South West Victorian birdwatcher & eBirder; Beach-nesting Birds & Latham's Snipe volunteer... Wild birds, but generally not ferocious ... nemophilist... stravaiger... photoshop free zone... he/him

Very amateur flickr PRO. All photos unfiltered and unedited. Natural world, environment & history top my list... mostly local subjects and occasionally further afield.

Birdwatcher. Favourite bird: don't like to play favourites, but impossible to go past the Shoebill of Africa... just knowing it exists is enough... Most photos are taken during regular visits to favourite local spots including the Mount Emu Creek, Lake Elingamite, Ralph Illidge Sanctuary (Trust for Nature property at Naringal), Peterborough, Glenfyne, Timboon, Belfast Coastal Reserve, Port Fairy and Yambuk; and regular day trips to the Grampians and Clarkesdale (Birdlife Australia & Trust for Nature property near Linton). Annual roadtrips up to the mallee country and occasionally further afield are always something to look forward to.

For me birdwatching is about much more than building a list of 'lifers', though I naturally enjoy seeing new and different species. I'm not really a 'twitcher'. The behaviour of birds intrigues me, and the way they interact with each other and everything else in their world. I try to capture something of this in my photos and occasional videos.

Birdwatching provides a window into the wider natural world. There is something reassuring about the seasonality of bird behaviour. For instance the arrival of migrant shorebirds on the South West Victorian coast from the Northern Hemisphere heralds the arrival of Spring, and their departure after the Summer marks the onset of cooler weather and the return to much shorter daylight hours. The indomitable Double-banded Plovers arrive from New Zealand to spend the Winter on the South West coast just as the flocks from the Northern Hemisphere are about to leave. Scarlet and Flame Robins also Winter here in the south and are always something to look forward to. (Their journeys are much shorter and are restricted to the Australian mainland). At the same time there are always new things to discover, explore and learn. I hope my photos might prove to be a source of enjoyment and interest, and perhaps even spark or rekindle a fascination with birds for some.

Birds provide many of the highlights of Spring in South West Victoria: As the daylight hours lengthen and the earth and air begin to warm up Welcome Swallows perform their stunning aerobatic displays hawking for insects above the cleared paddocks. Grey Butcherbirds compete with Blackbirds in heralding in each new day with their tuneful songs. Great Crested Grebes perform their courtship dances on the lakes, while Red-rumped Parrots select the best nesting hollows in ancient Red Gums alongside the creeks. Wedge-tailed Eagles incubate their eggs atop their massive nests in the tallest gum trees, while Hooded Plovers return to territory and begin to lay their eggs in precarious shallow scrapes on open beaches. Powerful Owls are ahead of the game, with their chicks having already fledged and almost reached full size. Brolgas stride about shallow wetlands, swamps and marshes, keeping a close watch on their young which are very vulnerable until they fledge. Fairy Martins build their colonies of bottle shaped nests from mud and straw under bridges and in culverts. Australasian Bitterns return to their favoured locations and begin booming over marshes and reed beds, while Reed Warblers and Golden-headed Cisticolas sing their high pitched songs and dart about at a frantic pace.

South West Victoria consists of a wide range of habitats ranging from ocean beaches to temperate rainforest; from estuaries to volcanic plains; from remnants of the once mighty Heytesbury Forest to salt and freshwater lakes and volcanic scoria cones which are officially listed as dormant as opposed to extinct; from great expanses of mostly cleared grazing and dairying country to pockets of revegetation such as Tower Hill and Mount Leura. Ephemeral wetlands spring to life during the wetter months, then dry up along with many of the shallow lakes and streams during the heat of summer. These various habitats support a diverse range of birdlife (as well as other fauna and flora).

The key to the survival of birds and other fauna is habitat, habitat, habitat. The biggest threats to habitat (and therefore the birds themselves) here in Southwest Victoria are inappropriate developments, which somehow still manage to slip through the local council and VCAT approval process; and the so called improvement of farming land through the drainage of wetlands and clearing of trees and scrub. In addition the important corridors of native vegetation along roadsides are once more under threat locally, mainly due to the loud voices of one or two individuals, politicians intent on scoring points with no real interest in, or understanding of the importance of these corridors.

Historically the survival of any native flora and fauna in this region has been due more to luck than good management, and unfortunately this largely continues to be the case. While a growing number of individuals and groups do their best to preserve existing habitat, and in some cases to restore habitat through revegetation, its an uphill battle in an area where local councils remain so strongly pro development and at best ambivalent towards nature and the environment. I live in hope that the tide will turn, and that we will all come to realize that it doesn't have to be one thing, development, at the expense of the other, habitat. Appropriate development is fine in the right location, and can, through careful planning, successfully exist alongside nature.

... on the history front am gradually scanning and uploading via flickr a collection of late 19th and early 20th Century photos to make these images available to all who are interested. (Also adding these to TROVE, the national collection). In addition to photography I enjoy historical research and have written a number of papers on a miscellany of topics of personal interest. These are online at- sites.google.com/site/thestorysofarpubs/home ...with power to add... am always working on at least a couple of topics.