Who really needs to be rescued?

The kingfisher or me? “We have a young kingfisher being attacked by the birds”. I know that rescues are seldom straightforward, and as kingfishers are not the easiest birds to …

How I make a ringtail drey

Ringtails are housed in a drey when they are put into an aviary. In time it will become well used and sometimes rather tatty. At the time of release, therefore, …

Ringtail release and a python problem

I have just spent four months caring for six orphaned ringtail possums. These orphaned babies are pretty and a delight to care for even though they require copious amounts of …

More deaf birds

Unlike me, most people watching a Grand Prix are not aware of the birds sharing the environment. Practice for this week’s Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne was run in conditions …

Swimming with the sealions

Anchoring is sometimes fraught with hazards, but the most unexpected difficulty arose when we anchored at one of the islands in the Galapagos. This quiet bay has a beach at …

Imping a burnt tawny frogmouth

Imping is a feather splicing technique where a whole feather that matches the broken one is cut to fit with the other feather making a whole feather. The feather shaft …

A bird with attitude

When asked what is my favourite bird to care for, I am divided between the tawny frogmouths and the herons. I had been away for four months so I was …

The Galah with one leg

“Foot” and “Leg” had Christmas dinner with us some years ago. They waited on the balcony rail for a hand-out of seeds. Nature is unkind to those who are not …

Rosellas rearing and release

These week-old chicks were found in a brick wall during home renovations. The parents had chewed through some electrical wiring near the nest and so it had to be removed. …

A penguin is in need of help

This particular winter’s day I received a call that “There is a penguin in difficulties off our restaurant”. In the true spirit of a wildlife carer I donned bathing togs …

Barny’s Balls

“Barny Brushtail is not well. He has sore places and is very sick.” When I got there Barny was asleep under a pot plant on the balcony. I checked him …

Deaf birds

Each time I attend a motor racing Grand Prix I wonder at the persistence of the local birds in living normally while surrounded by horrendous noise and chaos. The French …

Killer kookaburra

My baby dove was outside in a cage. I put him on the top of the cage to feed him and out of the corner of my eye I saw …

Australian Magpie – a Stupid story

Australian Magpies belong to the same family as the Butcherbirds and Currawongs. They are found in areas in which there are trees (used for shelter, nesting and roosting) and bare …

Spur-winged Plovers or Masked Lapwings

Of the many species of plovers the masked Lapwing is the most commonly encountered. They live in the country, in the suburbs and even on high-rise buildings. They drive their …

Bandicoots in care escape

I released two juvenile long-nosed bandicoots in my garden and put a group of four young ones into the “rabbit hutch”. A few days later one of the released juveniles …

White-faced heron rescue

My White-faced Heron story is one of those instances that make all our hard work worthwhile. I was called to a Sydney waterfront home in whose gum tree white faced …

Penguin covered in oil

Somewhere, somehow this Little Penguin swam through a slick of heavy bunker-type oil, and was covered from head to toe when found by a little girl with a passion for …

"Scratch" the baby brushtail possum

The mother of this 75 gram brushtail baby was killed by a cat and furless baby was covered in scratches. Hence his name “Scratch”. Because of the infections from the …