flying day
· tree plantings and potting demonstrations
· presentations on dugong and wading birdlife
· a night event with well-known wildlife expert Ric Nattrass
· ecumenical thanksgiving services
· a film night
· a trivia night
· weed-busting activities
· art displays and workshops
· a big family picnic

If you don’t already know, Hays Inlet, an internationally recognised wetland, is where the Pine River, Saltwater Creek and Freshwater Creek spill into Bramble Bay on the western edge of Moreton Bay.

While Hays Inlet itself is in Clontarf, near the bridge between Brighton and the Redcliffe Peninsula but the catchment that drains into it stretches back to the D’Aguilar Range.

The Hays Inlet Catchment covers more than 1000 sq km (from Brighton to Saltwater Creek and from the D’Aguilar Range to Redcliffe) and is home to over 200,000 people and a diverse range of birdlife.

You can download a brochure containing the schedule of events for this year’s festival from the Hays Inlet website.

Evidence of echidna in the area

WELL, with all the wonderful rain over the past weeks, it's been a bit hard to get out on the tracks too often to spot echidna, but, at last, we have an image of one that visited a house near the Dawn Road Reserve ... thanks to Woodlands' Neighbourhood Watch’s Mark R.

While this photo was actually taken in 2001 beside his front fence (near the western edge of the Dawn Road Reserve), his neighbour has told Mark and his family about subsequent evening visits, at least two of them in the past 12 months!

These shy little critters are pretty scared of dogs, so for those of us with canines, we’ll have to look for any echidna a bit further afield when we’re out walking.

Speaking of the rain, it sure has begun to soak in and do some good after such a long drought.

The BushCare group - under the capable supervision of the Pine Rivers Shire Council's Adam Christison - met last Sunday morning and managed to have its monthly, two hour get together on one of the only dry days in the past few week.

The 12 or so volunteers found extracting identified weeds a much easier task because the vines were coming out of the soft ground without anywhere near as much effort as when it's dry.

If you'd like to join this monthly activity - it's open to volunteers aged 10 to 70+ - for the next few months the group will be working under the PRSC's supervision along a pretty gully at the end of Hengis Court (in the Woodlands estate) every second Sunday of the month. February get-together will start at 7.30am, but it's likely to drift out to 8am as the days shorten and the weather cools.

One really wonderful piece of news we got from experienced BushCare representative Janet is that, after the recent rains, she and another volunteer saw a platypus frollicking along Sandy Creek (not that far outside our Reserve area, it passes the state school at AC). Janet's also had a couple of visits from a young koala in a gum tree at the back of her yard.

Who knows what you might see over here in around the Dawn Road Reserve, because one of our FCD neighbours reported one visiting gum trees at the back of his home a year or so ago.

Happy wanderings

TrinaMcL