Veronika Wild

Meet the Short -Tailed Shearwater, a smallish bird which travels 30,000 km a year from Southern Australian waters to Kamchatka in Russia and the Aleutian Islands and back via the Pacific Coast of North America   -Photo Ed Dunens  |  by CC 2 .0    |  per Wikicommons] These are the kinds of birds we mean when we celebrate World Migratory Bird Day this Saturday (10/10/2020). In the Northern hemisphere, you may have celebrated the same day on May 9 and even some of the same birds, because the movement of these birds depends on the seasons. In this case we‘re mainly talking about those which use the East Asian – Australasian Flyway which brings around two million birds to our shores each spring.  Many of them perform the most remarkable feats to get here. The tiny Arctic Tern for instance, weighing only 113 grams (4 ounces), travels a 71,000 km in zig zag route between Greenland and Antarctica.  The speed record holder is the Bar – Tailed Godwit w...

Tasmanian Sea Eagle (Many thanks to Elaine McDonald for letting me use her stunning photo) I went to a remote beach this week where you could usually count on seeing the odd Sea Eagle, yet there wasn’t a single one to be seen. When I came home and started to read about them, I was shocked to find that 52% of the world’s Raptors are in decline and around 18% of them are facing extinction, even in Australia and Tasmania . (Hint: The shorter version at Birdlife.org is easier to read).  Half of Australia’s 35 native Raptor species are either endangered or listed because they are already extremely rare. In Tasmania, which has 13 species, there are now only around 100 breeding pairs of the mighty Wedge Tailed Eagle, 110 pairs of Grey Goshawks and 200 pairs of White Bellied Sea Eagles. So what are Raptors and why is this happening?   Raptors are birds of prey, meaning that they hunt small game and eat meat or carrion. They include eagles, vultures, hawks, fal...

Crimson Rosella -  Cluan's photo - much better than my bird pics. Oh dear,   looks like I missed the Great Aussie Backyard Bird Count which ran during Bird Week from 21 – 28 th of October, but never fear, I am keeping an eye on those in the backyard. The Birds in Backyards program still allows citizen scientists to contribute not only to our overall knowledge about the health and distribution of our birds, but also about how our environment is changing. Like frogs and other sensitive creatures, birds are literally the canaries in the coalmine of our world.  My bird photography is a lot like my seal photography.  If you play this at fullscreen you may see the rear of a Yellow Throated Honeyeater For instance, last year’s Backyard Bird Count involving 72, 421 people and 1,972, 250 birds, noted a decline in Kookaburra populations right across the south eastern states, though the reasons have thus far remained elusive. However, there ar...