I had been worried about the aberrant, non-fruit pinching behaviour of the seasonal fruit-pinching birds like the King Parrots and the Bower Birds. They had allowed me cherries, mulberries, figs and peaches — as they never had before. But then last week normality returned, as the King Parrots squawked and gorged in the tall and [...]
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The King Parrots have arrived in all their green and scarlet glory, as raucous and belligerent as ever. This means that some of my orchard’s fruit must be close to ready for ruination, even though small and green. No time for netting this year, so the Kingies and the bower birds will have their best [...]
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Usually the parrots and I share the crop from my two large Nashi pear trees. I get hundreds of fruit from the lower branches and they take even more hundreds from the higher ones. Nashis ripen well off the tree so I can pick them when big enough, but not quite ripe, and layer them [...]
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I was visiting a friend’s house in bushland in the lower Hunter. Her small grand-daughter was also visiting, so a child-sized table was set up on the back patio. Large Lego kept her amused. My friend had fed the King Parrots there for a long time but the white cockatoos had begun to dominate, so [...]
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One of the Crimson Rosellas brought her young one along to try the birdseed recently. It was the first time I’ve seen this happen. Instead of the mature red, blue and black plumage, its blue was paler, its red more tomato than scarlet, and much of its body was dusted with light lettuce green. It [...]
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It’s easy to see when the predominant native grass in my `lawn’ is seeding, because the yard is taken over by a purposeful band of crimson rosellas. They proceed en masse up the slope, through thin grass as tall as themselves. Standing on one leg, each daintily grasps a seedhead stem with the claw of [...]
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With temperatures veering from 13 to 35 degrees, neither the fauna nor the flora know what’s going on here. The snakes don’t know whether to hibernate or hunt, I’ve had to bring out the winter woollies, the autumn crocus are blooming and the ornamental grapevine began changing into its autumn colours only halfway through summer, [...]
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Here's the cover of my new book — Rich Land, Wasteland — How coal is killing Australia — which is now in bookshops.
A candid meander through my life up here on my remote mountain wildlife refuge, answering the oft-asked question 'Why do you live way out there?'
Stories about the wild things who allow me to share their living space — and a plea to look after them before it's too late.