Aussie Wild

10/12/2025

Young male Superb Lyrebirds have this odd tendency to form friendship groups of three. There are a few trios that I regularly follow along the Bola Creek, Hacking River Valley forests here in the south of Sydney. Meet "The Pork Chop Crew". This trio live in a beautiful rainforest stretch at a place I call "Wink's Corner". Here, this trio spend their days running about so crazily, clambering up rock faces and then immediately flying back down into the deep leaf litter in the gorgeous green-dappled light, dashing up trees, singing, and then elegantly floating down for some more running. All the while they are practicing the songs and mimicry and dance which will make them successful suitors to the young and upcoming females of the valley, who also tend to gather in groups, sometimes of up to four. Eventually, they settle down and get into the business of eating . . . so they have the energy to produce those stunning tails and do a little more dashing around and showing off. These three are now showing adult tails which means they may no longer follow older males during the breeding season to learn from him. Instead they will separate and become a little more solitary, at least in the breeding season. As I watch, I can't help but wonder who has it better, us with our enormously complex and troublesome lives of craving and ambition and "stuff" or these Peter Pans of the rainforest who live so simply and joyously in this sea of green.

25/11/2025

A Dusky Antechinus exploring leaf litter beside a trail in Royal National Park in search of the small invertebrates they feed upon. A member of the Family Dasyuridae, they are related to Quolls, Phascogales, Dunnarts and the Tasmanian Devil. They are semelparous, in that the males generally die shortly after the breeding season.

04/11/2025

Join me this Sunday on an immersive adventure as we traverse the rainforest of Bola Creek in Royal National Park, before emerging into a majestic tall forest where we will ascend the escarpment overlooking this glorious arena of beauty, connection and wonder . . . On these walks we take our time tuning into our surroundings; creating a deep sensory experience of the forest. We also take our consciousness on a transformative journey, understanding our surroundings and experiences from a perspective as vast as the cosmos and as minute as an atom. You will never see yourself or this world the same after this nature walkabout. Link is in the first comment.

04/11/2025

Immerse yourself in a few moments of the breathtaking ridge top dry sclerophyll habitat on Wise's Trail in Royal National Park. Look out for this trail on my Nature Walks in late February or early March and June/July 2026. Audio stars are a bronzewing pigeon and a Grey Shrike-thrush supported by a White-throated Treecreeper and Yellow-faced Honeyeater . . .

24/10/2025

Sound UP! I'm currently surveying Yellow-throated Scrubwren nests along the Hacking River (most are currently feeding nestlings) and whilst moving through Boris and Natasha's territory (she has just started laying) I encountered a Superb Lyrebird foraging. This is a very healthy rainforest and you can hear a heap of bird song including Wonga Pigeon, Scarlet Honeyeater, Golden Whistler, White-throated Treecreeper, Grey Fantail, Rufous Fantail, Sacred Kingfisher, Green Catbird and Rainbow Lorikeets to name a few. Then, at 26 seconds Boris, that small Yellow-throated Scrubwren with the black bandit mask, appears at stage left. A Satin Bowerbird calls right above my head a few moments later and then Boris begins to wind up his mimicry which will grow ever louder and complex as this clip rolls on. I didn't stay for too long as this behaviour generally means he's not happy with my presence. Enjoy this sonic celebration of planet Earth!

24/10/2025

Sound UP! Lyrebird Mayhem . . . There were very few people on the trail this morning so birding was first class. As I strolled along in this beautiful bush I ticked off Cicadabirds, Sacred Kingfishers, Variegated Fairy-wrens provisioning their nestlings, so many Satin Bowerbirds and Green Catbirds and Leaden Flycatchers and stacks of Bassian Thrushes, Wonga Pigeons and Brown Cuckoo-Doves. I reached a spot I call "Wink's Corner", named after a guy a who came on a tour with me many years ago and we had a magical lyrebird encounter. Then I heard three young male lyrebirds singing just up the trail. I know these boys well, so I started singing along with them (if you know me you'll know my bird calling skills are up to the challenge!). Well, they dashed up to me and then went to climb the wall next to the trail but then swung back around I and I gave chase. I had an 80 to 200mm zoom lens and was forced to crank right down to 80mm as I sat on the ground next to the trail and these birds surrounded me. They commenced to forage and sing so joyously, often within half an arm's length of me. I could literally have touched them at any time. I have left this largely unedited so you can get a sense of the mayhem when you have these very vocal birds just centimetres from the camera and often impossible to capture at all . . . Enjoy this celebration of life on Earth!

15/10/2025

Just another urban Echidna living his best life, snuffling about and hoovering up masses of ants along the curb at Sydney's North Head . . .

02/10/2025

01/10/2025

A tiny second year male Variegated Fairy-wren is taking a moment to preen in the early morning sun on Lady Carrington Drive this morning. He is shortly joined by another second year male, most likely his brother from the same clutch . . . but they're fairy-wrens so nobody can be sure whether they share the same father . . .

16/09/2025

Just another spring morning on Lady Carrington Drive in Royal National Park . . . The Black-faced Monarchs have arrived from Queensland and I'm expecting the Sacred Kingfishers, Oriental Dollarbirds, Cicadabirds and Leaden Flycatchers within the next seven days. I got four families of Variegated Fairy-wrens - all constructing nests - stacks of squabbling Golden Whistlers and White-browed Scrubwrens, nesting Yellow-throated Scrubwrens, many Superb Lyrebirds with all but one male in tail moult, Grey Fantails everywhere, and so many Fantailed Cuckoos and Bronze Cuckoos - the Brown Thornbills were suitably angry . . . For the next six weeks this will be the best place to go birding in Sydney bar none!

05/09/2025

One of the many Rufous Bettongs I kept when working for Earth Sanctuaries around 20 years ago. These small macropods, which are sometimes called Rufous Rat-Kangaroos were a pure delight to observe foraging, often squabbling as they competed for the best mushroom and truffle patches. They were super fast when upright and bounding at full pace. Their bounding gait was almost comical as they'd begin with arms extended but at higher speed would draw their arms in and really get going!

These beguiling marsupials used to make "nests" in the long grass by bending tussocks over to make a kind of short tunnel structure and lining the floor with long grass to make a kind of mat to lie on. They could sometimes be seen with the grass held in their curled up tail as they bounded about collecting it.

Although still found on the north coast of NSW and along the Queensland cost they have gone extinct in the Murray River basin where they were once common, no doubt due to habitat destruction and predation by the scourge of cats and foxes.

20/08/2025

The clouds burst, the rain falls and suddenly everything in the forest turns to magic. Puddles form, then streams and then rivulets . . . rivers begin to roar and everywhere is that delightful music of a billion raindrops pattering upon a billion leaves - each creating a tiny diamond for a moment as it catches the light. The gerygones, whistlers, scrubwrens, cockatoos and parrots call . . . Lyrebirds dash to dig for the worms which move to the surface of the soil. We splash through ever deepening puddles on the trail where the Wonga Pigeons and Brown Cuckoo Doves feed happily as they have not until now seen a single human on the trail today . . . and here in Royal National Park along Bola Creek and the Hacking River, there is the pervasive roar of megalitres of water making its way to the sea . . . There really is nothing like a walk in the forest on rainy day. It may not always be comfortable, but where comfort ends, adventure begins . . .