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Free colour-in sheet: Small rainforest birds

Free colour-in sheet: Small rainforest birds

This colour-in page features some small birds that hang out in the rainforest where I live. Plus a cuckoo waiting to lay its eggs in their nest when it gets a chance. The plant is Neolitsea dealbata, also called 'Doe's Ears'. Can you see why? Download the high...

Beechmont Nature Journal, February 2021

Beechmont Nature Journal, February 2021

He waits on the bright green grass, alone. As I approach, he walks quickly away (wood ducks don’t waddle). Dark head held high, a cautious eye looking back, watching my every step. I walk by, and he settles back down on the grass, waiting. Wood ducks are grass-eaters,...

A daily drawing challenge

A daily drawing challenge

About 2 weeks ago I embarked on a daily drawing challenge. That is, to draw something from nature every day. Why nature? Because spending time in nature makes me happy! Why drawing? Because it makes me slow down, and discover wonders by observing closely. Why a daily...

Transitions

Transitions

Recently, a friend told me that she was going to transition. From being a she to becoming a he. It’s something she’d wanted since puberty. I could hear the relief in her voice, and a happy anticipation of a new, precious and exciting life ahead. But many people find...

Free grassy woodland colouring-in sheet

Free grassy woodland colouring-in sheet

Bimblebox Nature Refuge protects a large tract of grassy woodland that provides habitat for many native animal species. Bimblebox, ironbarks, rusty jackets, brigalow and many other tree and shrub species provide food, shelter and breeding sites. This colour-in is free...

Free canopy birds colour-in sheet

Free canopy birds colour-in sheet

Many gorgeous birds make their home in the Bimblebox Nature Refuge. The extensive woodlands of bimblebox, ironbarks, rusty jackets and many other tree and shrub species provide food, shelter and nesting sites. This colour-in is free for you to download, print and...

Free squirrel glider colour-in sheet

Free squirrel glider colour-in sheet

Squirrel gliders roam the Bimblebox Nature Refuge in central Queensland, eating nectar, gum, insects and more. The squirrel glider in this colour-in is filled with the many sweet flowers it sups on during the tranquil woodland nights. This colour-in is free for you to...

Reflecting on place

Reflecting on place

How much do you know about the place where you live? No doubt you know where to buy food and other essentials. Perhaps you know where to catch the bus / tram / train, or the quickest way to drive to work or school. But what about the landform you live on? In this week of reconciliation, how much do you know about the humans who first lived in this place? And what about the plants and animals who share your place? Are they recent arrivals, or are they the modern descendants of very ancient lineages? Use this activity to reflect on your place.

How a call from Dubbo shook me out of my corona-daze

How a call from Dubbo shook me out of my corona-daze

We're all a bit tired after packing and sending all of those books! So how are you going in this strange time of COVID-19? Feeling overwhelmed, or embracing a slow-down? Missing friends and family, but perhaps also discovering new ways to connect? Out of work and...

Tales of Science

Lullabies for life

Lullabies for life

A pair of fairy wrens are in our garden - their calls are shrill, sweet and curiously penetrating. And for the first time ever, I think they might stay. This is terribly exciting. When we moved here eight years ago, we transformed a backyard of kikuyu grass into a...

Christmas curlew update

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

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

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...

Rewilding Weeloo, the enigmatic bush stone-curlew

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,...

A frog’s tale

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....

Nature journaling

Transitions

Transitions

Recently, a friend told me that she was going to transition. From being a she to becoming a he. It’s something she’d wanted since puberty. I could hear the relief in her voice, and a happy anticipation of a new, precious and exciting life ahead. But many people find...

Reflecting on place

Reflecting on place

How much do you know about the place where you live? No doubt you know where to buy food and other essentials. Perhaps you know where to catch the bus / tram / train, or the quickest way to drive to work or school. But what about the landform you live on? In this week of reconciliation, how much do you know about the humans who first lived in this place? And what about the plants and animals who share your place? Are they recent arrivals, or are they the modern descendants of very ancient lineages? Use this activity to reflect on your place.

How a call from Dubbo shook me out of my corona-daze

How a call from Dubbo shook me out of my corona-daze

We're all a bit tired after packing and sending all of those books! So how are you going in this strange time of COVID-19? Feeling overwhelmed, or embracing a slow-down? Missing friends and family, but perhaps also discovering new ways to connect? Out of work and...

Beechmont Nature Journal Autumn 2020

Beechmont Nature Journal Autumn 2020

A family of yellow-tailed black-cockatoos have been a steady presence over the last few weeks. Mum, dad and a baby, it seems. The baby is often whining - in its loud, creaky way - for something. Is it food, is it just attention, who knows? We see them sailing...

Inspiration from chooks

Inspiration from chooks

Chooks are irrepressible, despite the uncertainty of their lives. They give me inspiration. Here's a nature journal spread of our backyard flock that I completed last night. In case you're interested in doing some nature journaling yourself, here are the steps I used...

Forest portraits

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Cartoons

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Wildlife illustration

If life sends you lemons, butterflies may follow

If life sends you lemons, butterflies may follow

We've always had a lemon tree, in every place that we've lived. "The most useful fruit tree you can have," says Ray. But the other great thing about cultivating lemons is that a beautiful butterfly tends to follow. Caterpillars of the Orchard Swallowtail Butterfly...

Winter wanderings

Winter wanderings

Winter field trips can be cold but exhilarating. This winter I had the good fortune to travel down to northern Victoria and southern New South Wales, to reacquaint myself with those landscapes under grey subdued skies. The trip was half work and half pleasure,...

The Rainforest Birds of Gondwana

The Rainforest Birds of Gondwana

Here are the rainforest birds of Gondwana – starting with the top of the tree canopy, and ending with the forest floor: The call of the Pied Currawong echoes through the forest, loud musical wails and ringing notes, from way up on high. A swish of black-and-white...

Free Riverina Grasslands colouring book to download

Free Riverina Grasslands colouring book to download

Two summers ago I set off to the Hay Plain in southern New South Wales to explore and draw the remarkable Plains-Wanderer and its grassland habitat. Ray and I stayed in the old homestead at Oolambeyan National Park while I did the preliminary work for the Riverina...

Topknots at Tullawallal

Topknots at Tullawallal

We usually only glimpse the topknot pigeons flying high and fast overhead, a steady workmanlike beat of strong grey wings and a flash of pink beak. But last week they were in the treetops at Tullawallal. It’s the highest point of the forest near Binna Burra, crowned...

Rose-crowned fruit dove – nature study

Rose-crowned fruit dove – nature study

I'm still 'getting to know the neighbours' in Beechmont. I mean the plant and animal neighbours! And I suspect this might take a lifetime, what with the amazing and beautiful diversity up here, and the extensive Lamington National Park right on out doorstep. This is...