I have always wanted a Weber BBQ. This Christmas, Santa was very generous and bought me a really small one... It is cute, and has a lid that you close to cook your food.
We had one meal from it and as it was so hot recently thought I'd try the roasting feature. This meant I preheat the BBQ, then put the chook on and hey presto you have bbq chook. More >>

The Noisy Miner or Mickey [Monorina melanocephala] is a very common bird in our area. It is conspicuous by its constant chatter. They also make a racket when other birds, humans, or cats are around. They are also an early detection system for snakes, although in my experience they are not as reliable as a butcher bird where snakes are concerned! They just chatter all the time...like the little boy who cried snake! They are a very territorial species that have no problem taking on much bigger birds, even hawks or kookaburras. More >>

I know my 'night noises' pretty well. But I had never heard one like this. So I grabbed my torch and started looking for the origin of this guttural 'gurgle'. When I looked up into a native frangipani that I had planted near my shed, I saw two reflective eyes, and an absolutely beautiful little animal. More >>

Thursday 19th May saw a hardy band of volunteers gathering at the ferry ready to take on some of the weeds causing havoc on Noosa North Shore. Noosa Integrated Catchment Association [NICA] have been successful in securing funding under the Federal Government's Caring for our Country program to treat weeds on a large area down towards the Noosa River mouth.  More >>

My partner's 10 year old daughter, Molly has grown up in the bush. She has been able to see lots of animals that city kids don't get to see. Sometimes we forget how wonderful our Biosphere really is.  More >>

The contract  crew at Noosa & District Landcare are out in the bush all the time. Mostly they are planting native plants or killing weeds. Whilst doing this they come across all sorts of interesting critters lurking in our Biosphere. Birds, snakes [lots of snakes!], insects, ticks [lots of ticks!], and all sorts of things.  More >>

At Noosa Landcare's Pomona office, we are very lucky. We have a lease on five acres just north of the town, and it has some really wonderful trees on it, and a lot of grass. It is in the grounds of the Noosa District High School [Pomona campus]  More >>

This year has seen some mighty fine orchids displaying their flowers in our biosphere. I have one in a Hickory wattle at my place, and it usually looks pretty average...just a whole heap of strappy leaves. This year it flowered spectacularly. It is Cymbidium Sauve, or Scented Orchid. It is quite common in forks in trees and old logs. It is epiphytic and has green/yellow flowers in large sprays. More >>

Sterculius was the Roman god for manure heaps! This plant has the botanical name Sterculia quadrifida. It's common name is Peanut tree. Apparently the botanical name comes from the odour of the leaves and flowers, although I cannot really smell anything odd! The flowers are fairly inconspicuous, being a creamy colour. This is in stark contrast to the magnificent fruit. As you can see the shiny black seeds are held inside a brilliant orange capsule. They are quite striking. The fruit is said to be edible, raw or roasted and reputedly tastes a bit like peanuts. With any "bush tucker" I advise caution...if you are unsure of the species, leave it alone!  More >>

In a blog post I wrote in April I took a photograph of a snake near my shed, which was a freshwater snake [Tropidonophis mairii], sometimes called a keelback. A friend sent me two photos yesterday which were much better than mine! I mentioned in April that freshwater snakes seem to be able to eat cane toads [Bufo marinus] with impunity.  More >>