Wild BNE

Warm Weekends for Wildlife-watching. Black Wattle (Acacia concurrens) , Riverhills. For a few weeks now, we have been blessed with sunny skies and mild autumn temperatures—but that is certainly not how the month began! On May 2nd, a huge low-pressure storm system lurched in from the Pacific and dumped a record-breaking amount of rain on South-east Queensland in one scary evening.

This month marks the one year anniversary of when I headed out into the bush for the first time to study not animals, but plants . It was a decision that changed my life, and I've since come to enjoy going on tree ID quests as much as I enjoy a bout of birdwatching, snorkeling or spotlighting.  Last Saturday, I decided to celebrate this momentous occasion with a dawn stroll around King Island Conservation Park, off the coast of Wellington Point.

Pale-headed Rosella (Platycercus adscitus)  in the pre-dawn light along Millwood Place. Just a twenty minute drive out of the Brisbane city centre, Upper Kedron somehow manages to feel yet a million miles away. Nestled in the foothills of the D'Aguilar Range, the suburb is home to almost 4,000 people, most of whom reside in modern, recently-built estates. Confusingly, Upper Kedron does not lie to the north of, nor even border, the suburb of Kedron; the name refers to the fact that the upper reaches of Brisbane's  much-loved Kedron Brook can be found near here, fed by Cedar Creek also.