Book review

There is a review of my book Eagle Days in the current issue of  British Birds.

'there is no shortage of information about the eagles themselves and there are detailed accounts of many fascinating aspects of eagle behaviour based on first hand observations.....
The book is superbly illustrated with the author's own photographs....'

Click on the link below to read the full review by Ian Carter.

http://www.britishbirds.co.uk/book-reviews/eagle-days-by-stuart-rae


And there was another recent review in the British Ecological Society's Bulletin.

'This is a fascinating read by one of our finest hill naturalists who has spent much of his life
observing golden eagles and other wildlife in the Scottish Highlands...... 
Ecologists, hill walkers and naturalists working in upland areas would do well to read this book to broaden and deepen their knowledge.'

Wattle in flower

There is a tremendous bloom of wattle in Canberra this year. Whole hillsides are bright yellow and the bushes are full of insects and birds. But not all the birds are there to chase the insects or sip nectar. This pair of tawny frogmouths were quietly roosting on an old tree limb, basking in the sunshine. Their part-built nest was fifty metres away. The male is on the left - he is slightly larger and has less rufous on his neck and wing coverts.

 

Tawny Frogmouths breeding

The first tawny Frogmouths are now incubating eggs.So the field season is now on for me until at least Christmas. That means lots of walking through the woods, checking locations where there have been frogmouths nesting in previous years and always looking out for more in new places.

A male frogmouth sits on his nest, as all males do during the day.

His female sits quietly all day in a nearby tree, they will share the 

incubation during the night, never leaving the eggs unattended.

Garden Possum

Brush-tailed possum in the garden

Click on the link below to watch the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8bYBfLH70E

I have set up a trap camera in the back garden to try it out and here are the first results. These are infra-red images of a Brush-tailed Possum, which are our common garden pet/pest depending on one's attitude to wildlife. He is feeding on scraps which we place on the old log for the birds during the day and the possums at night.

Not bad, for my very first wildlife film.

The camera I am using is a Bushnell Trophy Cam HD, and it was set about 4m from the log..

Spring rain

After a cold fairly dry winter there has been some rain recently, and spring is on the way. The tawny frogmouths have started to build their nests and are sitting close by. This male was sitting on his own while two females sat in a nearby tree. The rain has awakened the frogs which are now calling, and the invertebrates are moving. All good food for frogmouths, so they will lay their eggs soon.

The rain was rather heavy most of the day but he was quite sheltered, tucked in under the main stem of the tree above him. His head was catching some water though, and the water droplets were beading on his head and bristles.