Southern boobook; Photo by Matteo Grilli . A group of six nature enthusiasts joined me for a walk around Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve last Sunday, where we were met with a wonderful array of wildlife, plants and fungi.
White-faced heron (Egretta novaeholandiae) , Burpengary East. With the exceedingly hot start we’ve had to 2017, I’ve spent most of my “wildlife time” searching either for frogs in the comparative cool of the night , or in the water looking at fish . This week, however, a slightly cooler, unstable air mass swept in, and I decided to make the most of it with a full day of birding north of Brisbane.
Some of the plants and trees in the reserve — including this wonga vine (Pandorea pandorana) — are ancient. Boardwalk section. In the heat of summer, one of the best places to escape the sun is the rainforest. With this in mind, I’ll be hosting the Wild BNE summer meet-up at Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve in Maleny at the end of this month, where we can have great wildlife sightings and not melt into a puddle of sweat! 😎 Flying-fox camp. It will be an early start to maximise the wildlife sightings, of which we can expect plenty. Mary Cairncross is a great place for mammal viewing, and we will be spending time with red-legged pademelons (Thylogale stigmatica) and black flying-foxes (Pteropus alecto) in particular. Rainforest birds abound— over 100 species of birds have been recorded in the reserve ! Some that I am hoping to see include the Australian king-parrot (Alisterus scapularis) , noisy pitta (Pitta versicolor) and russet-tailed thrush (Zoothera heine