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A giant stack of sticks on display in the Freycinet National Park demonstrates the time and energy that white-bellied sea eagles put into building the structure that forms their nests. The pile has another function – to encourage walkers not to fashion walking sticks from woody debris they find under trees. An information panel with the title “not just a stick” explains the debris not only forms the building blocks of eagle nests but is a vital ingredient for the health of … [Read more...] about Nest sticks in short supply

A key birding initiative has been given a boost by the sighting of one of Australia’s rarest birds, the swift parrot, in Melbourne. The arrival of the swift parrot - travelling through Victoria on its return to breeding grounds in Tasmania - has helped spur the Aussie Backyard Bird Count, which starts on October 19. The count takes place during National Bird Week and is designed to encourage home-owners to pay attention to the birds that might be visiting their gardens, and … [Read more...] about Swift parrot centre stage

It’s that time of the year when the normally shy and retiring plovers try to throw their weight around. On open spaces they dive-bomb walkers, often coming out of nowhere to give everyone a scare, swooping so close that the rush of air from their wings can be felt on the head. Much myth surrounds the spur-winged plovers, also known more formally as masked lapwings. It is said erroneously that the spurs situated on the fold of their wings are poisonous. The spurs, in fact, … [Read more...] about Plovers come to grief

My birthday falls on an auspicious date – September 11th – and ever since the horror of the World Trade Centre attack, to mark my own milestone I have tended to take myself as far removed from the events of 2001 as I can. No TV, no newspapers, just the wild world and the refrain of birdsong in the woods or the sound of crashing surf. Last September it was a day enjoying the ocean off Noosa on the Sunshine Coast. In contrast, this year and amid pandemic restrictions on … [Read more...] about Wombat springs a birthday surprise

I awake at dawn to what sounds like a truck reversing. The “truck” is beeping an alarm designed to warn pedestrians it is moving backwards. Only this beeping seems to go on forever. It pulsates from dawn until the sun rises beyond the wattles and gums at the end of my garden, and then all morning and sometimes into the afternoon. The beeping drives me mad. I know its source. It’s not a truck at all, of course. It’s just the mating, territorial call of the brush bronzewing … [Read more...] about Bronzewing delivers truck-load of woe