nest at Mulligans Dec 2015

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 treat, I’m thrilled to report that the happy couple now have their first chick. Dr Kate Grarock, Sanctuary Ecologist, assures me that the chick is doing well, and is sighted on camera every week (no doubt preparing to be a You Tube sensation in his/her own right).

But that’s not all. October 2015 saw the release of ten more captive-bred stone-curlews into the Sanctuary, and all have survived to date. And only yesterday, two of the newly-released birds (Lewis and Kay) were found to be protecting a nest with eggs (pictured above), much to the delight of everyone involved in Mulligan’s Flat.

The end of 2015 might leave us with some trepidation about the future. But life rolls on with sometimes surprising resilience, and many small moments of wonder.