April Outing - Shed Social, Coulson, 20 April 2022

 Please note this is a mid-week get-together due to Easter and Anzac Day.

Perhaps not this shed

Time: 9 am for 9.30 am start

Where: Coulson

Directions: Please contact us 

Activities: 

• Presentations by two of our members on wildlife photography
• Stroll around the regrowth and replanted native vegetation areas
• If you have anything in the naturalist world you would like to display, bring it along.

Facilities:  a BBQ and fridge will be available.

There are plenty of chairs though none have side tables.

What to Bring: Photos you would like to share with us all (on a USB stick or CD/DVD)

Your own drinks, morning tea and lunch as well as your own plates, cups, cutlery.

Upon Arrival: Please register in the Attendance Book and pay your $2 per person participant fee. 

Outing Report - Lake Coolmunda Camp, 16, 17, 18 October 2020

Lake Coolmunda, October 2020
Photo: L. Beaton

17 campers/cabineers attended the latest Fassifern Field Naturalists' camp at Lake Coolmunda near Inglewood.

Friday: a walk down to the lake's edge was the afternoon activity. The dam is at 28% capacity and there were numerous freshwater mollusc shells marooned in the grass. The water birds were disappointing with only Pelican, Grey Teal, Black Duck and Cormorants recorded.

Saturday: a tag-along around the lake starting at Elbow Bend on the McIntyre Brook. As this is downstream from the dam, water is released and constantly flowing. Birds gather here and 41 species were seen plus 5 species of butterfly and 2 species of dragonfly. The favourite birds here would have been an Azure Kingfisher (if you had a glimpse as it flashed away) and the Plum-headed Finches feeding in the roadside grass. The photographers were delighted. 

White-winged Chough at Elbow Bend
Photo: C. Bonner

Bracker Creek was the next stop and what a feast for naturalists it was. A number of birds were nesting including Dusky Woodswallows and Brown Treecreepers. Two Black-fronted Dotterels were feeding on a pebbly shoreline and a Sacred Kingfisher was fishing from a stump in the middle of the creek.

Sacred Kingfisher at Bracker Creek
Photo: C. Bonner

Field Nats watching the Sacred Kingfisher
at Bracker Creek   Photo: H. McCosh

Black-fronted Dotterel
Photo: C. Bonner

Nats at the Devine State Forest waterhole
Photo: D. Pocknee

Above - White-eared Honeyeater
Below - Yellow-faced Honeyeaters
at Devine State Forest
Photos: Chris Bonner

Mosquito Creek Rd, a Queensland birding "hot spot" gave us few new birds as it was too hot by this time. Luckily we stopped in the state forest where we chanced upon a small waterhole. Here we sat and ate our lunch while watching the birds come in for a drink. 

In the afternoon 5 members went back to Coolmunda Conservation Park to see the Shiny-leaved Eucalypt (Eucalyptus virens). This has a status of "vulnerable" as it is only found in four areas in Queensland.

Sunday: some campers were leaving us so we were a small group that gathered at Elbow Bend. This was worth going back to, and we were able to see the Little Egret quite closely which you don't always get a chance to do. We also found Double-barred Finches nesting over the Brook.

We followed Tobacco Rd into Inglewood where we had morning tea in a shady park surrounded by Noisy Friarbirds. It was there that more people left and it was only the stalwarts that stayed overnight to leave on Monday.

Little Egret at McIntyre Brook         Photo: M. Corbett

Fairy-wren and lunch       Photo: M. Corbett

AGM

Our AGM in March was a very enjoyable affair. The official business was dealt with efficiently and we were able to settle down to the interesting and informative talk by Megan Prance on fungi.    

Megan Prance giving her talk

Some of the facts from her talk were: 

• Of the many thousands of fungi found all over Australia, only a comparatively small number have been identified.
• Plants and trees form a relationship with fungi and together they produce specialised roots known as mycorrhiza. (Mycorrhiza = fungus + root) This association produces essential nutrients for both the fungi and the plant and it also provides protection for the plant against disease and soil borne organisms. This Mycorrhiza is also essential for the growth of many of our native terrestrial orchids.
• Fungi is a major source of food for many of our small marsupials such as small wallabies, potoroos, bandicoots and wombats. Some birds also include fungi in their diet. 
•  Even though wood chips used as mulch in the suburban garden leads to the appearance of many interesting and colourful fungi, its use changes the ecosystem.   Using local garden mulch is much better for the environment because of the important role fungi plays in plant ecology.  Wood chip is sourced from a completely different environment so its use promotes a fungi which is foreign to the plants it is going to associate with.

Megan & Noela discussing the beautiful display Noela created

This was followed by many questions, and much discussion over a wonderful supper supplied by members.

GUEST SPEAKER: Megan Prance "Fabulous Fungi and some Photography"

The formal part of the meeting will be, as is our custom, quite short, followed by -

Megan Prance speaking at the Lockyer Valley
Land for Wildlife Forum

GUEST SPEAKER:  Megan Prance "Fabulous Fungi and some Photography"

Megan became seriously interested in fungi & photography in 2007 after seeing a magnificent Stinkhorn while on a bush walk at Lamington National Park. It took 6 months to find out what it was. To learn about macro fungi she joined Queensland Mycological Society. 

She is a former nurse and has an Applied Science Degree majoring in Biology. She currently works at
Queensland Herbarium assisting with the Fungal Collection, the new DNA lab and  running the Botanical library. Megan is past president of Wolston & Centenary Catchments Inc. With Dr Sapphire McMullan-Fisher she conducted a fungal survey of West Brisbane Fungi in 2014-15.

The annual general meeting of the Fassifern Field Naturalists Club Inc. will be held at 6.30pm on Saturday, 19th March 2016 in the Boonah Baptist Hall, corner of Church and Macquarie Streets, Boonah.

This will be followed by our guest speaker, supper and socializing with time to view the interesting items and photos brought in by members.

Admission for members and non-members is $4 and includes supper.