Burnt leaves litter the heathland at Howe Flat in the eastern-most tip of Victoria, blown on the wind as the fire edges ever-closer. For a small, ground-dwelling bird called the Eastern Bristlebird, this spells trouble...
Author: Rowan Mott (Rowan Mott)
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Threatened species day is an event, but extinction is a process
Setting aside a single day of the year for threatened species awareness posits extinction as an event. But extinction is a process.
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Seabirds that can’t get wet: the bizarre lifestyle of frigatebirds
There are a lot of weird birds in the world. A couple that spring to mind are...
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A Smile from a Swoop
Australian magpies are renowned swoopers, but there are several other species that strike fear into the hearts of passers-by...
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The Bulldogs aren’t the only good thing in the West
When I think of Melbourne’s western suburbs, excellent wildlife-watching is not the first thing that springs to mind. This side of the city’s long, industrial history has taken a heavy toll on natural areas. Yet it would be incorrect to blithely write western Melbourne off as a wildlife wasteland...
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The vagaries of vagrant-chasers explained
People who do twitching are called twitchers and twitch can also be used as a verb for doing the activity. But what exactly is it that twitchers do and why are they cleaning their bins because of it?...
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A cold winter in a box-ironbark forest is far from a silent spring
As a winter morning breaks in box-ironbark country, the first feeble rays of sunshine to crest the horizon more often than not reveal a blanket of either frost or fog. It is at these times that the forest is at its most beautiful...