Dylan Jones of Hackett, who has a kangaroo or two hop down from Mt Ainslie to regularly drink out of his bird bath (November 30, 2019) isn't the only reader helping our native creatures survive this hot and dry summer.
In fact, due to many national park closures this summer, confined to walking suburban streets to cope with the despair while so many of this column's favourite haunts go up in smoke, I've been buoyed by the sight of so many bowls of water left out for native animals.
Stephen Burgess reports he puts "bowls of water out everywhere", explaining, "we live only five houses from a nature reserve so we have lots of takers".
Amongst the thirsty critters to take advantage of Stephen's thoughtfulness are "just about every kind of bird, a wombat and her baby, and kangaroos."
"The magpies and rosellas are as prolific as I've seen them," says Stephen. "They crowd the bird baths and seem happy to share". I bet they are.
I'm sure many Canberrans would sympathise with Stephen who reveals, "it gives me a huge smile (in very dark times) to see them getting some respite from the horror of recent conditions."
Leanne Dempsey of Waramanga, who has water dishes all over her garden, reports, "This summer, along with the crimson rosellas, I have acquired a flock of rainbow lorikeets that have never been in my area before."
"I am constantly refreshing and cleaning water dishes, and doing some supplementary feeding of foods as close to their natural diets as possible," reports Leanne. "It feels a bit like I have a personal bird sanctuary."
While ice-cream containers and cake tins top the list, some readers are quite innovative with repurposing other items as water bowls. For obvious reasons, sitting around a firepit has been out of the question this summer, so Laura Gooyers-Bourke of Kambah cleaned and converted her backyard fire pit into a bird bath. "It's been lovely to see kookaburras drinking out of it on hot days," she says. What a great idea.
Meanwhile, Karen Davidson and Owen Davis of Box Ridge, a remote tract of bushland south-east of Jindabyne, are helping a virtual menagerie survive the drought.
''We've got several bowls in our garden for the land dwellers and also a couple atop the water tank for the birds," reports Owen.
While the usual suspects such as wallabies and echidnas have been "dropping in for a drink", one of the more notable visitors to their high country garden this year is a spotted quoll, a nocturnal animal, which the duo have filmed drinking both by day and night.
"We're not sure if he is extra desperate for a drink or if the thick smoke from the bushfires has confused him as to what time of day it is" reports Karen. "Clear days have been few and far between this summer".
Like many others in our region, the duo have faced their own fire threats this summer and in preparation for several recent self-evacuations, after "packing the car and pulling down the fire shutters" before driving off they always ensure "to set the timers on the water stations to fill at 6am and 6pm".
However, it appears the wombats of Box Ridge are sometimes their own worst enemy. "Unfortunately, the wombats can be a bit clumsy so we usually return to upturned bowls and many thirsty animals," muses Owen.
While the wombats' clumsiness can be a tad frustrating, the antics of echidnas provide Owen and Karen much needed comic relief.
"The other day we watched one have a drink, then pause for a while, and then climb in for a bath," reveals Owen. "You could almost hear him sigh 'ahhh' with relief from the heat!''
The duo are also observing interesting behaviour by some of their regular visitors.
"Yesterday there was a really old, almost blind wallaby drinking and a few metres behind was younger one, surveying the surroundings, as if standing sentinel," says Owen. "It was only when the older one hopped away that the younger one came in for a drink."
As to the birds? Well the gang gangs are ''sometimes so noisy that Karen can't talk on the phone", laughs Owen.
Fingers crossed the predicted rain for our region materialises over the next few days and provides the bush and all its flora and fauna welcome relief from such a harsh and memorable summer.
Get involved: If you are looking for more ideas on how to help our native critters, check out 'Water Our Wildlife Canberra' on Facebook, a community-based initiative to place tubs of water and some food in parks and reserves.
Tim's Tip of the week: When putting a bowl of water out, place a stick or twig in the bowl, so lizards and bugs don't fall in while drinking. It also helps stop the bowl being overturned.
In perspective: Our region isn't the only one with creeks and rivers drying up this summer. On a recent visit to Kinchega National Park, south-east of Broken Hill, but for a few isolated billabongs, your akubra-clad columnist was saddened to find the Darling River, Australia's second-longest river and the lifeblood of outback NSW, was all but dry.
Namadgi Saviours
A special thanks to all the firefighters, especially the team at ACT Parks and Conservation, for their efforts over past weeks in saving significant indigenous and European cultural heritage sites in Namadgi National Park. At the fire's peak, like many with more than a passing interest in Namadgi, I spent most of the day listening to the ACT Region Fire Communications radio scanner on the internet. The measured and professional way that rangers and parks staff, led by Brett McNamara, conducted themselves, in often trying circumstances, was most commendable.
Marine Mammal Musings
Whale bombs
Regular readers may recall the extraordinary tale of the whale bone seat on Long Beach on Batemans Bay (February 20, 2018) and the discussion it prompted about whales inadvertently being mistaken for enemy submarines prowling our coast during World War II.
Timothy Marley reports his grandfather, the then Leading Aircraftsmen William Percival Marsden, who was based in and around the Victorian and NSW regions and was primarily a mechanic/engineer working with coastal defence squadrons operating aircraft like the Avro Anson and Beaufort, often "spoke of a similar story".
Keen to get to the bottom of the whale stories, Timothy just tracked down his grandfather's memoirs, in which he wrote.
''We had about 15 Avro Anson aircraft. The job was to continually fly over the ocean from the South Australian border to Bass Straight looking for enemy submarines. The Anson aircraft was pretty obsolete, but reliable for this work. They carried four 100-pound bombs in case they saw anything. Sometimes they would come back with a bomb missing and report bombing a possible sighting, which turned out to be a whale.''
What a way to go. Best don't tell Greenpeace.
It's all in a name
Still on marine mammals, James Lee reports that New Zealand Fur Seals featured in this column late last year (December 14) were recently renamed the long-nosed fur seal as the reference to New Zealand "made it sound like the seal was exotic/introduced rather than it actually being endemic to Australia".
According to James, the species is endemic to both Australia and New Zealand (and originally called the black fur seal) but was first described in New Zealand and hence given the NZ moniker. James further reports, "The push to change the name to long-nosed fur seal came from the fact that Australian fishermen thought that they were introduced and a pest species and were therefore fair game when it came to protecting their fish catch from poaching seals."
James adds, "The seals were nearly hunted to extinction in the 19th century, but are now very much protected and there are big fines for anyone harming or killing them."
CONTACT TIM: Email: timtheyowieman@bigpond.com or Twitter: @TimYowie or write c/- The Canberra Times, 9 Pirie St, Fyshwick.
WHERE IN CANBERRA
Clue: Bon voyage, well sort of.
Degree of difficulty: Medium
Last week: James Crook who sent in last week's photo stumped everyone with his photo of a mural in Callum Brae Nature Reserve in Symonston. It's only the third time in this competition's 10-year history that the prize hasn't been won. Maybe this column needs to feature an exposé on the little-known reserve to help increase its profile.
How to enter: Email your guess along with your name and address to timtheyowieman@bigpond.com. The first email sent after 10am, Saturday February 8, 2020 WILL WIN A DOUBLE PASS TO DENDY CINEMA - THE HOME OF QUALITY CINEMA.
SPOTTED
Kermit hung out to dry
On trips to the coast this summer, a number of readers - including John Rogers of Kambah and Phillip Sledge of Kaleen - have been perplexed by the appearance of a number of soft toy frogs clinging to small fenced wetlands adjacent to the Princes Highway, just south of Nowra.
The wetlands are actually frog ponds, installed at a cost of over $1 million by NSW Roads and Maritime Services following the discovery of rare and endangered green and golden bell frogs during a recent highway duplication project.
The 'frog resorts', as some locals refer to them, include 'swimming pools' and 'rock decks' with stumps on top, so the frogs can bask in the sun.
SIMULACRA CORNER
Curious cartographer
Many Canberrans are still discovering damage from the devastating hail storm of January 20, including in hard-to-reach places like on this roof in Florey.
"Sadly our whirlybird ... did not make it through the storm", reports Scott H of Florey, "although if you look closely enough and tilt your head a little to the left, the hail did make a map of Australia design".
