Friday, June 6, 2008

Help the Orange Bellied Parrots

Orange-bellied Parrots need your help!

There are less than 200 OBPs remaining in the wild, and unlike other critically endangered Australian birds, they don’t have their own sticker series!

The National Recovery Team for OBPs will make the stickers, but we need your help developing some catchy phrases. To rustle up some inspiration, we’re running a competition, with the HANZAB Parrots Volume awarded to the best Open entry, and a field guide and binoculars awarded to the best Under 16’s entry. The OBP Communications Team will judge the entries.

Keep your ideas short and snappy (just like the Hooded Plover sticker example below), and send them to:

Rachel Sims DSE, 8-12 Julia St. Portland , VIC 3285 OR email to Rachel.Sims@dse.vic.gov.au with ‘Sticker’ in the subject line.

Entries close June 20th 2008, prizes awarded by June 27th 2008.


THREATENED BIRD NETWORK


More info on the Birds Australia website

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

The North Beach osprey is still around

The North Beach osprey which I wrote about and photographed in December 2007 is still around in exactly the same area. It's fairly common for the young male ospreys to roam around the coast in their younger years, so I'm not sure if this one has a mate.

This morning he was having a great time feeding on what looked to be an Australian Herring (aka Tommy Ruff). Now that the Autumn waters of the Indian Ocean are cooling down, the Herring are running and the local fishermen are trying their luck.