I almost nabbed the dopey fellow on the first try, but it got harder than at each attempt. It seems this guy had a run-in with the window (probably in the early, dark hours of morning). His ‘dopeyness’ seemed to lift once he realised he was the centre of attention, and though still not recovered enough to find a hiding spot, he did evade capture. As it is a cool day, I’m not worried about him getting heat stroke (though sitting in the sun is a bit warm). All the silly fool has to do is sit still until dark so that the daytime birds don’t hassle him.

For the car buffs, I’ll let you know that he started on the Toyota utes next to the showroom, and progressed to the Holden sedans across the road before doing a nice vertical flight with updraft assistance to sit on a 6m tall wall. Perhaps this owl is a smart buyer, who knows that it is best to go away and consider before deciding which car to put a deposit on.

Rita Skeeter bug

I already have a name for this little insect. It is quite obvious to me that its a Rita Skeeter bug. Those of you who are Harry Potter fans will know why.

If you’ve got unusual sightings you’d like to share, join us on the Wild Watcher web site (click the link to join on the right). We’ve got a map you can put the location on, and you can share your pictures or drawings.

Rita Skeeter bug- front

Rita Skeeter bug- side

Here’s a screen shot of our first real, amazing entry:

entering the first sighting on our map

Yeah, I saw a couple of Ibis fly over the road on the way home. Hey, this web site is my baby, I’m allowed to gush over new technical accomplishments!

If you’d like to join the test team, just send me an e-mail telling me who you are, and I can send you a sign-up code to let you in for free (can’t have you paying $5.90 while we’re in test mode!) In the meantime, I’m going to be enticing the team to add all of their daily sightings. Do you think virtual chocolate frogs will get them motivated?

Amika the dog

We made a trip to the park the other day to unwind: the man, the dog and I. We all get stressed out for one reason or another, and a good romp and a quiet sit does us good. It didn’t start well. Our usual spot had some woman and her dog in it. The nerve! Her, invading our private corner of the public landscape. I was mightily peeved that we had to drive on to avoid possible dog conflicts.

As usual, the forces of life had conspired to educate me again. The other spot adjoins what was once a natural wetland, and is now a grassy, wet depression with trees next to parkland. Pretty enough and obviously full of things for wild creatures to eat. We played toss the stick, chase the dog, plead with the dog and throw the slimy stick. We wandered around and looked at and sniffed things (depending on species preference). I still wasn’t in the best of moods, but much better.

Yozzie, a Peregrine Falcon

Then the man spotted the speck – he’s got good eyes. It was a fast moving Peregrine Falcon crossing the wetland. Amazingly, it came and sat in a dead tree nearby. Rapt, I went to sit and observe. It had a noticeably full crop and was wiping its beak on the branch to clean it. Coincidentally I had noticed the dried up end of a bird’s wing on the ground minutes earlier. Leftovers from a previous snack? The falcon roused, puffing out its feathers and shaking them, before settling in to digest.

It was a peaceful scene of contentment. A full crop for it, and me watching the fastest animal on the planet kicking back to relax. But nature really is a busy place, and some falcons have way too much attitude to contain within themselves.

"Swerve" an Australian Kestrel

A Kestrel came “kek, kek”-ing across the wetland. Her indignation and outrage was obvious from her tone. Fearlessly, the 200g mouse catcher confronted the 600+g bird eater with a direct assault. She flew at the disbelieving Peregrine and stomped it off of HER perch. The kestrel pursued briefly to hurl a few extra insults, then pointedly returned to the perch in the dead tree. As if to make sure that we all knew that this perch was indeed a very important vantage point, she shot off after an unseen prey item in the swamp. She missed and retired to some unseen perch. The Peregrine wisely decided to keep going for friendlier roosts.

We were grinning and chuckling about the scene. But wait a minute, how’d this outing start..? Oh, the irony!

Lessons: Life is much more enjoyable with perspective and a sense of humour. And sometimes inconveniences are there to send us in the direction of something good.

20m up and unreachable

Giving up: a Barn Owl trapped in the roof of a 20m tall warehouse. I couldn’t trap it or get it out by any of the usual means, even though I spent 4 ½ hours in the effort. The most likely outcome now is starvation. Once weak enough to be forced to the ground, recovery may not be possible.

Seen from 1/4 of the way along the building.

But that doesn’t mean that I loose hope for the next one, or the one after that. I have already saved many raptors in this situation (including Barn Owls). To be able to remove a bird from a warehouse in good health and turn it around and release it within 48 hours is, for me, a huge incentive to keep trying, even though I can’t win them all.

A kite raises a foot as if waving

Wild birds are so quiet and uncomplaining in human presence. I’ve known that they were uncomfortable and often in pain and I’ve done what I knew how to help. This weekend I have a really nasty case of suspected strep throat that has had my soft palate swell to the point it rested on the back of my toungue. I now know first hand how amazingly stressful it is knowing that I’m going to have to swallow again: a repeated pain that is enough to drive you to despair. Then there is the blessed anti-inflamatory drug. What relief- but what thirst! I’ve been told to make sure that birds on meds get enough fluids with them, but I had no idea how rapidly that thirst returns.

I’m ready for my meds to kick in and kill the strep and for the anti-inflammatory to let me swallow in peace, but I am grateful that I’ll be able to make my patients more comfortable in future. They’ll get meloxicam for anything swelling in the throat in addition to the meds to kill the bugs. They’ll also get water much more often.

Being free of distress is so important in allowing the body to function well. This is one reason that going through our days worrying is so likely to make us ill or at least ‘not well’. Our stress response is meant to get us through moments of danger, not hours and days and years. My advice: make the time to sit in nature and listen to your thoughts on what’s stressing you every day, and make a commitment to tackle those issues constructively.

Little Eagle recovers from loosing a toe

Most stuff is not very important when it comes to actual survival. Humans are probably the biggest hoarders of stuff, given that we can dream up uses for all sorts of things. Animals in general carry the essential tools with them, and loosing anything at all can be fatal. This gorgeous Australian Little Eagle caught a toe in a wire loop on a fence, damaging the toe beyond repair. It had to be amputated. Will she be able to hunt effectively with just three toes on that foot? That small loss could be fatal if it sometimes makes her loose hold of her meals.

It is good to be able to keep track of your essentials. Your health is vital. You need your lungs to take in the air you breath, your digestive system to process your food properly and a functioning brain to make choices to keep you healthy and happy. In our current civilisation and culture, certain elements of the natural environment have gone missing from daily use. A lot of those elements are just optional ‘stuff’ that can be replaced with other ‘stuff’. We no longer make nests out of foliage, our beds do just nicely. But many of these new bits of stuff don’t support our health like the original stuff in nature did.

You can’t practice using your depth perception on a computer monitor, for example. You also don’t learn how to creatively use objects in physical space when all you are given is a specific tool that has a specific way of being used. Kids toys tend to be like that these days. It is better for your mental muscles when you have to imagine that the sand hill is a castle, to sculpt ramparts and tunnels. The plastic version might be pretty, but there was no initiative to find the resources and put them together in new ways.

So what can you do without? Can you fill that space with an activity that benefits your wellbeing? I often use my TV free time to go outside and just watch the grass grow and hear my “neighbors” bickering about whose tree they’re in. Nature – just being aware of it – will energize your enthusiasm and creativity. When I’m done just observing, I’m ready to be creative.

The hints we have from previous, slightly off-topic research, is that interacting with the natural world has great benefits. Lack of ‘nature time’ is a likely contributor to some of today’s pressing health problems like child obesity and depression. Here’s an excerpt from the newsletter of Nature Play WA:

Why nature play is important for your kids…

A growing body of research suggests that:

• Children’s disconnection with nature may be associated with an epidemic of childhood obesity, childhood diabetes, behaviour disorders, depression and a diminished sense of place and community.
• Heightened health problems, higher stress, higher aggression, reduced cognitive and creative capacities, lower school achievement, blighted sense of efficacy and diminished productivity are among the possible associated negative impacts.
• Children’s cognitive flexibility and creativity are enhanced if they have the experience in childhood to problem-solve in natural settings.
• There are mental health benefits to be gained from nature play, ranging from higher self-esteem to reduced characteristics of attention-deficit disorder, more self-discipline, higher school achievement, a greater sense of efficacy and less stress.
• Children benefit from appropriate risk-taking during outdoor play, by helping them refine their motor skills and gain confidence in being physically active.
• School gardens positively affect children’s learning and behaviour, and that students involved in gardening develop a better school attitude,student bonding and teamwork.

For more evidence of the benefits of nature play, go to the ‘Research, Resources and Publications’ page of the Children & Nature Network website.

I have been encouraging kids (and adults!) to get out there and find their local raptors and other wildlife since 1998. In 2010, I am going to start running workshop to give parents the ‘know-how’ to get themselves and their kids ‘out there’ safely and most importantly, fun-ly.

Leave a comment: What is the thing that stops you / your friends from going out with the kids for some nature time?

Feeding a Boobook Owl

It is a privilege to be able to handle and care for these guys. But there is a lot of non-fun stuff involved, like chopping up dead mice once they’ve thawed from the freezer and shoveling stinking soiled towels or newspaper out of hospital boxes. Getting your fingers perforated while handling patients is also part of the deal.

The reason I keep at it is the awesomeness of the feathery people I meet, the human people who call me for help, and the real satisfaction of putting a little tiny part of the pattern of life back together. One owl that had a broken wing went back two nights ago. One who had a bump on the head flew silently off tonight, and number three who had a broken wing will go tomorrow night. Hopefully number four (still in the hospital) will be ready for aviary time next week. If he recovers wing extension and rotation adequately, he too will return to the noctournal skies of Perth. It’s just a little hobby of mine.

If Easter is about celebrating life, then I’m all for celebrating it. Possibly it would be good to celebrate it all year. I’m not sure where the chocolate comes in, but at least it is a relatively benign addiction (if you eat fair trade chocolate at least). What I really can’t stand is all the durn wabbits. Wabbits are an introduced species that have helped to decimate Australia’s arid plants and help drive some native animals to extinction.

So what’s with all these chocolate rabbits? To me, they represent destruction of ecosystems, enxtinctions and human lunacy. I’ve opted out. I now only eat chocolate native animals for Easter!

So make a note before next Easter on your calendar: Buy chocolate Bilbies”. The ones from Daryl Lea help support conservation work too.

Eat native Aussie chocolate!