Mundy Creek wetlands – around the cemetery

Monday was another beautiful day so I decided to explore another section of the Mundy Creek wetlands I started to discover last week. I thought I would drive to the cemetery gate and walk downstream along the bike path to the beach but when I got there, the cemetery itself looked too good to ignore.

Yes, really.

As the map shows, the northern edge of the cemetery opens onto a long stretch of lagoons and mudflats. In real life, you simply walk around the right hand end of its ornamental entrance to see this:

graves and swamp
Graves on the left, swamp on the right
brolgas in wetland
Brolgas at home

The hills on the skyline would be Many Peaks Range if we were in the Town Common proper (follow this link for panoramic photos of the area), but here we are actually looking towards Magnetic Island.

birds in swamp
Ibis takes an early-evening bath

It’s possible to walk right around the cemetery but I cut across it before reaching the end. When I did, I met a small group of Bush Stone Curlews.

curlew amongst graves
I always thought Curlews were strangely grave birds

The inland (Southern) side of the cemetery is equally easy walking but looks into bushland rather than wetland, so I saw crows, cuckooshrikes, peaceful doves, sacred kingfisher and honeyeaters to add to the brolgas, ibis, spoonbills, egrets, stilts, pee-wees and swallows in the wetlands.

And then it was time to go.

full moon rising
Nearly-full moon

 

 

Discovering Mundy Creek

Mundy Creek has been a grey area on my mental map for years. I’ve been to the PCYC and looked across and thought the creek might be worth a visit;  I’ve walked along the bottom end of the creek at Rowes Bay; and I know some of the Landcare people doing revegetation work along the creek; but I never joined up the dots. When it was recommended to me recently (I was told that a family member’s birdwatching colleague liked it), I thought it was finally time to investigate.

When I clicked on the map I was sent, I found Mundy Creek Natureway Garbutt had been pinned by the Landcare group. Switching to satellite view revealed a surprisingly extensive network of wild spaces between Bundock St, Garbutt, the airport and Rowes Bay beach.

Continue reading “Discovering Mundy Creek”

Eco-fiesta 2022 wrap-up

Eco-fiesta, one of the city council’s best community initiatives in the thirty-plus years I have lived here, celebrated its 30th birthday yesterday with another wonderful festival. Dozens of stalls, hundreds of happy visitors, perfect weather, all in the beautiful surroundings of Anderson Park – what more could anyone ask for?

It has always been an event for all ages, but the young parents now taking their small children to it have known it since they were small children themselves. In its first years it was a fringe-hippie event but now it is mainstream, without having changed at all. Recycling, vegetarian food, solar power, bee-keeping, yoga and the rest have all become ‘normal’ to a large part of the community. Eco-fiesta has played a large part in that, and the world is a better place for it.

But let’s get on to specifics. As usual, I wandered at random, chatting to stall-holders and coming home with a handful of flyers and fridge magnets. There were far too many offerings to do them all justice but I will mention as many as I can, encouraging you to click through to their websites or facebook pages for further information.    Continue reading “Eco-fiesta 2022 wrap-up”