North Queensland wildlife and the environment
A couple of Tawny Frogmouths (Podargus strigoides) have been spending their days resting in the backyard banana patch of a friend of a friend in Kelso, and we were invited to see them and take photos last weekend. Life here has been busier than usual and it has taken me nearly a week to upload the results but here they are.
Festival 2018 seemed to come to us from nowhere and in retrospect we’re still not sure whether that was because we weren’t paying attention or because it was poorly publicised. In any case, it was a week of concerts, dance performances and public art in Queen’s Gardens and Strand Park, complementing the Townsville segment of the Commonwealth Games.
The concerts – some free, some not; some in the Spiegeltent, some in the open air – included The Idea of North (last here in 2006), the Grigoryan brothers, Archie Roach, local youth dance and circus groups, Townsville Guitar Orchestra and many more.
The Queens Gardens site was decorated with hundreds of hanging stars, very pretty at night, but the street art at Strand Park made better photos:
Articles about bird-watching around Townsville routinely mention the Town Common, Ross Dam and the Borrow Pits. I have known the first two for years but never quite located the third until a trip to Kelso a fortnight ago presented me with an opportunity. Finding a map that shows it is harder than finding the the pondage itself so here is Ross Dam at lower right and the Borrow-pits – nameless – on the other side of Upper Ross River Road:
The area is not particularly prepossessing unless you happen to be a water-bird. There are a couple of benches and shelters, and a rough track runs around the pond a little above high water level, and that’s about all. A half-hearted attempt to make it more attractive to human visitors is remembered primarily by a sign at one of the entrances: the project was “due for completion” ten years ago. The birds love it, though: in a visit of less than half an hour I saw Pelicans, Ibis, Spoonbills, Black ducks, Cormorants, Stilts and Greater Egret around and on the water, and Hawks, Crows, Peewits, Friar-birds, Peaceful Doves and unidentified parrots nearby.
My favourite photos from my visit are a short sequence showing a Stilt taking off and landing but I’ll add a couple more to this post too.
The borrow pit probably gets a mention in Jo Wieneke’s birders’ guide, Where to Find Birds in North-East Queensland, too although I can’t check because I haven’t (yet) got the book – I only found out about it while researching this post. Soon!
Update, September 2014: Where to Find Birds in North-East Queensland is now an e-book. Ian Montgomery’s name has been added as co-author and the book is advertised on his site, Birdway – see http://www.birdway.com.au/publications.htm for a preview and downloading links.
North Queensland Wildlife Care Inc. are having an Open Day in Aitkenvale on Saturday 29 September.
- Meet their dedicated and experienced carers
- Find out more about our local native wildlife
- Learn first aid for injured wildlife
- Learn about what it takes to care for injured or orphaned wildlife through to release
All proceeds for the day go towards feeding and rehabilitating wildlife.
I don’t know the group, although I suspect some of its members have ended up caring for injured animals we have rescued from time to time, but this sounds like an interesting and worthwhile event. For more information, visit their website http://www.nqwildlife.org.au/.
