The Deception Bay intertidal flats are a birding hotspot in Queensland's Moreton Bay. Known for its international migratory waders and local waterbirds visitors have the opportunity to observe one if its inhabitants, the Striated Heron, foraging in the surrounding mangroves, intertidal flats and gutters.

Deception Bay is part of the Moreton Bay Ramsar Site

Striated herons (Butorides striata) are highly adaptable hunters, particularly skilled at catching fish in intertidal flats. They employ a mix of physical adaptations and learned behaviours that allow them to effectively catch prey in these challenging, shifting environments.

The Striated Heron with its low profile and camouflage is physically adapted to fishing in shallow water.

Physically, striated herons have a compact, stocky body with short legs and toes that help them manoeuvre over mudflats without sinking too deeply. Their sharp, pointed bill and quick reflexes enable precise strikes at fish or crustaceans just below the...

Invertebrates at night

Introduction

"Almost finished a new course on "life in the rainforest"! Here is a sample lesson on some nocturnal critters".

Many rainforest invertebrates are nocturnal and remain well hidden during the day. In this lesson, and the video above, we check the nightlife of some of the invertebrates associated with rainforest trees.

Many insects are nocturnal including a number of spiders.

Tree trunks in the rainforest provide a great habitat for invertebrates with their bark providing structure and sources of food including algae and bacteria which can be exploited by invertebrates.

If you select a few trees during the daytime and investigate the surface of their trunks you may not find any signs of life on the bark. If you return to the same tree at night, you may observe nocturnal species including millipedes and centipedes as well as snails and insects moving over the bark. If you look into the branches, you may also observe web weaving spiders setting their...

Introduction

Most birds in the subtropical rainforest of Southeast Queensland time their breeding season to coincide with the spring and summer months. This makes sense given there is likely to be more food such as insects and other invertebrates available due to the warmer weather and higher rainfall and humidity. This is especially prevalent for birds relying on the leaf litter layer as a foraging site. There are however, two birds that breed in the winter months: the Logrunner and Albert's Lyrebird.

The Logrunner (Left - Orthonyx temminckii) and the Albert's Lyrebird (Right - Menura alberti) breed in the winter months.

Both these species provide extended care to their fledglings, and it is thought this strategy provides them with greater access to insects and invertebrates in the early spring season, when the fledglings are gaining their independence. In the video above you will see a male and female Logrunner collecting insects for their fledglings. You will also notice that...

Short Course on the Ramsar Wetlands and Shorebirds is now available.

A pair of critically endangered Far Eastern Curlews drifting over Deception Bay

As we move through February in 2024 the migratory shorebirds in Moreton Bay are busily foraging in order to build up their fat reserves for their return flight to Northern Asia. Up to 28 species of migratory shorebirds including the critically endangered Far Eastern Curlew make Moreton Bay their home during our summer. As the summer closes these wonders are preparing for the breeding season in Northern Asia and Alaska where their upcoming summer will see a proliferation of insects needed to raise the next generation of migratory shorebirds.

Unfortunately, many of these species are in decline and a number of visitors to Moreton Bay are now on the endangered list. The Ramsar convention is an international treaty designed to conserve and encourage the wise use of our wetlands including their flora and fauna. The Moreton Bay Ramsar Site is...

What are Pademelons?

Most of us are used to seeing kangaroos and wallabies (macropods) foraging on the pastures, grasslands and saltmarsh areas along the East Coast of Australia. Pademelons are small macropods that inhabit our subtropical rainforests and wet sclerophyll forests. There are three species of Pademelon in Australia, including the Red-bellied Pademelon (Thylogale billardierii), which is only found in Tasmania, the Red-legged Pademelon (Thylogale stigmatica) and the Red-necked Pademelon (Thylogale thetis), which reside amongst the forests along the east coast of Australia. The two east coast species overlap in distribution, particularly around the Queensland/New South Wales border, generating interest from researchers particularly around their origins, methods of co-existence and behaviour when they encounter each other.

Left: Red-legged Pademelon on the forest floor. Right: Red-necked Pademelon moves out of the rainforest edge to take advantage of the pasture.

The...

Introduction

Australia has the highest number of hollow-dependent species in the world! Possums, gliders and phascogales as well as lorikeets, parrots, kingfishers, owls and microbats all use hollows.¹ This is no doubt due to the proliferation of Eucalypt species across the continent over many millennia. Many of these trees are long-lived and after a century or so they start to develop hollows and cavities. These naturally formed hollows provide places for these species to shelter, breed and feed.

Since European settlement, there has been a significant loss of the hollows through deforestation and degradation of habitats. This has had a significant impact on many endemic species that have evolved and depend on these hollows.²

While many landowners and managers as well as Bushcare groups are rehabilitating and where possible replanting Eucalypt bushland, it will take many decades before natural hollows become available for local wildlife. To address this problem, many people have...

 Introduction

Along the sheltered shores of Moreton Bay, you will find a coastal ecosystem made up of a mosaic of saltmarsh, mangroves, seagrass and intertidal flats. Mangroves, saltmarsh and seagrasses are conspicuous by their vegetation and colour. On the other hand, the intertidal flats are devoid of vegetative structure, but don’t be fooled, they are a productive part of our bay.

On the landward or western side of the bay, the intertidal flats are characterised by soft mud (fine sediment) particularly where the wave action is low whereas sandflats, which contain coarse-grained sediments and are far more common on the islands of the eastern side of Moreton Bay. Depending on the landform and exposure to wave and currents you will often see local variations of sediment from fine mud areas to banks of sand flats. The soft sediment is loaded with invertebrates including molluscs, worms and crustaceans.

A selection of mollusc (gastropod) invertebrates located...

Introduction

Coastal wetlands and in particular mangrove forests are known as nursery sites for species  including commercially important fish and crustaceans. The turbid water along with the structure of the mangrove root system provides shelter from predators and food for many juveniles. But what happens when the tide goes out? 

At first glance, mangrove forests don't appear as suitable habitat for juvenile fish

Impact of tidal flow

Many species, move out onto the tidal flats and water channels with the outgoing tide. Out in the open, they are vulnerable to predation from specialist hunters including raptors and kingfishers as well as predatory fish including flathead and adult bream. However, some fish and crustaceans are able to stay in the mangrove forest in the small pools of water left by the receding tide.

The receding tide leaves pools and rivulets suitable for fish to shelter during low tides 

Generally in the shade, these tidal pools provide the food and...

Background

The dedicated staff of the Moreton Bay Regional Council are passionate about our wildlife areas, and I was recently invited to attend a pre-planning session for an area of reserve adjacent at Hays Inlet. The planning process looks at a procedure of developing a fire management plan to prevent hot destructive fires and maintain biodiversity using methods such as mosaic burning. Refer blog entry Mosaic burning (enviroed.com.au)

The first impression to the observer is the actual size and range of the area. It reminded us that there is still a large region of potential conservation land adjacent to the wetlands of Hays Inlet and the Peninsula. An intense bushfire passed through the area in 2014 and you could still see signs of the damage on several trees. However, there was also signs of recovery with a number of new trees germinating after the fire and in the process of reaching the mid canopy.

You can still see evidence from the 2014 bushfire 

Much of the site...

Introduction

The mountains of South East Queensland and Northern New South Wales have significant areas of sub-tropical rainforest. Associated with these mountains are numerous freshwater streams. After rain, these streams can become fast flowing. When these streams make their way through the rainforest, especially where there is good riparian cover to provide shade and leaf litter, you may come across a remarkable vivid blue and white crayfish.

The Lamington Crayfish (Euastacus sulcatus) is a large crayfish with adults usually around 100 – 200 mm in length.  These crayfish are slow growing, generally only moulting once a year, and have a life span between 20 and 40 years, although recent literature has postured they may live even longer¹.  

They are well adapted to the fast flowing waters where the water temperature ranges from 10 to 20 degrees Celsius². Adults tend to disappear from the stream systems during the colder winter months but reappear in spring...