General News
21 June, 2024
Barry's Corner
At last we have hibernated the cooling fans for the season and started focusing on getting warm.
Although the nights have been cold, the days have been pleasant outside work-wise.
This is a testing time for much of our wildlife as they often need to change their diets and find a comfortable spot to shelter out of the bleak conditions.
Lizards, goannas, snakes and smaller lizards will make use of burrows, tree bark, haystacks, hollows in posts or fallen branches.
Once the heat goes out of the season, reptiles do not operate so well.
They need to have fattened up a bit to sustain them through the cool times.
Not many birds have a hibernation process - a lot make an escape trip and move to warmer districts instead, some even going for a circuit around the globe and returning in a few months to nest or rest.
Originally the large cockatoos would move shorter distances, but they have settled in to farms and towns because there they can find food readily.
This time of year used to be a harsh time and starvation would kill a few off.
Now corellas, cockatoos and galahs can find onion weed all over the place - their diggings can leave an area like a fallow paddock as they hunt for the corm a few centimetres below the soil surface that can be dug out by strong beaks.
Onion grass is not much value as livestock feed and in fact can ball up in the stomach if it cannot
be digested and cause the animal some grief.
Spilt grain or seeds can attract birds so farm hygiene is crucial.
Mammals have fewer concerns in winter because they grow a thicker coat that allows them to tolerate bleak days.
Even if there is shelter nearby, kangaroos and wallabies rarely make use of it and will stand stoically out in the weather.
Bats slow down in winter and find a hollow where they can cluster together to generate some warmth.
There are fewer bat-food insects flying in the cold.
- BARRY CLUGSTON