Friends of Stradbroke Island

Friends of Stradbroke Island Issue #76 - April 2017 In this issue  Minjerribah's Wild Places Rehabilitation Obligations Not Being Enforced By State Government Island Conservation Cyclone Side-effects 2017 Glossy Black-Cockatoo Survey Bus Shelter Poetry Nature Notes Have you considered making a donation to support FOSI’s work?  Minjerribah's Wild Places A Nature Guide to North Stradbroke Island, Minjerribah. Book review by Julie Kearney Affectionately known to many as Straddie or Minjerribah, North Stradbroke Island has been a favourite holiday destination for south-east Queenslanders since it first began attracting boating parties to its shores in the nineteenth century. Millenia before this it was regularly visited by Indigenous mainlanders for similar purposes, as well as ritual business with the Quandamooka people. Now, hot off the press in 2017 we have A Nature Guide to North Stradbroke Island, Minjerribah , the first-ever compre...

Local ranger Michael Nothling holding a Broad-shelled River Turtle Chelodina expansa at Bumeira (Brown Lake). This turtle is rarely seen as it mostly lives lying concealed at the bottom of the lakes. Only spotted when the females come out on land to nest over. Foxes on North Stradbroke Island are still thriving with an estimated population of between 1 and 2000. Recent wildfires only increased the opportunities for these sly and opportunistic predators to attack and eat small native animals left vulnerable with essential vegetation cover incinerated. The eradication program should have been geared up immediately to give native animals the best chance of survival but reaching an agreement of island landholders to a start-up of an island wide action program has been slow. The Redland City Council has, as FOSI members are aware, employed a controller doing good work for some years, but only on council land. The Queensland National Parks Service and QYAC joined this program and ena...

Purple flag native iris in bloom Native sarsaparilla (Hardenbergia violacea) Grass trees in bloom to the delight of honey bees Stand up for Straddie. Help make sand mining history by 2019 Fox prints Sunrise from Straddie Tawny Frogmouths start nesting for summer chicks from August to December – listen for their drumming from the nest site at night. Call is a soft deep pulsating ‘oo-ooom-ooom’. Tawny frogmouths need big, mature trees to build their nests in. Wanted: Foxes don't belong on Straddie! Foxes on the prowl, prints on the beach

Good news for native animals, National Parks and Wildlife, with QYAC, has commenced a fox capture program. Now this program and the Redland Council program will cover large parts of the island. And now, will Sibelco, controlling around 50% of the island under their mining leases, come to the party and fulfil their obligations to control foxes? Or will there be more excuses? Fox prints in the sand

Feral fox Main Beach North Stradbroke Island. Due to the excellent efforts of Michael Dickinson, Wildlife Spotter / Catcher, 111 foxes in total have been trapped on land controlled by RCC on the Island. Michael has also had a big impact on the population of feral Myna birds with 38 Mynas trapped and humanely disposed of. Michael reports that the Myna’s movement patterns have changed as from July this year - possibly due to breeding time or pressure as they have left Amity [38 caught from a group of 40+] and are now very sparse in Point Lookout. Numbers of Mynas are still present in Dunwich but not as visible as before.