Top Ten Wildlife Encounters of 2019

I’ve had such a good year exploring for wildlife! I really pushed myself into new territory, both figuratively as far as my nocturnal and underwater adventures went, and literally as I travelled to the USA. For this list of my favourite encounters, I have only included species that I’ve come across here in South-east Queensland, though rest assured that my time spent amongst black bears, alligators and hummingbirds made a huge impression on me!

Gull lover's travels

Ring-billed gull, Corolla, North Carolina.

Gulls have always interested me, perhaps because despite there being over fifty different species of them around the world, only one is familiar to me as a Queensland resident.

A night on Mount Tamborine—in pictures

A great barred frog and leech in Tamborine National Park. 

Last Friday, I headed up to Mount Tamborine so that I could visit the Piccabeen Bookshop run by the local Landcare group, and find some rainforest snails to photograph after dark. 

The trip was a great success, as not only did I find beautiful books and snails, I also found a menagerie of other amazing creatures, most of which I’d never seen before.

Here is a gallery of some of those finds, including notes on each.

A holiday to remember on Bundaberg's Coral Coast

A female flatback turtle, covering her nest chamber with sand on Mon Repos Beach.

I kicked off the start of this summer with a short break up at Bargara, where I had a fantastic time! I’ll get to all the interesting animals and plants I saw in a minute, but first, let me just say how much I liked the actual region. Bundaberg struck me as a city with the perfect mix of old and new; lovely heritage buildings and structures and a laid-back attitude are complemented by the modern conveniences of good roads, internet access and seven-days-a-week shopping. And while I can see new suburbs popping up here and there, the region isn’t suffering the same intense overcrowding that Brisbane is at present. I loved it! 

And now back to the wildlife! Here are some of the creatures and places that will be living in my heart for much longer than my holiday lasted. 

Sea turtles
If there’s one animal that Bundaberg's Coral Coast is particularly famous for, it’s the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta). Researchers estimate that approximately half of the South Pacific Ocean’s loggerheads nest on the stretch of coastline centred on stunning Mon Repos Beach, and late spring and early summer is when the females can be seen coming ashore. 

Lamington National Park shines bright on a grey morning

Morans Creek, O'Reilly.

On a cool and overcast morning last Friday, I headed down to Lamington National Park and walked two tracks in the Green Mountains section near O’Reilly’s.

Sea anemones plentiful in Sunshine Coast rockpools

LEFT: decorated anemone, RIGHT: green anemone.

Last Wednesday I went searching for sea anemones on a rocky shoreline south of Coolum Beach, and found five different species in the rock pools there.

Wild BNE meet-up: Oxley Creek Common

Double-barred finches (Taeniopygia bichenovii).

Oxley Creek Common is regarded as one of Brisbane’s premier birdwatching locations, with over 200 species recorded at the site. On Saturday 22nd September, I am offering to host a walk for a group of people who would like to spend the afternoon at this beautiful reserve, exploring the wetlands, farm margins and wooded areas for as many fascinating birds, animals and plants as we can find. The pace will be leisurely and along a flat gravel path, but the total distance walked may be as much as five kilometres.

Mangroves of Toondah Harbour

Grey mangroves at the edge of Cassim Island.

I love mangroves. I find them to be fascinating examples of adaptation, and admire the way they shape and influence entire coastlines and ecosystems. 

Salt crystals on a yellow mangrove leaf.

Here in South-east Queensland, we have seven species of them (eight, if you count a species of fern), so I also appreciate how beginner-friendly they are when it comes to plant identification, as there are not too many to sort through.

Unfortunately, despite their immense environmental and economic value, mangroves are sadly not championed by the general public in the same way that rainforests, coral reefs and other ecosystems are. Governments and developers use this to their advantage, feeling comfortable in destroying coastal wetlands for the sake of marinas, canal estates and the like. A situation just like this is currently playing out in Cleveland, where a proposed development threatens Toondah Harbour and surrounds.

Swamp tiger (Danaus affinis) on a river mangrove.

This blog post examines the different mangrove species that can be seen in the Toondah Harbour area, and provides tips on how to tell them apart, but may also be useful for other mangrove communities in South-east Queensland. 

Inland birds make a dash for survival towards the coast

Cockatiel, Gatton. 

A visit out to Gatton last Wednesday brought into sharp relief how badly drought-stricken our inland communities currently are.

Below average rainfall and warm daily temperatures are baking rural regions of NSW and Queensland even through the winter, with some farmers describing it as “the worst drought in living memory.”

Moggill plants: a learning journey

Last Wednesday, I visited Moggill Conservation Park in Brisbane’s western suburbs for the very first time, and conducted a plant survey up on one of the hills there.

One man's trash is another lizard's treasure

Tommy roundhead, Collingwood Park.

A search for reptiles out in degraded bushland near Ipswich proved fruitful last week, with a variety of interesting animals found.

Intriguing Logan wildlife active on a humid night last weekend

White-throated nightjar, Cedar Creek.

A foray into Plunkett Regional Park last Saturday night resulted in many excellent wildlife sightings, the highlight being white-throated nightjars (Eurostopodus mystacalis).

Sun shines on North Lakes meet-up

Photo by Trina McLellan; For more of Trina's photography and environmental work,
visit Nature Watch - Albany Creek.

After 48 hours of torrential rain, I was relieved to be woken by sunlight last Sunday morning, the day of a Wild BNE meet-up that I had been planning for weeks!

Seven dedicated wildlife fans came out to join me at North Lakes, where we explored a small lagoon and an adjacent environmental park for an hour-and-a-half.

Wild BNE summer meet-up: North Lakes

Dragonflies like the chalky percher (Diplacodes trivialis) abound at this location. 
Thanks to Narelle Power for the ID.

Wombat berry (Eustrephus latifolius).

One thing I really believe in when it comes to wildlife and nature is that it isn’t necessary to jump in the car and drive somewhere remote and pristine to connect with it. Some really beautiful and fascinating animals and plants live right here in the suburbs with us, and for this year’s first Wild BNE meet-up, I’m going to host a walk in one of these places: North Lakes!

Year in Review: The Best Wildlife Encounters of 2017

A peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) flies over the rooftops on the Sunshine Coast.

2017 was a great year for adventures in the bush and encounters with incredible wildlife! Here’s some of the creatures, places and events that made an impact on me, and in some cases, the entire region:

Bulimba's wildlife surviving in suburbia

Small-leaved lilly pilly, INSET: Australasian figbird (male), Bulimba.

A sunny afternoon spent in Bulimba last Thursday afternoon offered up some great encounters with a variety of reptiles, birds and insects.

Granite Belt brings winter charm

Jacky winter, Wallangarra.

A drive out to the Stanthorpe region with a friend on Wednesday provided me with my first ever sighting of an Australian bird icon, the jacky winter (Microeca fascinans).

Suburb Guide: Bilinga

Border patrol: rainbow bee-eaters use the Gold Coast Airport perimeter fence as a hunting perch.

Unless you are a southern Gold Coast local, you might barely know Bilinga. Driving along the Gold Coast Highway, it comes across as simply being a part of Tugun, and the beachfront is more widely known as North Kirra Beach. Even the Gold Coast Airport terminal, situated within Bilinga, is known by the alternate name of Coolangatta Airport! For those in the know, however, it is a small but quite beautiful part of the Gold Coast, with a gorgeous coastline in particular.

A weekend in the Bunya Mountains

One of the many adorable locals on the Bunya Mountains.

It was my 34th birthday last month, and I celebrated it with a group of close friends out in the Bunya Mountains. I have only ever been to this place once before, as part of a weekend away with a birdwatching club when I was a teen. My memories of that experience are a little blurry with time, but I recall being enraptured by wallaby-packed hillsides, and an amazing sunrise.

The wallabies—red-necked wallabies, to be precise—made a big impression on me this time as well! They’re everywhere on the mountaintop, whether it be in the National Park, in public areas or on private lawns! They’re also common here on the outskirts of Brisbane and in the surrounding shires, but locally they tend to be shy animals that are usually seen alone or in small groups. I suspect that their abundance and approachability at the Bunyas is a result of many generations of wallabies living there peacefully, with little to no hunting pressure or harassment from humans and dogs, so that the only thing they have to fear are the occasional droughts that reduce their food supply.

We saw the wallabies as we drove into the mountain township on the Friday night, quietly feeding along the roadside verges. I was already in full ‘wildlife mode’ because further down the range, we had seen an echidna ambling out into the path of our vehicle. Luckily my friend Leah is an alert fauna-friendly driver who avoided a collision, and she then turned the car around and insisted I get out for a better look. 

Plunkett Regional Park: A Photographic Collection

Encompassing a landscape quite unlike any other in South-east Queensland, Plunkett Regional Park is somewhere local nature enthusiasts should know.

The landscape of Plunkett features a variety of sandstone outcrops, boulder formations, cliffs and caves.