Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Wood for the trees



I am a little too tired to write the appropriate text tonight so I will put the pictures up and fill in the words tomorrow!

So, tomorrow never came.

The eucalyptus in the top picture was taken in a Messmate-peppermint-gum forest next to the Wombat State forest near Trentham, Victoria. This area of about 500 hectares was due to be logged but because a very rare owl was found by an intrepid naturalist the forest was saved. The campaign took many years and involved a lot of hands on protest, lawyers and much bureaucratic wrangling. But in the end the home of a breeding pair of Powerful owls was saved. My daughter and I went to stay at a friend's house who had a lot to do with the campaign. She, after many evenings stumbling about in the dark, found the owls home and began the prolonged campaign to save them.
We were hoping to spot the owl ourselves and went for a walk in the forest in the early evening. Just as it was getting dark we saw the owl, sillouetted against a Blackwood tree. The Powerful owl is the biggest owl in Australia and this lovely large bird kept a firm eye on us as we walked beneath him.

5 comments:

Annamarie said...

Wonderful pictures!

By the way, you've been tagged! Scout and JJ tagged me, so in turn, I've tagged you.

Just copy and paste the questions from my site:
http://verbena-19.blogspot.com/2006/09/ive-been-tagged_08.htm

austin said...

So much for filling in the words tomorrow.Too much going on to filter into a blog these days.
Hi jones,glad you like the pics. No, that is not me, though my daughter in the picture.

Hello annamarie. Thanks for the visit. I tried to follow the link but it went nowhere, though I've gathered from your site what to do, I think. I am hopeless at those kind of things as I find I have so many different books I like for very different reasons. But I will give it a go. I'll need a bit of time though!

austin said...

PS This tagging thing is a bit like chasey but you have to get caught!

austin said...

when will you put a bit on your profile, jones?
If you look closely I'm all over the place.

scout said...

hoo, finally!!! been checking everyday for the story!!! and, as usual, it ended up being a nice one.
i don't know about down under, but here the owl represents a kind of transformation. on the west coast it means death (which is a transformation, but it's not viewed as a good thing). on the prairies it is a good thing. geeze, all the different tribes and views :)

glad the forest was saved......harper's environment minister refuses to recognize the 17 REMAINING spotted owls as endangered!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we gotta toss this guy out quick.