Author Archives: John Mc

What happened to this little chick? For the third year running, one hapless Tawny Frogmouth couple (Tawny Frogmouths mate for life) has had issues with a chick falling out of the nest and ending up in trouble on the ground.   … Continue reading →

What colour is the inside of a Little Pied Cormorant’s mouth ? Surprisingly, it seems the answer is “pale blue” as we can see from Michael’s photo above. This guy is revealing the secret because he is very angry at … Continue reading →

Welcome ! Welcome to our September newsletter. Spring has sprung and the good rains have resulted in a very green park with nature abounding. We’ve seen our first clutches of ducklings and other evidence of nesting and reproduction. October seems … Continue reading →

Our Wattles In the lead up to Wattle Day (1st September), many of the park’s wattles were flowering spectacularly with their cheery yellow blossoms in August after a July start – just the tonic we need as we emerge from a … Continue reading →

Our Goal for Winter is… … probably to stay warm ! Our English Oak, like many European and North American, but very few Australian trees, is deciduous – losing its leaves seasonally. It adopts that strategy to cope with the winter … Continue reading →

June is the first month of our traditional Winter. The good news is that there are only two more months to go now – and we’ve already passed the shortest day of the year, so things are very much on … Continue reading →

Owl be watching you! Just a few days late for our Bird Survey, our friend Barb was the first to spot this impressive bird in the Blackburn Creeklands: Her husband Greg, raced back home to retrieve his camera and took … Continue reading →

Easter Egg We trust all our Friends of the Creeklands enjoyed their Easter break including the school holidays for those still at school. In many cultures, the egg is a symbol of fertility and rebirth. More specifically, in the Christian … Continue reading →

Bunjil visits the Blackburn Creeklands For the peoples of the Kulin nation, including the local Wurundjeri people, Bunjil and Waa created the universe during the Dreaming – with a little help from their friends – some lesser spirit ancestors. Bunjil … Continue reading →

Who has been gekkering in our park ? What is gekkering ? If you turn up the sound on the video above you will hear odd sounds rather like a bird call – perhaps a distress or alarm call to … Continue reading →

Now that life is returning to sort-of normal after the festive season, kids going back to school and annual holidays over – we wish our Friends all the best for a happy and prosperous 2022! Unhappily, there’s still a fair … Continue reading →

Our Compliments of the Season! We wish all our Friends and your families a safe and happy holiday period – and all the best for 2022! What happened in 2021 ? The year 2021 proved to be another eventful year … Continue reading →

We’re Back! We are very pleased that our regular park activities are getting back to normal following Lockdowns #5 and #6. Our working bees have restarted and our usual October “Spring Bird Survey” was replaced by a Bird Walk hosted … Continue reading →

Wild Weather ! Our park was lucky to get off with relatively little damage compared to areas in our corridor nearby – particularly on the hill to the north of the park and along Pakenham Street where the wild weather … Continue reading →

September was quite a month in the Creeklands in both the fast and the slow lanes. We have had sudden heavy rains and a jolting earthquake – while our COVID-19 lockdown restrictions are being slowly eased – with schools soon … Continue reading →

Once again, we find ourselves in a long lockdown at this time of year. While the park suffers from being “over-loved” again, we’ve also had disturbing reports of vandalism, people forcing their way into revegetation areas (teenagers with parents!) and … Continue reading →