Jennifer Marohasy

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Wildlife at Westdown: A Note from Jim Inglis

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This is a Tawny Frogmouth chick that fell out of its nest and ended up on the slasher the other day. Its mum did a great job and it fledged successfully, to our great relief.

The Tawny Frogmouth is fairly common and “nests” at our place every November. The nest however is virtually non-existent but they mostly use the same dubious spot each year so the eggs and chicks [1-3] live on the verge of oblivion.

We usually get a couple of families.

They have very soft, penetrating, low frequency calls which sound like a distant power house … ooom, ooom, ooom.

It’s great to lie in bed and listen to them.

They’re better than cats at cleaning up rats and mice and are absolutely ghost-like in silent flight.
 
The lapwings pass, mince through the grass,
The frogmouth chicks look down
And teeter on oblivion,
While mother wears a frown.

Jim Inglis
Australia

Gillian Hogendyk Finalist in Rural Woman’s Award

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GILLIAN Hogendyk is passionate about the Macquarie Marshes and, with her husband Chris, is involved in the restoration of a block they purchased some years ago. 

In part because of this work, Gillian has been selected as a finalist in this year’s NSW Rural Industry Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) Rural Women’s Award.  The two other NSW finalists are Janet Bailey from Bundarra and Kim Currie from Orange.

According to her local newspaper The Warren Advocate:  

“The three women share a passion for sustaining and promoting rural NSW.

“Gillian, who lives near Warren on an irrigation and dryland farming property with her two sons and husband Chris, wants to involve more rural communities in wetland conservation.

“Described by Spotlight magazine as a ‘passionate environmentalist, conservationist, author and advocate of the cotton industry,’ Gillian donates her time to raising awareness of the Macquarie Marshes and how agriculture and nature can live together in a positive way.

“Gillian launched her book, The Macquarie Marshes: An Ecological History with the help of Don Burke from Burke’s Backyard in 2007.

“Gillian has also worked on a revegetation plan for Auscott, as a wildlife carer for WIRES (NSW Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Service), as a community representative on the National Parks and Wildlife Community Advisory Committee and as Secretary-Director of the Australian Environment Foundation.

“The award is designed to provide women with support and resources to further develop their skills and abilities.

“This year’s award again offers a bursary of $10,000 for the winner and a place in the Australian Institute of Company Directors’ course for both the winner and the runner-up.

“The bursary can be used to increase personal leadership capacity and/or develop knowledge of innovations, industries and markets by participating in leadership or management training; undertaking an overseas tour; attending events or conferences; developing educational or promotional campaigns; or developing training, information, resources or programs.

“The winner will be announced at a gala dinner at Sydney’s Parliament House in March before going on to represent the state at the national award event in Canberra.”

Gillian is also a regular reader of this blog. 

Best of luck Gill!

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The photograph shows Gillian at her home in Warren caring for an injured Collared Sparrowhawk.

Bob Carter to Visit Mittagong: February 19, 2009

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How Dangerous is Human-caused Climate Change?

The well-known climate scientist, Professor Robert (“Bob”) Carter, will be in Mittagong on Thursday 19 February at 6.30pm at Clubbe Hall, Frensham School, to give a Royal Society lecture [Royal Society NSW Southern Highlands branch]  on the science of climate change.

Governments around the world are implementing Emissions Trading Schemes (ETS) to combat human induced global warming, so it is extremely important that the underlying science is correct.

The lecture “Testing the hypothesis of dangerous human-caused global warming”, will provide an analysis of many of the aspects of climate science. We are now all familiar with the hypothesis put forward by Al Gore and the IPCC (Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change), that human-caused CO2 emissions will result in dangerous global warming. Bob Carter will address a number of very important issues arising from the hypothesis.

Bob Carter is Research Professor in the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook University. He is a palaeontologist, stratigrapher, and marine and environmental geologist. He has appeared as an expert climate change witness before the U.S. Senate, N.Z. parliamentary committees, and the U.K. High Court. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Details :

Thursday 19 February, 6:30pm,

Clubbe Hall, Frensham School, Mittagong (enter off Waverley Parade).

Doors open 6pm.

Cost is $10 (RS members $5). Booking not required.

Following the lecture, there will be a dinner with the lecturer, open to members and non-members at an additonal cost of $40 (including drinks).

Booking is essential for the dinner.

Any queries, and for dinner bookings, please contact Clive Wilmot (Royal Society) 0414621650

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Photograph of Bob Carter taken in Brisbane in October 2008.

Two Critiques on Climate Data

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Dear Jennifer,

Critique of David Jones article Hot n dry Future Melbourne piece in The Age 6 Oct.
http://www.warwickhughes.com/blog/?p=195

Also I note you posting using the RSS satellite data, I know the warmers pref this to UAH and always scream about the UAH data yet according to Fred Singer and others it is the RSS LT data that needs a correction. see
http://www.warwickhughes.com/blog/?p=196

All the best,
Warwick

On Blog Awards

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Hey Jennifer,

I read your post today mentioning the polls for the 2008 Weblog Awards. I recently wrote a feature length PBS article about the blog awards and got a chance to interview the administrator of the award and several of the nominees:
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/01/can-blog-awards-identify-quality-online-content012.html

Anyway, I thought this was something you and your readers would find interesting.
take care,
Simon

—
http://bloggasm.com
http://twitter.com/simonowens