'Our research shows long-unburnt forests act to limit fire without human intervention – even as the climate changes. Authorities need to heavily invest in rapid fire detection & attack, training & employing more specialist remote area firefighters.' theconversation.com/in-1939-a-ro...

This is a clearly written, evidenced-based article by two highly respected academics. So it probably won't be read by anyone at Forest Fire Management Victoria.

"Prescribed burning resets the clock, giving a few short years with an open understorey. But the void is soon filled by flammable fast-growing shrubs." theconversation.com/in-1939-a-ro...

Some extremely strong words on the gas industry by Mike Rann speaking at the @australiainstitute.org.au’s Hugh Saddler Memorial Lecture thepoint.com.au/news/251116-...

Incoming

This brings joy. Yellow-tailed black cockatoo who came to visit yesterday.

A top 10 cited article in the journal Functional Ecology! Our work on ecological control theory shows how forests can suppress fire if left undisturbed.

Happy International Dog Day #happystick

One. In. Three. Dear @albomp.bsky.social, Please explain how government and tax-payers can afford to fund AUKUS (> $360 billion AUS) but can't afford to fully fund *everything* that's need to make women and families safe? www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

This decision was also made without consulting the two Indigenous groups whose land hosts the facility. Watt flew in and flew out without meeting with them.

An excellent one minute explainer of the effect planned burns have on the forest.

Gaza aid is mere ‘teaspoon’ of what is needed, says Guterres, amid widening starvation and destruction across enclave.

A climate bomb and the destruction of 40,000 year old rock art It isn’t the Greens who need to ‘look at themselves in the mirror’ #auspol www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

How much coal would the French have to find under the Louvre to destroy it? How much gas would the UK need to find under Stonehenge to knock it down? Australia must be the richest country in the world willing to destroy its ancient heritage for one more gas project #climate

USDA ordered to scrub climate change from websites. The directive could affect information across dozens of programs including climate-smart agriculture initiatives.

A "bold plan" which is literal ethnic cleansing

One of 3 kookaburras in a tree this morning holding his prize aloft. Does anyone know what kind of beetle it is? Thanking you in advance.

Where are we now? Kookaburra sunset. Digital collage.

Yep. The creeps you wouldn’t want to sit next to are destroying the world and, apart from everything else, its embarrassing. Brilliant column. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Everything stated in this post is a provable fact. You are entitled to your own opinion. You are not entitled to your own facts. Looking at YOU, 2020 election-deniers.

The Shot writers reflect: 2024 can go and get fucked theshot.net.au/uncategorize...

Happy Winter Solstice to all in the northern hemisphere. The turn of the year's tide, a pivot-point, a day of hope—when the dark stops rising & after which the Sun begins its slow climb back. A day I celebrate more than Christmas or New Year. Fiat lux! 📷 by @annieworsley.bsky.social

unlike the other parrots we study, gang gangs just hang around at their hollows all day - it means that an 8gig card on our cameras which can last 3 months on a swift parrot nest, will fill up in less than a week with GGs - thousands of photos of their silly red heads just loitering around 👑🪶🌿🧪🌏

Hard to disagree with Carmel Flint from Lock the Gate on this take: "They’ve failed us all, in order to smooth the path for mining giants, and the real world consequences for all Australians could not be more severe," she said.

lol like 3 years ago you could be arrested for not wearing a mask in your car

Those telling me it was not Albanese’s fault and he really is trying his best. Please. Go be deluded elsewhere www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...

Yellow faced honeyeater with a tenderly held catch, ready to return to the nest.

The condition of sites affected how severe impacts of the 2019-20 fires were. Most important was the number of preceding fires, with implications for prescribed burning🌏 The conversation theconversation.com/catastrophic... The paper www.nature.com/articles/s41... The video youtu.be/kCPjowmxH3Q

When I and Howard Zinn before me talk about the unexpected, we're mostly talking about things like the fall of the Berlin Wall or 9/11 or the Zapatista uprising. But we can now add to that list INFOWARS SOLD TO CORPORATE OVERLORDS OF THE ONION.

Just joined @bsky.app? Follow Dr Soanes! Wildlife and science communication legend, very funny, TikTok star, and one of the nicest people I'm lucky to know and call a friend. Similar legends in my Good Eggs starter pack go.bsky.app/4ASwaLv #WildOz

Here's my column this week, about the astonishing moment in which we find ourselves: facing the greatest predicament humankind has ever confronted, and doing sweet FA about it. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Fabulous tour in Royal National Park today with bird photography enthusiast Prateek from Mombay. Among 58 species we got a gorgeous male Superb Lyrebird, stunning moments with Satin Bowerbirds and Green Catbirds and finished off with a gorgeous family of Powerful Owls! He wasn't disappointed.

Out now in Nature. ‘We reveal that the largest effects on plants and animals were in areas with frequent or recent past fires and within extensively burnt areas.’ Biodiversity impacts of the 2019–2020 Australian megafires www.nature.com/articles/s41... - @dadriscoll.bsky.social et al.

‘Catastrophic declines’: massive data haul reveals why so many plants and animals suffer after fire theconversation.com/catastrophic... Based on @dadriscoll.bsky.social et al.'s paper out now in Nature www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Here's the jacket art for both books . . . More soon on both these books.

Here's the original art of the birds who grace the covers of my books. The Red-backed Fairy-wren will grace the cover of "The Fairy-wrens" (due for release in 2025) and the White-browed Scrubwren is on the cover of "Little Brown Birds of the Sydney Region" (due any day now). Covers below 1/2

Follow James, he’s a legend!

White faced heron comments on the US election outcome.