Skip to main content

Best Wildlife Encounters of 2016

Another year, another set of memories created with some of the most interesting wildlife on the planet, right here on Brisbane's doorstep. Among my twelve favourite wildlife sightings of the year, you'll notice more invertebrates this time around compared to previous lists; thank the array of amazing entomological field guides that are finally being published and are piquing my interest in this area. Without further ado, here are twelve fascinating animals I met this year:

1. Black-necked Stork, Cooroibah.
Black-necked storks are an uncommon bird in South-east Queensland.
My hands-down favourite wildlife encounter for 2016 was also one of my first—a January morning spent with a black-necked stork (Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus) near Noosa! I had driven up to Lake Cooroibah in the darkness, ready to enjoy a beautiful sunrise in its entirety, when I noticed a majestic bird wading in the distance. Over the next hour, it came closer and closer until our paths met along the shore and I was bestowed with the best view one could possibly have of this stately being. The jabiru (as I was raised to call them) has been my favourite bird ever since my Dad showed me the pair that used to nest alongside the highway at Bald Hills when I was a child.

2. Tiger Beetle, Wellington Point.
Tiger beetles live in a variety of habitats, with this species preferring seashores and saltmarsh.
I have learned that it always pays to take a closer look when out in the wild. On a windy, overcast day on King Island earlier this year, the tiny ‘flies’ swarming along the seaweed-strewn beach turned out to be tiger beetles (Cicindela semicincta). These otherworldly super-predators are one of the fastest creatures on the planet for their size, running at a speed that sends them temporarily blind!

3. Blue Ant, Woorim.
Female blue ants lay their eggs on and paralyse mole crickets.
As my admiration and understanding of invertebrates has grown, I’ve come to enjoy how even the smallest of creatures have their own distinct personalities. When I discovered a stunning, metallic blue ant (Diamma bicolor) on a sandy track on Bribie Island this year for example, I quickly realised that I was dealing with one furious, intelligent, regal lady! After reading around about this species of wingless wasp, I believe that along with a sighting on the Sunshine Coast, this is one of the most northern occurrence records for this creature.

4. Pale-vented Bush-hen, Keperra.
Pale-vented bush-hen photo by Greg Roberts at Sunshine Coast Birds.
Birdwatching was my first love as far as nature is concerned, and I still appreciate how it can surprise and entertain me after all these years. ‘Surprise’ was certainly what I felt when I saw my first-ever bush hens (Amaurornis molucca) sneaking around a grassy track in dry sclerophyll forest in March.

5. Common Tree Snake, Springbrook.
While they are non-venomous, tree snakes defend themselves 'skunk style' with a foul-smelling odour.
Smart, curious and always colourful, the common tree snake (Dendrelaphis punctulata) is a beautiful creature. To my mind, they seem slightly more communal than our other local snakes, so I wasn’t surprised to see several of them along a short stretch of track in Springbrook National Park this year.

6. Giant Bulldog Ant, Maroochy River.
Giant bulldog ant photo by Teddy Fotiou at Epoch Catcher.
My eyes were opened up to the wonderful world of ants this year, after I purchased a local field guide from the Queensland Museum. Nothing prepared me for an encounter with the giant bulldog ant (Myrmecia brevinoda) however; the eyes of this ancient ant ‘granddaddy’ held an amount of sentient awareness I am not accustomed to from an insect!

7. Keelback, Meldale.
The keelback is the sole representative in Australia of a primarily South-east Asian genus of snakes.
One of many innocent snakes feared by the public as a ‘brown snake’, the keelback (Tropidonophis mairii) is, in fact, an ecological superstar in Australia, because it can eat small cane toads and ‘toadpoles’ without ill effect. The beautiful individual I found in a drain earlier this year had a broader diet to choose from however, being surrounded by a paperbark forest full of frogs.

8. Tawny Frogmouth, Albany Creek.
Frogmouths are 'perch and pounce' hunters like kookaburras, except they are nocturnal.
Tawny frogmouths (Podargus strigoides) are more common than most people realise, but that doesn’t stop me from getting a huge thrill anytime my eyes suddenly lock onto their statuesque features in the bush! Whether I saw them during bushcare activities or on quiet walks through the forest on other days, Dawn Road Reserve was my ‘frogmouth spot’ this year.

9. Old Wife, Coolangatta.
The old wife is found around the southern coastline of Australia.
Excuse the misogynistic name of this fish, named after the ‘nagging’ teeth-grinding noise it makes when caught by a fisherman. In its underwater habitat, the bold patterns, sharp body angles and even sharper fin spines of the old wife (Enoplosus armatus) make for a mesmerising sight, as I found out while snorkelling in a rockpool around Easter.

10. Caper White, all suburbs and locations.
Caper whites are found across Australia, South-east Asia and on some Pacific islands.
The population explosion and subsequent migration of the caper white (Belenois java) butterfly was a South-east Queensland wildlife encounter that everyone (and I mean everyone!) got to experience this year.

11. Wedding Bush, Woorim.
The wedding bush is found only in coastal wallum heathland.
Transforming Bribie Island at the end of winter with masses of white, cartoonish flowers, the wedding bush (Ricinocarpos pinifolius) was by far and away my botanical highlight of 2016.

12. Koala, Lawnton.
Koalas sick with chlamydia have a 'wet bottom' and should be reported to a local wildlife care organisation.
Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) numbers in the Pine Rivers area have reduced by half over the past twenty years, so the sighting of one in a small suburban reserve there earlier this year was both beautiful and bittersweet.

Comments

  1. Hello Christian, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your list. Most partial to the Tiger Beetle - interesting to read about the penalty for running fast!
    All your photos are stunning, the Tawny Frogmouth, at my first look, had me fooled into thinking there was only one... clever fellows aren't they.
    Thanks for your great post and all the research invested in it. Cheers now, enjoy the remainder of 2016 and have a great new year. Sue :D)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Sue, glad you were entertained by the list, and thank you for the kind compliments RE: photos (but note that the bush-hen and bulldog ant photos aren't mine). The tiger beetle vision issue explain why they run in a 'stop/start' motion - fascinating! Hope you have a great 2017 as well! :)

      Delete
  2. Great read and pics Christian. That tiger beetle is a stunner! Your blog has opened my eyes to the less well known creatures and plants that share our part of the world. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi John, you'll have to keep an eye out for the beetles up your way, there'd be plenty on the sandy shores! Thanks for the kind words :)

      Delete
  3. Amazing creatures and plants.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Diane, we certainly live in an amazing part of the world!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

North Queensland Trip, Part 1.

Eungella National Park Eungella National Park location; Image courtesy of Google Maps. My home state of Queensland is a huge place. Bigger than any of the United States, it is considered the sixth largest sub-national entity in the world, behind such remote provinces as Nunavut in Canada, and the Danish territory of Greenland. Though I've lived in and travelled through Europe and Canada, much of my birthplace remains a mystery to me. To rectify this situation, I planned a road-tripping holiday this year with my sister and her partner, in the Northern section of the state. My first visit to anywhere in the Tropics, I have since returned home with some of the most amazing wildlife experiences possible!

Wild Plants of Ipswich

I've never really taken much notice of plants until recently, regarding them usually as just the thing that a bird perches on while you're watching it. This week I decided it was time to change that attitude by trying my hand at plant identification in Denmark Hill Conservation Park, located in the centre of Ipswich. The park is just 11.5 hectares in size, but preserves a patch of bushland that acts as an 'island refuge' in a sea of suburbia. I did my best to focus on the trees and not be too distracted by birds or the resident Koala   (Phascolarctos cinereus)  population, and came up with nine interesting trees and plants seen on the Water Tower Circuit.

Wild Queensland: Photos and stories from my roadtrip north

Earlier this month, I drove up to Airlie Beach in the Whitsunday Region to celebrate the 40th birthday of my close friend, Kat. Photo by Luke Martin. Our time there overlapped for one weekend, in which we enjoyed swims, drinks, hearty dinners and a sailing adventure around the islands. The celebrations and wonderful catch-ups flew by quickly, but when Kat and her husband Luke flew back down south on Sunday, I still had a week's worth of time at my disposal to explore the nature of Queensland's coast. I started with a journey into the forests of Conway National Park, just a ten minute drive east of Airlie Beach. I spent a sunny, humid morning walking up to the peak of Mount Rooper, through vine scrub and eucalypt forest. It was exhilarating!  I immediately saw a new species of bird for me in the carpark there, a female olive-backed sunbird (Cinnyris jugularis). After so much rain earlier in the week, the forest floor was also teeming with amazing fungi! After lunch back in town,