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Welcome to the Beechmont Nature Journal
Welcome to the Beechmont Nature Journal. Here you’ll find real news, collected from around where I live (the northern end of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area). The content is ever-changing, and I’m learning as I go. You never know what will turn up next in this amazing place. Come along for the ride!
Letter from Beechmont, 23 February 2019
In these recent journal entries I’ve explored the beauty of round zucchinis, the incredible diversity of butterflies up here, and the habits of some birds. I hope you enjoy.
Competition winners, and nature journaling in the rainforest
Thank you to everyone who entered the ‘name the species on the ESA 2018 bag design’ competition. Many high-quality entries were received, and I was most impressed with the species ID skills of the entrants. Special mentions go to: Eve Hayden and Gregg Muller for...
Please keep your dog on a lead in bushland areas
You are welcome to save, print and share this cartoon for non-commercial purposes that help to conserve wildlife. Sorry, no colour-in this week because I forgot!
Recent drawings and a new cartoon
When I started drawing I was fascinated by line more than anything else. In the last few weeks I've been reminding myself of the importance of tone - lights and darks, and how the contrast of these can bring drama to a picture. I took some photos of the gorgeous wet...
Plant a tree and the Wildworld will say thankyou
Lots of animals need trees, so planting native trees, and helping them to grow big and strong, is one of the best ways you can Help the Wildworld. Other plants provide food and shelter to animals too, so it doesn't have to be a tree. You could also plant a shrub,...
Read moreSea creatures really don’t like the plastic waste that ends up in their home. You can help by saying ‘no’ to bottled water, and drinking tap water from a reusable bottle instead. This cartoon can be shared and reproduced from non-commercial purposes that benefit wildlife. You can also save and print the free colouring page…
Sea creatures love reusable bottles — Wildworld Books
Hello and Happy New Year! This summer I’ve been mucking about with cartooning, and have started to create and add ‘Help the Wildworld’ cartoons to my Wildworld Books website. The Wildworld Books website sprouted when I published Stories of the Wildworld and will...
Sea creatures love reusable bottles
Sea creatures really don't like the plastic waste that ends up in their home. You can help by saying 'no' to bottled water, and drinking tap water from a reusable bottle instead. This cartoon can be shared and reproduced from non-commercial purposes that benefit...
Keep your cat indoors
I love cats. But I love birds too. Unfortunately, many pet cats like to kill birds. Cat bells don't always work. The solution? Keep your cat indoors, and construct an outdoor play pen that they can't escape from. This will also protect your cat from neighborhood...
Happy New Year
It's been a whirlwind finish to 2018. Stories of the Wildworld was published in November, and many copies were mailed out for Christmas presents by the year's end. This year many new ways to Help the Wildworld will be added to this website, including shareable...
Damning report into threatened species conservation in Queensland
I rarely get political on this blog, but what follows is an important part of my story, and of the struggle we're in to try to save threatened species in Queensland. A few years ago I resigned from my job in the Threatened Species Unit of the Queensland Government out...
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...
Tales of Science
Why is the ibis often grubby, and the egret always clean?
Lifestyle choices or better beauty products? The Australian white ibis often looks grubby, but the white plumage of egrets always looks freshly laundered - with a purity and glow that the makers of clothes detergents would die for. Both birds start out with white...
Nature journaling
Letter from Beechmont, 23 February 2019
In these recent journal entries I’ve explored the beauty of round zucchinis, the incredible diversity of butterflies up here, and the habits of some birds. I hope you enjoy.
Competition winners, and nature journaling in the rainforest
Thank you to everyone who entered the ‘name the species on the ESA 2018 bag design’ competition. Many high-quality entries were received, and I was most impressed with the species ID skills of the entrants. Special mentions go to: Eve Hayden and Gregg Muller for...
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,...
Lions, Tigers and Bears – Oh my!
Meet Mujambi the lion, who lives at the Adelaide Zoo. I met him recently when I went to the Zoo to draw some of the animals. Mujambi is 13 years old, small for a lion, and the lioness eats his dinner when they are put in the same pen. It's doubtful he would have...
A bird lesson, a velvet worm, and a furry friend in the shed
This place where I live has a million stories, maybe more. Everyday I glimpse another fragment of plot, perhaps meet another character. Last Sunday a Lewin's honeyeater gave me a cook's tour of her larder (the genders of this species look the same, so it could have...
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...
Forest portraits
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Cartoons
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Wildlife illustration
How to draw a grassland, Part two: Ecology in pictures
Today's post gives you another sneak preview of the Riverina Grassland colouring book, and also describes the collaborative process I use to tell ecological stories through art. One of the things I love about my work are the discussions I have with collaborators about...
How to draw a grassland – Part One
Matt Cameron from the New South Wales Office of Environment has commissioned me to create a colouring book about the Riverina Grasslands, which are found in south central New South Wales and northern Victoria, and are home to many specialised plant and animal species....
The scribbly gum woodland at Freshwater
Freshwater National Park smells burnt, but it looks lush green. I can hear the sleepy chortles of lorikeets, somewhere up in the bloodwoods. It’s late afternoon, on a hot January day. Maybe they’ve had too much sun, or too much nectar, or both. Scribbly gums rise like...
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...
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...