Endangered Bristlebird moves South
The endangered Eastern Bristlebird can be found locally in a few pockets including at Barren Grounds Nature Reserve and Budderoo National Park. But thanks to over 20 years of fox and fire management in Booderee National Park, these secretive little birds are thriving around Jervis Bay.
Recently 17 of these special animals were trapped and relocated to the very lovely Wilsons Promontory National Park, Victoria (lucky birds!) in an effort to secure their future. The idea is to establish a second, Victorian population of the birds to try and safe guard against devastating events such as bushfires which can wipe out entire colonies at once. You can read about this complex process and watch a video about the project here, thanks to Booderee National Park.
Wandering for mental health
Have you seen Bailey Seamer walking up the coast over the last few days? Her aim is to walk 5000 kilometres solo from Wilsons Prom right up to the northern most tip of Cape York Peninsula. My thighs and feet are aching just thinking about that!
She’s raising funds for the Black Dog Institute but more importantly raising awareness through the walk and through her own journey with Bipolar Disorder of the impacts of mental health. Bailey has attributed hiking and connection with nature as being a huge part of her mental health toolkit.
Of the walk, which she started on May 16th, she says, “My ambitious goal of walking the East Coast of Australia stems from my own personal journey living with bipolar disorder. Through adaptation, management and substantial amount of love and support, I have developed tools for mental health with hiking & connecting with nature being a major component. Coupled with a strong desire to provide all I can to others I intend to explore what mental health support resources are available and accessible to people along the east coast of Australia and advocate for people to access supports and treatments”.
Follow her journey up the coast on Facebook, Insta and on her website.
A little ray of sunshine
Okay, I admit it, this is a little cheeky. You see, the Wednesday Wild Flame is all about the Illawarra and let’s face it, there’s SO much to love locally. But it would be rude of me not to share one of my favourite nature encounters of all time and it’s so close to home.
Boat Harbour Beach at Bendalong is home to stingrays. Lots of them. Well, I guess much of the ocean is home to stingrays, but these creatures come up nice and close. Mostly Smooth Rays and Eagle Rays and you can actually hand feed them fish or just splash around in the crystal clear water (clear that is, until they start churning up the sand as they feed) with these absolutely magnificent animals at your feet.
You can read (a little) more about my visit and watch videos of the rays over on Backyard Zoology.
