Fabulous Phascogales with Castlemaine Field Naturalists – 9 & 10 April 2021

Posted on 7 April, 2021 by Frances

Castlemaine Field Naturalists Club (CFNC) holds monthly events and their April 2021 feature our very own Connecting Country Monitoring Coordinator and Phascogale specialist, Jess Lawton. Here are the details from CFNC.

Brush-tailed Phascogale (photo by Jess Lawton)

Webinar: Friday 9 April 2021 at 7.30 pm
Fabulous Phascogales: survival in a modified landscape
Guest speaker: Jess Lawton, Connecting Country

If you live in or around Castlemaine, you may have been lucky enough to encounter the elusive Brush-tailed Phascogale, or Tuan. This medium-sized marsupial has a large, black, bottlebrush tail and is listed as ‘threatened’ in Victoria. At the CFNC April monthly meeting on Friday April 9 2021 at 7.30 pm, we’ll hear from Connecting Country’s Jess Lawton on the biology and ecology of the Brush-tailed Phascogale, her research on the occurrence of this species in a modified environment, and how you can help this threatened species to persist. The meeting will be held by Zoom (details on the back page of the Castlemaine Naturalist, April 2021 issue).

Excursion: Saturday 10 April 2021 at 1.30 pm
Phascogale nest box monitoring in Sandon
Leaders: Jess Lawton and Jenny Rolland

Connecting Country has set 450 nest boxes to provide habitat for the Brush-tailed Phascogale through the Mount Alexander Shire. The boxes are monitored every two years, and volunteers are being sought to assist with continuing this important collection of data on the species’ occurrence. For our April excursion, we will join Jess in checking nest boxes at a property in Yandoit. Jess will explain the monitoring process and discuss how landscape attributes influence Phascogale occurrence.

Meet at the Octopus car park opposite the Castle Motel, Duke Street, Castlemaine VIC for departure at 1.30 pm sharp. Alternatively for those coming from further west, meet at the Newstead Arts Hub (8A Tivey St, Newstead VIC) at 1.45 pm and we will travel together in convoy to the property.

Bring sunhat, block-out, hand sanitiser, water and wear stout walking shoes (there will be some walking over uneven ground). Also bring your own afternoon tea and chairs for the end of the excursion.

Please comply with current Government COVID-safe requirements on the day.

The field trip will be cancelled in extreme weather conditions.

For further information please contact CFNC – click here