I Let a Baby Bird Nest in My Hair

Hannah Bourne-Taylor was living in Ghana in 2018 when she found a month old fledgling bronze-winged mannikin finch. It had been blown from a nest and abandoned. Hannah researched how to care for him and consulted an expert.

"For the next 84 days, the fledgling lived on me. We became inseparable. He would fly alongside me, or cling to me as I went from room to room in the house, while we walked the grasslands or when I drove. He’d rest in my hand. As he learned to fly, he’d make short flights from my hand, to my shoulder, to my head, then abseil down my waist-length hair to rest again…

"Each day, he made little “nests” in my hair, on the groove of my collarbone, which filled me with awe. He’d tuck himself under a curtain of hair and gather individual strands with his beak, sculpting them into a round of woven locks, resembling a small nest, then settling inside. He would allow it to unravel when he was done and start again the next day."

After his flock returned to the grasslands and he was flying confidently, her husband released the finch back to the flock.

Full story: Hannah Bourne-Taylor, Experience: I let a baby bird nest in my hair for 84 days, The Guardian, 25 March 2022.

Forestry Corp Fined for Mogo Logging

The NSW Forestry Corporation has been fined $45,000 for logging trees in Mogo State Forest that were habitat for threatened species such as powerful owls, greater gliders, gang-gang cockatoos and yellow-bellied gliders. The trees were also an important food source for the critically endangered swift parrots.

Contractors cut down over 70 mature habitat trees in 2020 after the summer bush fires, when wildlife was especially dependent on them for survival.

Coastwatchers Association alerted the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to the breaches. According to spokesperson Nick Hopkins: "The destruction of vital habitat trees so soon after the Black Summer bushfires was utterly appalling. Hollow bearing trees were scattered all over the forest floor like dismembered corpses."

Ref: Forestry Corp fined $45,000 for logging habitat trees in Mogo State Forest, The Beagle, 16 March 2022.

Gang-gang Cockatoo Threatened

The gang-gang cockatoo was once commonly seen in Canberra and is the animal emblem of the ACT but it is now at risk of extinction. It has been officially listed as a threatened species as a result of bushfires and heatwaves due to climate change, which have reduced its numbers significantly.

According to Holly Parsons from Birdlife Australia:

“Even before the devastation of the 2019-20 fires, the species has been suffering immensely… With climate change only going to make things harder for this cold-climate bird, the government needs to step in and better protect this amazing bird and the native forests that provide essential nesting hollows in old growth trees.”

Ref: Lisa Cox, Gang-gang cockatoo to become threatened species after large drop in bird numbers, The Guardian, 1 March 2022.

Pressure to Ban Kangaroo Exports

The largest export market for kangaroo meat and leather is the European Union. However animal rights activists, particularly in the Netherlands, are campaigning for a ban on the trade. They argue that the harvesting of meat and leather does not meet animal welfare requirements in the EU.

Of particular concern is the killing of joeys that cannot survive without their mothers, by blunt force trauma after their mothers have been shot.

"Scientists who support commercial kangaroo harvesting say that if Europe were to ban the import, it would remove the most humane method of kangaroo population management, leading to more animals starving due to overgrazing or more animals being killed through non-commercial culls, which are carried out by less-skilled shooters.

"But leading ecologists have also called for a national kangaroo strategy, which considers population management through the lens of managing the level of resources available in an ecosystem to support kangaroos, and not a quota based on how many animals the industry will take."

A ban on the import of kangaroo leather into the US has stalled in the US Congress.

Ref: Calla Wahlquist, Why is the EU under pressure to ban kangaroo products and how will it affect Australia? The Guardian, 20 March 2022.

Yellow Bellied Gliders in Broulee

In March Deb Stevenson, a local biologist with 20 years experience working with government on threatened species conservation, made a presentation to Eurobodalla Shire Council about its draft Policy for Conservation of the Yellow-bellied Glider in the Broulee Area. The policy was set in 2017 and the new draft leaves it “essentially unchanged”.

However Deb pointed out that since 2017 the bushfires have destroyed much of the habitat of the yellow-bellied glider. Moreover, the yellow-bellied glider "has subsequently been listed as vulnerable to extinction by the Commonwealth government under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. This is not even acknowledged in the draft policy."

"The draft policy and the associated outdated 2009 Code of Practice urgently need to be reviewed and expanded to take account of this loss of habitat, as well as the likely impacts on the Eurobodalla Yellow-bellied Glider population. This would include a review of the minimum standards for development or activities that lead to clearing of land supporting suitable habitat for this species…"

Ref: Public Forum Presentation by Deborah Stevenson - Mar 22nd 2022, The Beagle, 22 March 2022.

What I learned from…

by Ray Brown

What I have learned from my encounters with possums over the past couple of years since joining WIRES is:-

1. Young ringtails are cute, affectionate and fairly friendly, though they do have teeth and claws to be aware of.

2. Young brushtails are like some alien creature comprised of flailing arms and legs, all terminating in tenacious but not malicious, blood-letting claws.

3. Some possums will lap their milk substitute intermittently over their feeding time while others drink like a machine, barely taking time to draw breath until the dish is clean. Some would even lick the pattern off the dish if there was one.

4. Some possums will be very co-operative with toileting (while assuming a very indignant look) while others simply refuse any co-operation.

5. The temptation to shake or flick off a tightly clinging and pain inflicting possum has to give way to gentle persuasion at all times. Better to distract the possum by giving it something else to cling onto, like a fleecy pouch or small towel.

6. Probably a good thing that I do not have the facilities to care for a possum all the way to release; it avoids the separation trauma (for me!)

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