Jennifer Marohasy

RECENTLY the Australian Department of Climate Change released a report suggesting that global warming would severely threaten many native species.
While it is currently very fashionable to emphasis the influence temperature can have on the distribution and abundance of plant and animal species, let’s not ignore the very broad geographic ranges of many species, or the words of [...]

“ROSE Robins (Petroica rosea) love to winter at our place on the western side of the Darlington Range in the south-east of Queensland. But come spring and they are off like a rocket to the Lamington Plateau or the New England Ranges to nest.”  Jim Inglis

IN Canada’s remote freezing Northwest Territories, near the diamond mine of Ekati, a black raven follows ice road trucks.  A youtube video has been made of the bird’s antics which include surfing the turbulence created by the big rigs.  

Yesterday at the Sydney Writers Festival, I heard Eva Hornung, author of ‘Dogboy’, the story of a [...]

WHEN nutrient rich water flows into Lake Eyre it is considered good for the environment, but when nutrient rich water flows into the Great Barrier Reef lagoon it is considered bad for the environment. 
Indeed every time that Lake Eyre in central Australia floods, our oh-so-sensitive-to-nature journalists provide us with the sort of happy purple prose that [...]

“Gone Fishing” is an expression we use here in Australia to let people know that a business is closed for a period of time while the owner takes a break.
I’m off for a bit – “Gone Fishing”.   Cheers,
**************
The photograph is of a pelican near Ingham, North Queensland, taken September 29, 2008.

This is a Tawny Frogmouth chick that fell out of its nest and ended up on the slasher the other day. Its mum did a great job and it fledged successfully, to our great relief.
The Tawny Frogmouth is fairly common and “nests” at our place every November. The nest however is virtually non-existent but they [...]

The following picture of a female ‘black’ satin bowerbird, Ptilonorhynchus violaceus, was taken in Katoomba on January 31, 2009, by Jennifer Marohasy. 

THIS beautiful bird, a Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo, has been sitting in a tree outside my study perhaps wondering when I am going to refill the bird-feeder with some bird seed.   The few times I have walked outside this afternoon the bird has squarked, perhaps asking me to “fill it!” 
Meanwhile I have been posting a couple of messages at the ‘Community [...]

Whale birds are a group of birds called this because,
1) They used to follow whaling ships and feed on the blubber and floating oil. (Any of several species of large Antarctic petrels).
2) Prions are a small group of Petrels which once were known as whale birds, because they feed on the same plankton baleen whale [...]