Wildlife Queensland Bayside Branch

Speakers and Meetings

Professor John Woinarski is one of Australia’s pre- eminent conservation biologists, with a career spanning four decades in biodiversity research, policy and management. He co-authored the Action Plan for Australian Mammals which guides much of AWC’s work with threatened mammal In this edition species. click here to register for the online 2 President’s meeting September 3rd 11.30 am. Report STEVE

4 Recycling 6 Echidna

Weeds, weather 7 and scams Burke, Wills and 8 Science

9 Stop and Look 10 Using Drones https://wildlife.org.au/shop/wildlife-australia- magazine/current-edition/ 11 Backyard Wildlife Resources https://wildlife.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/WAM-Autumn-2020-cover-pic-for-web-600x600-1.jpg 13 Committee and Contacts Membership Effective ecosystem monitoring requires Form a multi-scaled approach https://www.tern.org.au/news-monitoring-framework/ From the Executive Team... Presidents Report

I hope every-one is managing well during these difficult circumstances which has certainly dramatically changed our lives and affected our freedom to enjoy our precious environment. I am sure we are all looking forward to being able re-connect with nature and our friends. The branch will not be holding any more public meetings this year as the safety of members is paramount and rules change day to day making planning difficult.

Our AGM this year was conducted virtually and the previous committee was re-elected unopposed, additionally we welcome Tracey Mann as another member of the committee. Tracey has been a regular helper at our events and is a volunteer at Redland Museum. We are still participating in the community where we can and recently held a frog pond making display at the Science Fun Day held on show day at the museum. It was a busy day and was great to see the interest shown by many of our younger generation which will hopefully translate to improved backyard frog habitat.

The Cicada Film Festival, entries close on the 7th September, will not be a live presentation this year but we will be announcing the winners on the 30th October at a pre-recorded event, follow the link to see the fantastic short films from last year.

On Saturday 26th September WPSQ are once again holding their AGM in the Redlands, information about the event will be sent out to members soon. Due to current restrictions it will be a registration only event.

The developer has begun their Environmental Impact Study on the proposed “Toondah Harbour” development and many of our members have been participating in 5 different Q&A sessions that included discussions on Koalas, Shorebirds and Fisheries. They were very informative seminars and comments were appreciated and answered, but my overall impression that there are still many issues to be resolved, the EIS is due out for comment November/December.

This project has at least a 20 year life span, potentially causing long term disturbance for marine and bird life in their feeding grounds, koalas in their habitat and the equilibrium of our wetlands and foreshores, which may have an irreversible negative impact on the local ecology for many generations.

Community groups will need to be on their mettle and combine to achieve a positive outcome and curtail any acts that may severely impact on the area for ever The Federal government is just concluding a 10 year review into the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC).

An interim report just published concludes that the act is “not fit for purpose”, ineffective and inefficient, our natural environment is in fast decline and that laws that are supposed to protect certain species and habitat may have been circumnavigated or ignored by up to 80% of proponents. There is also a push by governments to cut “green tape” and fast track approvals. One recommendation was to use an independent arbitrator to ensure compliance but that will most likely be ignored as there is now a push to create jobs as a matter of urgency. It is a disgrace that opportunities to improve threatened species protection, air quality and ameliorate climate change factors appear to have been lost. There is still a window of opportunity to comment on the review by clinking on the link below:-

https://epbcactreview.environment.gov.au/resources/interim-report/summary-points I hope you all find a way to get out and enjoy this winter weather, fresh air and sunshine are good for the soul and more importantly Covid free.

“All our environmental problems become easier to solve with fewer people and harder and ultimately impossible to solve with ever more people. “ David Attenborough

Wattle Day is celebrated on the 1st of September each year. Australia's national floral emblem is Acacia pycnantha, the Golden Wattle.

Queensland Museum events and activities

https://www.qm.qld.gov.au/Events+and+Exhibitions Wild State https://www.qm.qld.gov.au/Events+and+Exhibitions/Exhibitions/Permanent/Wild+State Plastic straw ban Report Littering

On your mobile or on the web https://report-littering- dumping.ehp.qld.gov.au/

You can also collect your plastic and get it to us. Create a bag in your house and you can collect plastic bottle caps, containers and bottles.

You need to look at what you are using and decide if it is suitable. We need just hard plastics #2, #4 & #5. Take a look at every container and if it is marked with any of these numbers, clean it and put it in a bag for us. Please ensure it doesn’t have a label, no inserts (foam or silicon) and it needs to be clean. We cannot deal with soft plastics, take them to your local Red Cycle collection point.

Once your bag is full, please visit one of our collection points and drop them off. A full list of collection points can be found here. Please understand that we are not a kerbside recycling system. We can’t afford to drive around collecting everyone’s recycling from their houses. Ideally you can drop it to us in Hemmant on one of the days we have our sorting days. We are working on better ways to collect but it all takes time. http://oceancrusaders.org/recycling/

Former Australian fire chiefs say Coalition ignored their advice because of climate change politics. https://www.theguardian.com/australia- news/2019/nov/14/former-australian-fire-chiefs- say-coalition-doesnt-like-talking-about-climate- change Container Recycle Scheme update

Our container recycle scheme started on November 1st 2018, so far we have collected some 45000 containers, excess funds generated have been donated to help out various community groups, Seabird rescue, Dolphin Research, Bat Rescue, Wildlife Land fund etc.

Due to community restrictions we have seen a down turn in collections over the past few months, so locally if you have any containers with 10c marked on them ready, we may be able to collect them or you can leave them at my house, just give me a ring for details.

There are also plenty of depots dotted around the city these can be found through the Containers for Change website,

https://www.containersforchange.com.au/qld/where-can-i-return

We mostly use drop-in centres: - Advanced Metal Recyclers – 16-18 Jones Road, Capalaba 53 Enterprise Street, Cleveland

They will also accept other metals for recycling.

Using our unique state-wide collection number will ensure that funds go directly to the Branch.

Steve 0423036676 This fella turned up in one of our members backyard, Ney Road a few nights ago, that’s when the president got the phone call at 1.00 am, what do I do next?

It didn’t stay long as it finally burrowed its way under the fence on to the next property.

There is very sandy soil in this area.

Information about its sighting was sent to Echidna Watch https://wildlife.org.au/echidnawatch/

EchidnaWatch aims to collate information on the distribution of echidnas in Queensland. We can share this information with Wildnet, the wildlife data repository for the EPA, and other organisations, to help plan for better outcomes for echidnas. We also need information on how the echidna is coping with modern hazards and introduced pests.

Redlands roads among those where echidnas are most vulnerable to vehicle strikes, report finds. Click here to read more. https://www.redlandcitybulletin.com.au/story/6820467/potenti al-redlands-echidna-roadkill-hotspots-named/?cs=213 Weed Spotting during Covid19 Cat Control

SEQ Mexican bean tree project AWC carries out Australia's most extensive research into the ecology of feral cats and foxes. Andrew Carter has led the The South East Queensland Cecropia (Mexican bean tree) most recent phase of this research, which has produced a Eradication Project is using a novel combination of on-ground new tool for reliably measuring the population density of and vehicle-based surveillance, drone surveys, dispersal cats and foxes in the landscape. studies, sentinel site monitoring and genetics research to find, map, study and control the Restricted (Category 2,3,4,5) https://youtu.be/v8DB7tr8NcA species Cecropia peltata in south east Queensland. Hazardous Weather Phenomena - Space If left uncontrolled, Mexican bean tree could become a major weed in south east Queensland, threatening valuable riparian Weather - Bureau of Meteorology habitats and sub-tropical rainforests, including those of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area. Space Weather broadly describes the impact of solar activity on technological systems and human well-being here on earth. Dynamic variations on the surface of the sun can release large amounts of energy in various forms including electromagnetic radiation, charged particles and eruptions of huge clouds of ionised gas. . These phenomena can significantly affect the earth’s upper atmosphere and surrounding space environment with impacts felt all the way down to technological systems on the ground.

http://www.bom.gov.au/aviation/data/education/space- weather.pdf

ENSO Outlook

The ENSO Outlook has moved to La Niña ALERT from La Niña WATCH. This means that although the El Niño–Southern Oscillation is currently neutral, the chance of La Niña forming in the coming months has increased to around 70%—roughly three times the normal likelihood.

This status change follows sustained cooling in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, towards La Niña thresholds, as well as an increase in trade wind strength over the last three months. Climate models indicate further cooling is likely, with the majority of models suggesting sea surface temperatures will approach or exceed La Niña thresholds during the southern hemisphere spring.

A La Niña ALERT is not a guarantee that La Niña will occur, rather it is an indication that most of the typical precursors of La Niña are in place. Bureau climatologists will continue to closely monitor model outlooks and conditions in the tropical Pacific for further signs of La Niña development. Click here to learn more.

Scams Awareness Week begins 17 August!

Scams Awareness Week starts today. This year the focus is on your personal information and the impact of identity theft. Be yourself. Don’t let a scammer be you.

Scams are constantly evolving and our growing use and reliance on technology provides scammers more opportunities to trick people into giving away their valuable personal information. Scammers use personal information to steal identities for personal and financial gain. https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/news-alerts/scams-awareness-week-2020 Reveals for the first time the true extent and limits of the scientific achievements of the Burke and Wills Expedition.

This book challenges the common assumption that little or nothing of scientific value was achieved during the Burke and Wills expedition.

The Royal Society of Victoria initiated the Victorian Exploring Expedition as a serious scientific exploration of hitherto unexplored regions of inland and northern Australia. Members of the expedition were issued with detailed instructions on scientific measurements and observations to be carried out, covering about a dozen areas of science. The tragic ending of the expedition meant that most of the results of the scientific investigations were not reported or published. Burke and Wills: The Scientific Legacy of the Victorian Exploring Expedition rectifies this historic omission.

It includes the original instructions as well as numerous paintings and drawings, documents the actual science undertaken as recorded in notebooks and diaries, and analyses the outcomes. It reveals for the first time the true extent and limits of the scientific achievements of both the Burke and Wills expedition and the various relief expeditions which followed.

Importantly, this new book has led to a re-appraisal of the shortcomings and the successes of the journey. It will be a compelling read for all those interested in the history of exploration, science and natural history, as well as Australian history and heritage.

Source: https://www.publish.csiro.au/book/6733/ Stop and Explore By Simon Baltais WPSQBB member For me travelling around Australia is always a great adventure. For some it seems like monotonous miles of endless plains, heat and flies. An old complaint found as far back in the Roebuck journals of Captain William Dampier (1651 – 1715), English navigator, writer, naturalist and pirate who sailed up the west coast of Australia in August 1699. “But while we were at work about the Well were sadly pester’d with the Flies, which were more troublesome to us than the Sun, tho’ it shone clear and strong upon us all the while, very hot.”

However, if you a curious and take the time to stop and explore beyond the immediate barriers to one’s view like Dampier you will find plenty to write home about.

While the borders between Queensland and South Australia were open we took the opportunity to travel through the Channel Country and Strzelecki and Simpson Desert to catchup with family in South Australia. These big landscapes have plenty to offer and provide ample opportunities to explore.

The Channel Country is a good place to start. Covering over 150,000 km² it is the home of numerous intertwining channels at a scale we humans struggle to comprehend. Yet within these channels are billabongs the home of fish, birds, reptiles and animals. Freshwater snails and mussels the size of small dinner plates, pelicans, ducks, herons, egrets and darters are signs of abundant aquatic wildlife in what seems a parched landscape. Swirling green clouds of budgerigars and countless flocks of wood swallows are evidence of productivity that is at odds to what a driven driver will see, an endless empty landscape.

Where graders carve their way through the land they sometimes expose moonstones, round to ovoid rocks the size of basket balls to cars they are the result of concretion commencing upon an ancient seafloor. Red dunes marching through this land are equally striking geological features, some barren many vegetated they are the home of reptiles and the foot prints of smaller critters who roamed the dune the night before. And then there a jump ups, they provide hours of opportunities to explore.

Amongst the jump ups and rocky ground you will find rock holes some covered these are the ancient watering sites used by indigenous people for over 20,000 years. Dotted through this land are also the crumbling ruins of early European settlements, old carts, implements, hand chiselled rock walls and bric and brac there are ample items to ponder about. When and where ever you travel, take time to stop and explore you will see and hear a lot more wildlife and you may even shorten those endless miles. Deploying conservation technology to monitor and protect threatened wildlife

By Dr Michael Smith, South-west Regional Ecologist https://www.australianwildlife.org/deploying-conservation-technology-to-monitor-and-protect- threatened-wildlife/

American inventor, Dean Kamen, once said, “Every once in a while, a new technology, an old problem and a big idea turn into an innovation”. In many ways, Australian Wildlife Conservancy has adopted this philosophy when it comes to improving our approach for monitoring wildlife. At AWC we are trialling and deploying a suite of exciting new technologies in our science program. Three new technologies being investigated in Western Australia include the use of:

1. Drones fitted with thermal cameras to monitor reintroduced mammals; 2. DNA extracted from animal scats to estimate population sizes of cryptic species; and 3. Deploying acoustic recorders to monitor birds, frogs and bats.

Counting animals using drones

In June 2019, AWC staff and Travis Marshall, from technology firm C4D Intel, travelled to AWC’s Faure Island Wildlife Sanctuary, in Shark Bay, WA, to trial the use of a drone to monitor reintroduced mammals. AWC has reintroduced four threatened mammal species to Faure: the Burrowing Bettong (Bettongia lesueur), Banded Hare-wallaby (Lagostrophus fasciatus), Western Barred Bandicoot (also known as the Shark Bay Bandicoot, Perameles bougainville) and Shark Bay Mouse (Pseudomys fieldi). AWC currently monitors these species through spotlighting, trapping and track surveys. However, spotlight surveys are challenging because of the dense vegetation, and the last three species are cryptic and difficult to trap.

On Faure Island, AWC trialled the use of a drone, the DJI M210 Aircraft, fitted with a FLIR XT2 dual thermal/RGB sensor to determine whether:

1. Different species could be detected and differentiated using thermal imagery; and 2. The behaviour of reintroduced species introduced a bias to population estimates.

We found the thermal camera was excellent at detecting mammals and may be an effective tool for monitoring bandicoots, but the limited resolution made it difficult to distinguish between Burrowing Bettongs and Banded Hare-wallabies, which are both small macropods. Footage showed that Burrowing Bettongs tended to ‘investigate’ people as they walked through the bush, potentially biasing population estimates through double counting. Even so, estimates of population size derived from the drone footage were comparable to those generated by spotlight surveys, probably because some individuals are hidden by dense scrub during spotlighting. Backyard natives Across the bayside there a many species who live in and around our backyards and local parks, here are some. Cracticus nigrogularis Pied Butcherbird Source: https://australian.museum/learn/animals/birds/pied-butcherbird/

A medium-sized black and white bird with a black hood, dark brown eye and a long, hooked, grey and black bill. It has a broad white collar around its neck, a black throat and black legs. The back is mostly black, with large patches of white on the wings and rump. Both sexes have identical plumage, but the male is slightly larger than the female. Juvenile birds are generally duller than the adults with more brown plumage instead of black.

It is an aggressive feeder, preying on small reptiles, mammals, frogs and birds, as well as large insects. Most food is caught on the ground. The birds sit on an exposed perch and swoop down on their prey. Hunting groups may consist of several birds from a large group or may also hunt alone or in pairs.

The breeding season varies throughout its large range. The female constructs the nest and incubates the eggs alone, and is fed by the male and other members of the group. The nest is a bowl of sticks and twigs, lined with grasses and other finer material. It is usually built in an upright tree fork up to 5 m above the ground. More than one female may lay eggs in the same nest. Often heard before it is seen, its song is a beautiful, melodious fluting, sometimes given in turn by several individuals.

Habitat: Drier forests and woodlands and often approaches parks and houses. They are found throughout Australia.

Cracticus torquatus Grey Butcherbird Source: https://www.birdlife.org.au/bird-profile/grey-butcherbird

The adult Grey Butcherbird has a black crown and face and a grey back, with a thin white collar. The wings are grey, with large areas of white and the underparts are white. The grey and black bill is large, with a small hook at the tip of the upper bill. The eye is dark brown and the legs and feet are dark grey. Both sexes are similar in plumage, but the females are slightly smaller than the males. Young Grey Butcherbirds resemble adults, but have black areas replaced with olive-brown and a buff wash on the white areas. The bill is completely dark grey and often lacks an obvious hook.

Grey Butcherbirds are aggressive predators. They prey on small animals, including birds, lizards and insects, as well as some fruits and seeds. Uneaten food may be stored in the fork or a branch or impaled. Grey Butcherbirds sit on an open perch searching for prey which, once sighted, they pounce on. Most mobile prey is caught on the ground, though small birds and insects may be caught in flight. Feeding normally takes place alone, in pairs or in small family groups.

Grey Butcherbirds range from mid-eastern Queensland, through southern Australia, including Tasmania, to northern Western Australia. There is an isolated population in the Kimberley and the northernmost parts of the Northern Territory. Habitat: Grey Butcherbirds are found in a range of wooded habitats, including suburban areas. In inland areas, the birds tend to favour the denser forests. Cicada Film Festival

https://cicadafilmfestival.com.au/ Resources

Page 6: https://wildlife.org.au/echidnawatch/

Page 7: http://www.bom.gov.au

Page 8 www.publish.csiro.au

Page 11: https://australianmuseum.net.au https://www.birdlife.org.au

Committee & Contacts Keep Up to Date Online!

President Steve Homewood 0423036676 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WPSQBB/ V President Don Baxter Blogs: Wildlife Queensland Coastal Citizen Science Secretary Simon Baltais [email protected] https://wpsqccs.wordpress.com/ Maureen Wildlife Bayside Treasurer 0418 197 160 Tottenham https://wildlifebayside.wordpress.com/

Executive Tracey Mann Curlew Watch Janelle Devery https://curlewwatch.wordpress.com/ Bayside Newsletter Editor Alix Baltais/Simon Baltais Websites: Wildlife Bayside Wildlife Diary Editor Simon Baltais https://wildlife.org.au/bayside/ Email: [email protected] Cicada Film Festival Web: http://www.branches.wildlife.org.au/bayside https://cicadafilmfestival.com.au/

Membership Application Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland