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Animals at the Ekka, 2014
The first showbag at the very first Ekka was a bag of coal. That was in 1876, and some things still haven’t changed. But let me explain to non-Queenslanders: the ‘Ekka’ is what locals call the Royal Queensland Show, the largest agricultural show in the State. Last...
Forest bathing with lyrebirds
This week I did a little forest bathing - 'Shinrin-yoku' to the Japanese. It's the practice of immersing oneself in the forest atmosphere, and is said to reduce stress, and maybe even prevent cancer. I took my forest bath by walking to Coomera Falls, through...
Ants in the scanner – Aaaarghhh!
“There’s far too much wildlife in the suburbs” I heard a woman say the other day. She shuddered, and her face wrinkled up as if there was cat poo under her nose. I didn’t want to start an argument, so I said nothing at the time. But this same urban wildlife is...
Why are Australian swans black?
Australian swans are black, while most swans are white. Why should this be? When I was a child, growing up in Australia, the only swans I saw were black. At Lake Wendouree in Ballarat, or in the Botanic Gardens of Melbourne, the swans were slightly menacing in their...
Nature journaling on the Great Barrier Reef
Some years ago I had the great good fortune to visit Heron Island in the Great Barrier Reef. I was tutoring a group of ecology students, and what with daily snorkeling trips, helping out in the kitchen, and assisting the students with their research projects, I didn't...
Nature journaling in the rainforest
Today's post is a short guide to nature journaling. I've been spending a bit of time in rainforest of late, doing some research for a book. So this post is illustrated with journal entries from rainforest places - mostly from Queensland but with one sneaky New...
Is a woomera like a heron’s neck?
This post is co-authored by Gordon Sanson.¹ Early dawn light is creeping across a glassy-still wetland, as wreaths of mist curl upwards. A large white egret stands still, poised ready. Nearby a man is waiting for kangaroos to venture onto the lush grass near the...
The toadfish, the toe-cutter, and the great swimming head
I once met a man who could hypnotize toadfish. He would stand ankle-deep, on the mudflats of Bramble Bay, with his heels together like Dorothy. And the little common toadfish would swim into the 'V' created, and become still. Not many people like toadfish, but...
Walk like a man: Was the giant kangaroo too big to hop?
Many years ago, Franz Kafka imagined a creature that was elusive, and remained tantalizingly out of reach, so that its exact nature was never quite discerned: The animal resembles a kangaroo, but not as to the face, which is flat almost like a human face, and small...
Egrets? I’ve had a few…
Over the last couple of months four species of egret have been frequenting Dowse Lagoon. Sometimes I see them together in the same muddy corner near the bird-hide. They are the great egret Ardea alba, plumed or intermediate egret Ardea plumifera, little egret...
The strangler fig: everyone’s favorite killer
A rainforest tree is subject to many mortal perils: shade, cyclones, fires, chainsaws. One of the most grotesque and extended deaths is carried in a tiny seed, rained down from above by complicit birds and bats. Many such seeds drop harmlessly to the forest floor, or...
Why is the house gecko noisy while most lizards are silent?
A recent visitor to our house - a keen naturalist from southern Australia - was startled the first time he heard the sound of an Asian House gecko, and was even more surprised that a gecko was responsible for the call. It is unusual for a lizard to be so loud. I don’t...
Tales of Science
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Nature journaling
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Forest portraits
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Cartoons
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Wildlife illustration
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