My son and I found a Powerful Owl hanging from power-lines just outside the entrance to Morton National Park, yesterday. I pretended it was a piece of bark(!) for my son. He replied, "It doesn't look like bark." I had to go against my nature and tell him it was a dead Powerful Owl. Promptly, he started crying; this crying continued for almost ten minutes. It was a great shame his first Powerful Owl was deceased. I imagine the poor bird was electrocuted.
The owl is listed as 'vulnerable' by DEC. This death will obviously affect the breeding and numbers of Powerful Owls in Bundanoon. By what degree, I'm not sure. I don't think there are many of them in the area.
LJ, March 27 2011.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
EDITION 64
Edition 64 of JCG, with a splendid shot of Fairy Bower gracing its cover, is both a fascinating and important read.
I feel flattered (and almost embarrassed) that I feature so prominently in this edition. Many thanks to editor Pam Davies for her enthusiasm when it came to me putting together an article on Bundy's birds, as well as running with a 'Wild Bundanoon' theme for the issue. I'd also like to thank Graeme Whisker for his detailed profile of my family and I, the Stantons for their super-kind words (wait until we get out into western NSW guys - I'll know little!), my friend Edwin (uberbirder) Vella for his black-cockatoo photo on p.27 and Ben Mawston for his graphic flair and acceptance of visuals.
It's tremendous to be part of a magazine which has such a strong focus on community, history, sustainability, conservation and growth.
What did you think of Edition 64?
LJ, March 9 2011.
I feel flattered (and almost embarrassed) that I feature so prominently in this edition. Many thanks to editor Pam Davies for her enthusiasm when it came to me putting together an article on Bundy's birds, as well as running with a 'Wild Bundanoon' theme for the issue. I'd also like to thank Graeme Whisker for his detailed profile of my family and I, the Stantons for their super-kind words (wait until we get out into western NSW guys - I'll know little!), my friend Edwin (uberbirder) Vella for his black-cockatoo photo on p.27 and Ben Mawston for his graphic flair and acceptance of visuals.
It's tremendous to be part of a magazine which has such a strong focus on community, history, sustainability, conservation and growth.
What did you think of Edition 64?
LJ, March 9 2011.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
THE GULLIES ROAD
The Gullies Rd., between Grey Gum Lane and Church St, often asks my Cocker Spaniel and I to walk it. In one sense, it's an unspoiled, fecund wonderland, and in another, a tarnished, tattered spot that needs serious reinvention. In between the imposing, sentinel-like trunks of eucalypts and a rich variety of native flora, there are imported, invasive species such as cotoneaster, wandering jew etc. In certain sections, crippled trees have fallen on others. From a strangled thicket, a barbed briar lashes the pathway like some sadist's whip or Triffid. Blackbirds (forget the Beatles-infused romance - should they have stayed in England?) utter their sharp scoldings in the weed-ways, whilst ravenous Brown and Striated Thornbills map and celebrate the reaching, expansive, native canopy. The Gullies Road is a gorgeous corner of Bundanoon, yet it is a riot of contradictions. In turn, it is fascinating, eye-catching, disappointing and bleak.
LJ, March 6 2011.
LJ, March 6 2011.
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