Noticing nature & its quintillions of amazingness
It’s a bug’s world
Did you know there are about 10 quintillion insects alive on Earth at any one time? And on average there are 100 different insect and spider species in an Australian home! But don’t worry – most are harmless and all are a fraction of your size. Plus, some of them are very helpful around the house … for example, spiders get rid of mosquitoes and flies.
Learn more about some of your nearest neighbours from an entomologist (that’s a scientist who studies insects!)
How to be good neighbours to our wildlife
Neighbours on the north-west fringe of Sydney have joined together under an agreement with the Community Environment Network’s Land for Wildlife program to create a 40-hectare wildlife corridor – that’s over 50 football pitches! The corridor connects the Wollemi and Blue Mountains National Parks.
Wildlife corridors join habitats together and help animals such as gliders and koalas find food and water, and sometimes escape danger such as bushfires or extreme weather.
Find out more about wildlife corridors and what you can do to help create or sustain them.
The World From Here
by Cassy Polimeni
illustrated by Mel Armstrong
Reviewed by Audrey (aged 5)
This book is about nature and weather and noticing things in nature. It tells you the names of clouds, and different patterns you can spot.
It is a picture book and I liked the colourful pictures. It has lots of facts instead of a story, and I liked learning the names of the constellations and discovering what we can learn from the rings on trees.
There are lots of long new words to learn and it was frustrating when I couldn’t remember them, so the book might be better for kids who are a bit older … maybe 7 years old.
I prefer books with a story, but I liked learning new things from it that I can notice when I’m outside.
Whale calf in world first!
20-year-old wildlife photographer Alexander Forrest has taken the first ever drone footage of a humpback whale giving birth. The birth took place off the NSW north coast, part of the “humpback highway” route that the whales travel twice a year on their north and south migration between the Southern Ocean and the South Pacific.
Take a look at the amazing footage!
It might look small compared to its mum, but a newborn baby humpback whale calf is about 4m long and weighs up to about 1,500kgs.
Find out more about whale migration