OK
My 6 favourite birds this morning - in no particular order, as they
spring to mind.
1) Australasian Gannet - dozens fishing off Long Reef/Collaroy on a
clear sky day.
2) Snow petrel - haunting glimpses in Antarctic ice
3) King penguin - thousands and thousands and thousands in the seas
and on the beaches of Macquarie Island
3) Rifle bird - dancing in Dorrigo
4) Siberian crane - seen through the swamp mists of Bharatpur in
India
5) Fairy wrens- (red backed, superb and variegated) in lantana near a
creek at Nimbin (confirmation hazy)
6) Palm cockatoo - calling and banging sticks in tree at Cape York.
Concern for environment
There's no doubt that the Franklin River campaign was a turning point
in the history of world environmental politics. In earlier research
in 19th century materials I found an interesting number of references
to concern for the environmental destruction caused by Europeans. The
reasons for the concern were aesthetic and economic, and in the case
of John Gould, scientific. The earliest complaint I found about
chopping down trees in the Sydney area was 1792, there's an early
call to save a bird species on Norfolk Island also in late Eighteenth
century. I put many of these into a book published in 1993.
Its one of the more optimistic signs of the 20th century, that this
concern( and other factors) have led to an effective political
environmental movement.
Rather than clutter the net with details I send information to anyone
who contacts me privately.
Cheers
Steve
Stephen Martin
State Library of New South Wales
Sydney, Australia
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