The Universe Smiled Upon Me
I remember ……..In the first week of August, the Universe smiled upon me twice. One afternoon at work, I was walking past our ‘rainforest’ area when I heard some unusual bird noises. Looking up and around, I saw a couple of black cockatoos. I walked on, all the while watching the pair as I hadn’t seen black cockatoos for years. Imagine my surprise and delight when they flew to a banksia tree which already had three of their kind eating seeds from the cones. Five black cockatoos in one tree! The things you see when you haven’t got a camera. I ran back to the office, grabbed my camera and walked nonchalantly back to their spot. They watched and tolerated my presence until I took aim: They obviously decided cameras were to be feared as all of them flew off back into the wooded area.
Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos eat seeds of casuarinas, banksias and hakeas. Apparently they also eat some larvae and grubs which are under the bark of eucalypts and pine trees. According to the Reader’s Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds, they produced two eggs but only one chick survives. The female sits on the eggs in their hollow for approximately 4 weeks while the male feeds her all this time. Both parents feed the hatchling which takes three months to fledge. It does not become independent until the next breeding season.
These cockatoos have yellow cheek patches and their feathers are delicately edged with yellow: They also have yellow underneath the tail as their name suggests.
Just a few days after seeing the Cockatoos, another welcome sighting was of three Pacific Bazas (or Crested Hawks). We used to have a pair coming regularly to the property for years, but I haven’t seen them for a long time. It would be interesting to know where they nest as these three were crashing about in the foliage of one of the fig trees, trying to flush out some insects: One of them had scored a large stick insect. These birds also take insects in mid air and other foods include grubs, lizards and frogs. After foraging in the fig tree, the trio flew off and I haven’t seen them since.
Pacific Bazas are the only Australian hawks with a crest. They are predominantly varying shades of blue grey with darker wings. The crest is black. Belly is a cream colour with beautiful brown horizontal bars. Vent and undertail are rufous. Eyes are a spectacular golden yellow. These birds build flimsy nests for their eggs which number between 2 and 4. Incubation is also around 4 weeks but by both sexes. These young fledge in 4-5 weeks.
I hope the Universe continues to smile upon me with these lovely sightings, but more importantly, I wish for Universal benevolence towards all wildlife: They do it tough most of the time.
Lydia
Irresistible Ideas for Playbased learning.
We have our prep program running at the moment Ramble ‘n’ Play and we are always updating, changing and looking for inspiration. This website never fails to inspire and excite me and it has so many great links available too.
The only warning I would give is to make sure you have some time on your hands when you delve into it as you could be there awhile!!
http://www.playbasedlearning.com.au/
Professional Development
Pullenvale Environmental Education Centre is offering Professional Development in 2012!
I Wonder........
Get in quick so you don’t miss out!
What: A short workshop about PEEC’s experiential pedagogy (story, drama, attentiveness, reflection)
Where: Pullenvale Environmental Education Centre 250 Grandview Rd Pullenvale
When: Wednesday 8th February 3-5pm
Who and Why: These workshops will be practical and transferable and may be especially helpful to new staff members. The skills shared at these workshops will enhance your storythread experience!
Please register your interest at [email protected] au
Sustainability Eco-Tour
WoodLinks State School - Recycling Room
Due to demand from 2011 Earth Smart Science Schools, I arranged a site visit to two of Queensland’s leading sustainable schools. The PD was designed for any school staff or parent volunteers actively supporting the school’s sustainability projects (including Earth Smart Science facilitators, groundsman, administrators, teacher aides, etc).
This event provided an informal and hands on opportunity to see Education-for-Sustainability (EfS) in action and to have questions answered. The program provided practical ideas and curriculum connections for the development of a School Environmental Management Plan (SEMP). Participants also received certificates of attendance.
About WoodLinks State School
Our school centres on Brain Focused Learning through our Sustainable Learning Environment. We are establishing organic, edible gardens throughout the school forming an integral part of the children’s learning environment. Through the gardens, chook pens, worm farms, composting and recycling structures children will be able to take their learning outside of the traditional classroom and apply skills and knowledge learnt to real life situations.
Our school is different, it is unique and it is squarely focused on Everyone providing Only Our Best for your children, Everyday. Welcome to our school
Cathy Lindsay – Principal
WoodLinks is a 4 Star Green Star – Education Design school and is part of Education Queensland’s Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiative and opened January 2011.
About Bulimba State School
Bulimba State School values and promotes sustainability as a core component of our school philosophy and mission. This means that support for the mantra, ‘enough for all, forever’ is embedded in both our curriculum and activities.
We demonstrate daily support for this belief through our students, staff and our school community through:
- Active School Travel (Walking, Wheeling Wednesday & Fun, Fit Friday);
- Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program;
- Management of water waste and vegetation;
- Solar panels; and
- The Sun Smart School program.
Over the past 8 years Bulimba State School has won numerous awards through its sustainability focus and in 2010 Michael Zeuschner was the Year of Environmental Sustainability (YES) Champion Principal.
The day culminated in a key-note presentation from Professor Tim Flannery (author and well respected climate scientist).
Participants came from:
Riverview State School, Grand Avenue State School, Ipswich East State School, Jacobs Well and Numinbah Valley EEC, Pallara State School, Bunyaville EEC, Indooroopilly State School, Pullenvale EEC, Earnshaw College, Eudlo State School, Lawnton State School, Nudgee Beach EEC, St Bernard (Tambourine Mt), Brisbane Urban EEC, Carole Park State School, Pallara State School, Boyne Island EEC, Bardon State School and finally Toowong State School.
Our WoodLinks SS part of the tour was filmed and notes from the day are being typed up and sent to participants via email.
Thanks to all who made the day such a success!
David
Kids making a difference
Seventh grader Aidan Dwyer was walking in the woods during the winter, and looking up, he noticed something about the bare branches above him. They didn’t appear to be growing randomly. So he took some measurements of the angles of the branches, crunched some numbers, and wouldn’t you know it, he found that the ubiquitous Fibonacci Sequence was behind it all. He suspected there was a reason behind this. That trees were using this pattern to gather more light. ( What a great demonstration of the importance of being attentive!)
So he did an experiment. Using the same number of solar cells, he built two working models. One was a traditional, flat array will all of the panels on a single plane. The other used the Fibonacci Sequence to create the same spiraled pattern he observed in the trees. The results? The little man himself reports:
” The tree design made 20% more electricity and collected 2 1/2 more hours of sunlight during the day. But the most interesting results were in December, when the Sun was at its lowest point in the sky. The tree design made 50% more electricity, and the collection time of sunlight was up to 50% longer!”
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2011/08/genius-13-year-old-has-a-solar-power-breakthrough/
This 13 year old gives me hope that with the help of the children of this world we might just be OK!
NB: Adult scientists have tested his theories and discovered that there may be some flaws in his experiment and thus his conclusions. It is important that we continue to encourage our young people to learn,play, explore, discover, create and never give up. While this experiment may not have ‘worked’ who knows what he will discover next!
Technology vs Nature
I love technology! I often find myself buying new gizmos out of a real fascination to learn about these things.
I came back from the UK just recently and I had bought myself a well-known brand of small, touch-screen multimedia player (not an Apple). I was very pleased with my purchase and showed my husband with glee (he’s a computer whiz) and so together we set about trying to upload some music, videos and pictures so we could try it out and be really cool. Well 2 days later we had managed to get some music and a video on there but no pictures!!!! We were stumped: It was supposed to be so portable and ‘easy’!
I must say that I find the vagaries of digital technology (this includes DVD players, HD set top boxes, cameras, mp3 players and computers) fascinating but why isn’t everything compatible? Why do you have switch this to A and that to B and that to C and plug this in and unplug that and ….. just so that you can watch a DVD or listen to some music – incredible. Just as you have come to terms with the vagaries of a computer they sneakily update the Operating System so that everything has to be upgraded in some small way, because the printer now doesn’t work so you have to download the latest software from the printer site but the printer, poor thing (which has been in the family for almost generations but still plugs away) doesn’t know whether it’s Arthur or Martha so totally turns its heels up – so you go and get a new printer which needs half an hour to plug in and load new software meanwhile asking interminable questions about where to put what – well I don’t know – you choose!!
So – you know what? I’ve decided to unplug everything, including my earphones, and listen to the local life whether it be wild or manmade. Listening to the song of Brisbane – cicadas, birds, frogs and the wind through eucalyptus leaves, what could be more relaxing! Watching the drama of a magpie being chased off by a bevy of noisy miners, black ants taking over a termite’s nest – what could be more gruesome! A pair of pigeons billing and cooing at each other – how romantic! Being privileged to see a bird of prey zooming on the thermals and looking very relaxed with not a care in the world – Yes! so much less tension in my life!!!!!
Pippa
Educational Origami
Recommended website about 21st Teaching and Learning
http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/
September – Save the Koala month
As well as being a wildlife carer and full time worker, I am also a volunteer at the Moggill Koala Hospital which houses sick and injured koalas and relies on volunteer staff 365 days per year. If everyone turns up who is rostered on for what I will call “my Sunday”, there are around 7 people, which makes it a very easy morning. On several occasions though, I have been the only volunteer to turn up which makes for a longish day. I found those days oddly relaxing, due to lots of reasons: I love the koalas; I only have the opportunity to volunteer once per fortnight so it’s a very special activity for me; and I could work at a relaxed pace, but regardless of my love for these animals, it comes back to one thing - wildlife caring is a time-consuming ‘business’, due mainly to lack of carers: As the saying goes “Many hands make light work”.
Koala care at the hospital is generally not a heavily onerous thing to volunteer for. The patients are medicated and fed, their cages are cleaned and fresh leaf is put into containers. After a couple of hours, everyone goes home with a feeling of having helped a beautiful Australian icon.
Wildlife caring at home is a much more time consuming passion. The main difference is that it is at your home and you are never away from it: The work is constant while that creature is in care. When you have dozens of creatures for a very long time, it can become tiring. Of course, if there were more carers and the load was spread, it would be more rewarding for the individual and less of a chore.
Anyone with spare time and a passion for wildlife, is always welcome at any registered wildlife organization. A first contact point could be RSPCA or Wildcare, to name but two. For koalas, contact Moggill Koala Hospital.
https://www.savethekoala.com/fundraiseforkoalas.html
Lydia
Did you climb trees?
One in ten Aussie kids play outside once a week or less.
In March 2011, Planet Ark commissioned an independent study to investigate childhood interaction with nature and how this interaction is changing. The research was conducted by Pollinate, a specialist communications research company, and was sponsored by Toyota Australia.
The Decline in Outdoor Play in Australia
Australia is a nation defined by its outdoor environments – the red centre, golden beaches, the bush and clear blue seas. However, our research reveals that one in ten Aussie kids play outside once a week or less. We have become a nation of indoors, not outdoors.
The landscape of childhood has changed. In a single generation, we have seen a profound shift from outdoor to indoor play, with 73% of respondents indicating that as children they played outdoors more often than indoors compared to only 13% of their kids. Additionally, 72% of survey respondents indicated that they played outside every day when they were young compared to only 35% of their children.
The change in the nature of outdoor activities was also reflected across the studies. While structured games like organised youth sports are popular, a significant decline is evident across both studies in the exploration of nature, climbing trees, imaginative games, and hopscotch/jump rope and other street games using child-initiated rules.
The term Nature-Deficit Disorder has been coined as a shorthand to describe the effects of this enforced alienation from nature, among them, children’s diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses. While Nature-Deficit Disorder is not a medical diagnosis, it provides a useful way to think about the problem that is presented and the possibilities for children when Nature-Deficit Disorder is reversed.There is a growing body of research, which strongly indicates that the benefits of active outdoor play are profound.
For the full report go to http://treeday.planetark.org/about/health-benefits.cfm
An Invaluable Service
This is a story about symbiotic relationships in Nature, in particular between megabats and plants, as I feel that these much maligned creatures deserve recognition for their invaluable services.
In the old days, say 120 million years ago, pollination of plant species was a very impersonal business – it was left to the winds to perform this vital role. In more recent times, around 25-30 million years ago, relationships began to form between plants and animals.
It was only the other day when I remarked that most people are probably tired of hearing and reading that this or that animal’s survival is so imperative to this planet’s well-being. After all, how many animals, birds or insects do you need to spread seed and pollen and therefore ensure bio-diversity in different places? And because there are so many species that do perform this role, surely those generally unloved bats who destroy trees, are smelly and have been accused of spreading all sorts of viruses, could be done away with, and who would miss them: This is not my view you understand, but the view of lots of people. On a personal note, I helped a researcher who was working with bats a couple of years ago, and I found them to be beautiful, loving creatures – very engaging faces and personalities.
It was at this point of my musings, that Daniel (our Centre’s Botanist) began telling me that bats are actually VERY important when it comes to creating diversity. Why? Because bats forage for their food at night and some plants like the Eucalypt flowers, are at their most receptive for pollination during nocturnal hours. The nectar, which is the sugary secretion in the bottom of a flower, attracts the mega-bats like the Black, Little Red & Grey headed flying foxes and the blossom bats, who bury their faces into the flowers’ depths to lick this nectar. As they are doing this, the pollen which is a fine yellow powder produced by the male stamen clings to the fur of the bat who then flies off to the next plant where it rubs off into that and so on: At night time, this almost guarantees fertilisation. During the day, fertilisation is less likely to occur as the stigma (a female part) may be receptive but the stamen is not, or vice versa.
Plants can fertilise themselves, by the pollen coming into contact with the stigma thereby setting off chemical signals which I assume travel down the stem, but this process does not allow for genetic diversity.
Nature never fails to surprise and delight me. Thanks to Daniel Rekdahl yet again for explaining the process of pollination.