Wild BNE

Marcia! Greetings from cyclone-ravaged Queensland! Whether you're reading this from Brisbane, interstate or overseas, you have probably heard the news of Severe Tropical Cyclone Marcia bearing down on the central Queensland coast, unleashing havoc and fury as a category five storm.

Juvenile Tandan, Kedron Brook. As a naturalist, I aim to be well-rounded in my wildlife observations, but there's one group of animals I've always struggled to spend time with: fish. While I have no issue with recreational fishing if done responsibly, I personally don't wish to cause unnecessary stress to any creature I encounter, so that rules out the obvious choice of 'hook, line and sinker' for fish interaction. Yesterday morning, while sitting by the banks of the Cabbage Tree Creek in the north Brisbane suburb of McDowall, I thought about some of the other ways I have been able to observe fish.

Dark bar-sided Skink (Eulamprus martini),  Ferntree Creek National Park. Featured areas: (1) Jacaranda Drive, (2) Ferntree Creek National Park, (3) Nambour Golf Course, and (4) Parklands Conservation Park. Image courtesy of Google Maps. Parklands is a beautifully forested area of the Sunshine Coast, with the majority of it protected by a National Park and large Conservation Park. The Bruce Highway bisects it in two, and in the western segment is Ferntree Creek National Park, and on the eastern side is Parklands Conservation Park. The original version of this Suburb Guide neglected to include the Conservation Park, because Google Maps once upon a time drew the suburb boundary so that it encompassed only the section west of the highway. Listed here are four areas where you might find interesting wildlife and plants within Parklands.

The Blue Swarms of Summer Above: Blue Blubber swarm off Surfers Paradise. Photo by Grahame Long. Below: Blue Tiger, Ferny Hills. South-east Queensland has had a wet, warm and humid start to 2015, receiving twice the average amount of monthly rainfall for this time of year. A well-nourished landscape is currently allowing our wildlife to flourish; a casual walk in a National Park, suburban reserve or even your own garden will reveal huge numbers of insects, birds, reptiles and frogs.

Northern Brown Bandicoot; Photo by the Queensland Museum Bandicoots had their fifteen minutes of worldwide fame in 1996, when Sony released a popular videogame on their Playstation platform called  'Crash Bandicoot'.  To me, the protagonist looked more like a tail-less fox than our native marsupial, but I like to think it raised the profile of bandicoots to koala-like levels for a generation of youths around the world. Last week, I caught up with the real thing when I carried out a quick mammal survey

Sunrise from Dohles Rocks, looking east towards the Houghton Highway Bridge. Griffin is a semi-rural suburb of the Moreton Bay Region,

Having a car and a Driver's license this year greatly increased my scope for potential wildlife locations around South-east Queensland. How ironic then that my number one spot ended up being a tiny reserve near the main road of a busy suburb! Nature always finds a way to surprise me, no matter how well I think I've become acquainted with it. Thank you to each and every one of you who read this blog and/or follow the 'Wild BNE' Facebook page - I've loved sharing my adventures with you this year and look forward to a 'Wild' 2015! 1. Chelsea Street Environmental Reserve, Kippa-Ring. Resident Tawny Frogmouths (Podargus strigoides)  become active in the reserve shortly after sunset. How beautiful that among the swiftly expanding suburbs of the Redcliffe Peninsula, Chelsea Street Environmental Reserve  remains to preserve so much iconic Australian wildlife. Moreton Bay shire residents would do well to ensure that the