Mount Gravatt Environment Group

By: Michael Fox

2014 is off to a good start. Lots of Koala sightings, including a joey which gives us two joey in Fox Gully in the last twelve months, Kookaburras hatching chicks and Squirrel Gliders breeding in our nest boxes and today a Brush-turkey chick.

Very neat gardener – Brush-turkey pinching mulch

Mmmm … do I like this place?

We have been watching the male Brush-turkey building his mound and playing host to visiting females since July last year. One morning we looked out to find him pinching mulch … a very tidy gardener, he neatly scraped the mulch about 4o metres from our yard to his mound and left the grass spotless by the end of the day.

I can fly … whoops … what is that invisible wall?

We have been worried that we missed any hatching’s or that chicks had been taken by a fox or a cat. Today that changed when I walked into the lounge to find this beautiful and confused Turkey chick standing on my clean washing – fortunately just the old jeans I wear for bushcare.

Released in relative safety of Fox Gully

I quickly grabbed the camera and recorded the visit. Obviously the chick decided the bush was more attractive than my old jeans, however, while he could fly he still has to learn about windows.

I caught him(or her) before he could hurt himself and released him in the safety of the tree cover of the gully.

I hope we have more Turkey chicks visit … perhaps outside so I don’t have to clean up the little gifts they leave behind on the furniture.