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Backyard Diversity

Sometimes the backyard is clearly the bit out the back, with the Hills hoist and garden shed, but it can be pretty much anywhere around the edges of our territories.

The dinosaur gaze of a southern cassowary is a piercing reminder that we still have the option of protecting biodiversity, whether our backyard is a suburban garden or parking spot, a strait of ecological significance, a network of connectivity in an altered landscape, an oasis in a harsh climate or the last remnants of lowland tropical rainforest. Find out more about how you can help cassowaries in 'The big guys'.

To encourage your appreciation of wildlife diversity anywhere outside your door, join us at any point in this issue.

By Bianca Keeley/BK Films

Many smaller birds are popular with backyard wildlife enthusiasts – visible, sometimes colourful, often active in daylight. Then there are cassowaries.

In parts of north Queensland, where roads and residences cut into their rainforest habitat, southern cassowaries will occasionally visit backyards. At up to 1.8m and 80kg, with a pale casque, iridescent blue neck, red wattles and powerful legs, these are visible, colourful, remarkable birds and yet - they are being overlooked in seriously important ways.

By Robert Ashdown

Hey you! Yeah, you, the bird in the window. I'm watching you!

My suburb, on Queensland's Darling Downs, is not the best wildlife location I've ever lived in, but it’s not far to the bush, and some wonderful visitors travel through: grey goshawks, peregrines, golden whistlers, satin bower birds.

The residents are also entertaining. Spring warmth brings out the first bluetongued lizards and those most wonderful of backyard birds, superb fairy-wrens.

By Tyrone Lavery and Justin Watson

Bridge or barrier? A fauna survey of theTorres Strait islands shows a defining characteristic of this region is variety.

Torres Strait, north of Cape York Peninsula, lies between mainland Australia and the south coast of the world’s second largest island, New Guinea. A long history of sea level changes has seen these island-dappled channels alternate between connective bridge and divisive barrier to an exchange of species between the neighbouring land masses. Over the past 8000 years, rising sea levels have made this an increasingly difficult journey for terrestrial fauna.

By Malcolm Tattershall

Butterflies, beautiful and always active but, as you gradually notice, not quite the joyous, carefree spirits that folklore suggests.

Butterflies may look like something out of a fairy tale but, as is so often the case, there’s more to the story than pretty wings.

Hypolimnas bolina butterflies are found everywhere in Australia except Tasmania. Males and females have similar markings except for rusty-red splashes on the female’s fore wings. Males are well known for establishing and defending a territory within which they have exclusive mating rights.

By Roy Fairfax

Not everyone is happy to share a building with welcome swallows. One of Australia’s more familiar and abundant bird species, they swoop, soar, catch flying insects on the wing, skim the surface of lakes or rivers for a drink and build their mud nests wherever they find suitable shelter – often under the protection of house eaves.

Mud splotches on the wall, splatters of faecal matter near the doorstep and possible health hazards are understandable arguments against the establishment of this commensal association.

By Jenny Silcock

Arid Australia's forbidding landscapes may look like wastelands, but their hidden caches of water support a variety of wildlife and are well worth protecting.

These remote and legendary stopovers are repositories of rare wildlife.

By Conrad Hoskin and Megan Higgie

The discovery of a new species reinforces the importance of sandstone landscapes.

It's stinking hot and humid. Heat radiates off everything; storms sit on the horizon. Then as night falls, the rocks come alive with geckos. They are mostly tree dtellas, but also a few zigzag velvet geckos and spectacular ring-tailed geckos.

Further inspection reveals a gecko, but somehow different. Very different. It’s clearly a velvet gecko but like no other.

By Saren Starbridge

Much more than just cattle tracks, the long paddock has a rich history and, with sensible management, an immensely valuable future.

Stock routes, colloquially known as the 'long paddock', developed in response to a practical need and not through government initiative,

By Linda Hoelle

For nine years, we have lived in Moura, a rural community in central Queensland. I enjoy keeping a journal of wildlife appearances in our backyard: a young bearded dragon waving from the yard; colourful, jewelled spiders building elegant webs; rainbow bee-eaters hawking insects between our clothes hoist and nearby trees – I am rarely short of material.

• Butterflies of Australia
• Backyards 4 Wildlife
• Backyard Birdwatch

Editorial, CityAnimal, Trekabout Photography, Six Species - Weeds, NatureWatch, Books Reviews, Summer Skies, Young and Wild, Scratchings and Rustlings, WPSQ in Action, Swamp Cartoon and our regular environmental crossword.

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