Environmental management
July 10th, 2011
Lessons from bark foragers
ANYBODY WHO regularly visits the Australian bush and has an eye for birds will tell you that many Australian birds will spend a little time foraging on the bark of trees and some will spend a fair bit of time foraging on the bark of trees. However, there are only three groups of birds which are totally dedicated to making a living off the bark of trees. Interestingly, although they are only distantly related, they have all devised similar social strategies which can probably tell us a thing or two about the profitability of foraging on bark for a living but may also have some important lessons for helping us understand the viability of remnant bush plots, appropriate management practices and forming better planning guidelines. I think that this is an area crying out for further study . . . more »
June 11th, 2011
Connecting with Wyong’s nature lovers
I’VE NOT LONG AGO arrived home from the last of a series of four presentations on the lives of the Bar-tailed Godwit for Wyong Shire Council’s “Wetlands of Wyong” series of wetland education days. I conducted two presentations in the month of May and two in June. I love these kinds of projects, because they reinforce in me the fact that people do care. They remind me that a flame burns in all of us that shines light on our need to reassert our connection with nature and to celebrate those emotions and the sense of wonder that we all feel through experiencing and contemplating that connection. more »