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Christmas curlew update
Earlier in the year, I brought you the story of Rowena and Herbie, the courting stone-curlews from Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary near Canberra. Their budding romance was mentioned in 'Rewilding Weeloo, the enigmatic bush stone-curlew'. Well, as a special Christmas...
The wisdom of pelicans
I was sitting on a nearly-deserted Bribie Island beach last week, with only sand, sea, and bushland all around. An osprey was hunting nearby, and a few terns drifted past. The tide was up, and we’d just been for a dip - but only as far as a shallow sand spit, only...
The kingfishers that don’t fish
Every summer, in our street, there was a loud insistent “pip-pip-pip” that rang out, at intervals, nearly all day. The Sacred Kingfishers were nesting in a large old tree near the corner. The tree is gone now, and I need to walk further to be within earshot of the...
Bimblebox Wonderland colouring book – on sale now
After many long days of designing and drawing, I'm very pleased to announce the publication of Bimblebox Wonderland. It's the first colouring book for adults based entirely on a wild Australian woodland. Order your copy here. In September I was immersed in the small...
Randy reptiles, courting koels, and other spring things
Some say seasonal transitions in the subtropics are subtle. By that, I guess they mean that we don't get snow and ice in winter. But spring in south east Queensland is far from subtle. It's a riot of bright flowers, rampant...
Rewilding Weeloo, the enigmatic bush stone-curlew
Cold wind buffets my breath as the small boat bounces along the waves. We are heading towards a tiny, sun-bleached rocky nub of an island, one of the many that cluster about the sprawling, inverted triangle of Eyre Peninsula, like small fish shadowing a large,...
Sneak preview of the Bimblebox Wonderland colouring book
On my recent visit to Bimblebox Nature Refuge I was entranced by small details of nature. Dried grasses in spears and curls; round flowerheads of the woolly mat-rush on spikes; lumpy humps of termite mounds; woodland birds foraging on the ground and in the trees, and...
Bimblebox dreaming
I’ve just spent more than a week living in a eucalypt woodland in central Queensland. For 8 days I saw no concrete, no bitumen. I didn’t check the internet, or watch any TV. I slept in a tent pitched on pale orange sand, with native grass tussocks all around, dried to...
Nothofagus: a portrait of the Antarctic beech forest
Nothofagus, the southern beech, has always held a certain mystique for me. As a child I was an avid reader, and lived in an imaginary world. I was always searching for the forests of Middle Earth, Narnia and Sherwood. Stands of Nothofagus came much closer to this...
A frog’s tale
This is Fleay's barred frog, one of several species of large frog in the genus Mixophyes that occur in or near streams associated with Australian wet forests. Now when you look at a frog, you might think that it's a short-lived, rather ephemeral creature....
Enter the jungle – a portrait of wet rainforest
I explored my first rainforests when I was 14 years old and the experience probably changed my life. On a cold autumn morning at Binna Burra, I awaited the dawn bird walk, an enormous pair of very unsophisticated binoculars slung around my neck. Dingoes were howling...
Portrait of an endangered scribbly gum woodland
Drive from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast, between the Glasshouse Mountains and Bribie Island, and you will pass through vast areas of exotic pine plantations. But it wasn't always this way. Once there were miles of scribbly gum woodlands with a diverse heathy...
Tales of Science
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Nature journaling
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...
Forest portraits
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Cartoons
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Wildlife illustration
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