ACTIVITIES CANCELLED

Cucumber Moth, Diaphania indica

As you are well aware the COVID-19 has impacted on all individuals and organisations throughout Australia and the world.
The FFNC committee, via emails, has agreed to suspend all activities; our meetings, walks, camps and events from this moment until further notice. This being in accordance with the current Australian government health and safety guidelines.
What we could do from home, is keep focused on our fauna and flora in our immediate surrounds and add to our growing database the birds, butterflies, bugs, other insects and wildlife in our own backyards. Send your Fassifern sightings and pics, if you've got them, to our email address (scroll down the left-hand margin). We'd love to see them. Or if you want to share, post them on our Facebook page. 
Only pics from the FFNC survey area, please. Like this Cucumber Moth in my garden last month.

AGM - Boonah, 21 March 2020

CANCELLED! 
Time: 6 pm for 6.30pm start

Kalbar, EJ ("Kalbar") Smith's patch

Where: Baptist Hall, cnr Church & Macquarie Streets, Boonah

What to Bring: a plate of supper to share, show-&-tell.

Upon Arrival: Please register in the Attendance Book and pay your $4 per person participant fee (This helps to pay for the hire of the hall.) 

Agenda:

• Executive reports
• Voting for the executive positions for 2020 (Noela's latest stretch as secretary has been for 10 years and she is retiring.)
• Guest Speaker: Darryn Schneider whose topic is 'EJ ("Kalbar") Smith who was a naturalist in the Fassifern in the 1920s, '30s and '40s. 
• This will be followed by supper and socializing with time to view the interesting items and photos.

Outing Report - Odonata at Lilybrook, 15 February 2020

What a day! 

Chris Burwell entertaining the Field Nats

Due to the heavy rain and closure of the Coulson road junction in the days before our outing, we moved Chris Burwell's presentation on Odonata to the first activity of the day. The shed soon became full with many members remembering Chris as a lad chasing insects on our early Field Nats outings. Did FFNC have a little input into his being senior curator of Entomology at the Queensland Museum? We like to think so.

After knowing a lot more about damsel/dragonflies and being enthused to find our local species we set off for Lilybrook as the junction had opened that morning. They were ideal conditions and a total of 14 different damsels & dragons were identified and one other at the Coulson shed. As well, there were other invertebrates, 13 different butterflies and 41 species of birds.

Starting out for the water with nets to the ready

Plenty of dragonflies here

Capturing a damselfly for identification

Up close and personal

 Fauna  introduced species = _*

Birds: Brown Quail, Plumed Whistling Duck, Australian Wood Duck, Pacific Black Duck, Crested Pigeon, Peaceful Dove, Bar-shouldered Dove, Great Cormorant, Little Black Cormorant, Australian Pelican, Whistling Kite, Wedge-tailed Eagle, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Australian King Parrot, Pale-headed Rosella, Pheasant Coucal, Little Bronze-Cuckoo, Brush Cuckoo, Laughing Kookaburra, Sacred Kingfisher, Rainbow Bee-eater, Weebill, White-throated Gerygone, Striated Pardalote, Noisy Miner, Brown Honeyeater, White-throated Honeyeater, Blue-faced Honeyeater, Striped Honeyeater, Grey-crowned Babbler, Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike, Cicadabird, Rufous Whistler, Olive-backed Oriole, Pied Butcherbird, Australian Magpie, Willie Wagtail, Torresian Crow, Restless Flycatcher, Magpie-lark, Tawny Grassbird, Welcome Swallow.

Butterflies: Blue Triangle, Orchard Swallowtail, Lemon Migrant, Common Grass-yellow, Small Grass-yellow, Australian Gull, Caper White, Lesser Wanderer, Blue Tiger, Common Crow, Meadow Argus, Spotted Grass-blue, Common Grass Blue.

Spiders: Australian Jewel Spider (Austracantha minax).

Damsel/Dragonflies: Wandering Ringtail (Austrolestes leda), Eastern Billabongfly (Austroagrion watsonia), Redtail (Ceriagrion aeruginosum), Aurora Bluetail (Ischnura aurora), Common Bluetail (Ischnura heterosticta), Gold-fronted Riverdamsel (Pseudagrion aureofrons), Blue Riverdamsel (Pseudagrion microcephalum), Australian Tiger (Ictinogomphus australis), Palemouth (Brachydiplax denticauda), Wandering Percher (Diplacodes bipunctata), Scarlet Percher (Diplacodes haematodes), Black-faced Percher (Diplacodes melanopsis), Water Prince (Hydrobasileus brevistylus), Blue Skimmer (Orthetrum caledonicum), Short-tailed Duskdarter (Zyxomma elgneri).
Moths: Joseph's Coat Moth (Agarista Agricola) 1.

Other Invertebrates: Christmas Beetle (Anoplognathus porosus), Orange Potter Wasp (Eumenes latreilli), Cherrynose [cicada] (Macrotristria angularis).

Amphibians: *Cane Toad.

Reptiles: Red-bellied Black Snake.