Open Day at Franke Scrub Sunday 25 March

To celebrate the installation of our new signs, we are having an open day from 9-12 on Sunday morning 25th March. We will be setting up from 8 am if you would like to come and help with this, then manning a display, answering questions and showing people around. Bring along a chair and smoko and we can have a chat in the shade or check on progress.
We will have trees, which are represented in our scrub, for sale from Crows Nest Nursery - $2.50 and $5.00 [some larger ones]. This is a chance to obtain very good quality local natives which are ideal for our local gardens, being most attractive to birds and butterflies as well as to us.

Free Tree Day

We are closely associated with Peacehaven Botanic Park in nearby Highfields. They are having a free tree day in early March. At Peacehaven, you can see specimens of many of the trees which used to cover this area and are now reduced to small remnants of vegetation, such as our road reserve in Franke Road.
We now have a greater appreciation of the value of the diversity of species that occurs in rainforests and their drier related vine scrubs. Unfortunately many remnant patches of original vegetation have become smothered by invasive weeds such as lantana, privet, prickly pear, asparagus fern and cats claw creeper. We are fortunate at Franke Scrub that this weed invasion has been minimal and that our efforts over recent years have reduced the impact so that we can enjoy this accessible sample of  how things once were.

New signs are up

It was a lovely morning in the scrub for our first meeting for 2012. We now have 8 new signs around the perimeter to provide a pleasant informative stroll. With all the rain, the vegetation is looking fresh and lush. We picked up pink flowers which had fallen from Pandorea vines which are climbing happily through the canopy. They are a vivid reminder of how suitable many of our local native plants are for home gardens.

Birdwatching at Franke Scrub

This year we are inviting birdwatchers to join us on the last Wednesday of each month when we meet at Franke Scrub from approximately 9-11. You might like to get there earlier although it is still peaceful even when we are tackling weeds. Bring smoko and a chair and we can compare notes on plants and animals in our special patch of remnant vegetation.

Updated bird list

This bird list of Franke Scrub and the road reserve has been compiled by Lesley.

Bee-eater, Rainbow

Boobook, Southern

Butcherbird, Grey

Butcherbird, Pied

Cisticola, Golden-headed

Crow, Torresian

Cuckoo, Channel-billed

Cuckoo-shrike, Black-faced

Cuckoo-shrike, Ground

Currawong, Pied

Dollarbird

Dove, Bar-shouldered

Dove, Spotted

Duck, Pacific Black

Duck, Wood or Maned

Fairy-wren, Superb

Fantail, Grey

Fantail, Rufous

Figbird

Finch, Double-barred

Finch, Zebra

Friarbird, Noisy

Galah

Gerygone, White-throated

Grebe, Australasian

Heron, White-faced

Honeyeater, Brown

Honeyeater, Lewin’s

Honeyeater, Scarlet

Honeyeater, Striped

Ibis, Australian White

Ibis, Straw-necked

Kestrel, Nankeen

Kingfisher, Sacred

Kookaburra, Laughing

Lapwing, Masked

Lorikeet, Little

Lorikeet, Rainbow

Magpie, Australian

Magpie-lark

Mistletoebird

Myna, Common

Pardalote, Striated

Pigeon, Crested

Robin, Rose

Rosella, Pale-headed

Scrubwren, White-browed

Silvereye

Sparrow, House

Thornbill, Brown

Thornbill, Striated

Thornbill, Yellow

Thornbill, Yellow-rumped

Weebill

Willie Wagtail

Whistler, Golden

Whistler, Rufous

Whistler sp.

A morning visit

The first delight of the morning was the sighting of a pair of Buff-banded Rail and their fluffy black chick at the first dam on Franke Road. Not Franke Scrub itself, I know, but it’s still lovely to see such a wary bird. As we parked the car we were greeted by Yellow-rumped Thornbills twittering in the shrubs beside the Leopard Ash. They sounded so happy as they foraged for insects.

The White-browed Scrubwrens were the bird of the morning. They seemed to follow me as I wandered through the patch, hopping about on the ground in front of me. Then they would make their chittering racket as they flew from one bush to another. In fact it was quite noisy this morning with the Dollarbirds cackling, a Willie Wagtail and a Rufous Fantail tinkling, and a Rufous Whistler whistling her heart out, glad it was such a bright day.

There were plenty of butterflies about and I think I would have seen about 8-9 different species although I can only identify 6; Common Aeroplane Phaedyma shepherdi, Yellow-spotted Jezebel Delias nysa, Orchard Swallowtail Papilio aegus, Cabbage White Pieris rapae, Caper White Belenois java, Wanderer Danaus plexippus.

an unidentified butterfly

thanks to Lesley for this.

Open Day at Crows Nest Nursery

The Council nursery at Crows Nest is having an Open Day on Saturday 3rd December from 8 am until 1 pm. It is in Depot Road in the Crows Nest Industrial Estate on the right as you approach from Toowoomba.
This is a great opportunity to obtain good local native plants for your garden at a very reasonable price.
If you are interested in propagating plants, you can also volunteer there on Thursday mornings.
For more information on growing local native plants in your garden, see Toowoomba Plants blog which is regularly updated.