Welcome to February!

Daydream Island, Whitsundays in far north Queensland, Australia
Copyright (c) 2006 Wendee Holtcamp

Welcome to February! At the moment, far north Queensland is getting hammered by Cyclone Yasi. Category 5 when it made landfall, it was as big as Hurricane Katrina, and is expected to drop more rain. Poor Queensland can't catch a break. Brisbane in southeast Queensland got hit with intense flooding just a week ago. I'm trying to get back over there to report on the aftermath of the floods and the cyclone. Yasi hit right near Mission Beach, a quaint coastal town on the "Cassowary Coast" which I visited in 2008, and wrote this article, Saving Big Bird, for Wildlife Conservation magazine.

A couple new articles have come out. I'm proud of this essay that came out in The Daily Climate: Can eating less meat curb climate change?

And just out today - Rime of the Bering Sea Mariners in BioScience, my second piece on the trip I did last summer.

I am about to head on a road trip along the coast to report for the 10th annual Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine Water issue within the next few weeks, which should be fun.

Well that is all for now! Hopefully I'll be back before another month goes by!

Glasshouse Mountains

We spent the day yesterday at the Glasshouse Mountains, near Beerwah, which is actually very close to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo (we drove past it) on a "bug catch" event which Jenny oversees for her work. It was a drop-dead gorgeous sunny day, just perfect temperature. I shot some photos of the University of Queensland students who were out there doing this voluntarily for a class, and hung out with Jenny, Don and the little ones. Then Don and I went with Brooke and Abby to Montville, to check out the shops, and then can back to get Jenny and head home.

Today I've been writing and then we went to see Chloe's school performance, where she was both in the senior band & also in a play with called Shiv'r Me Timbers. It was very cool because at the end, two of the kids came out and talked about the theme which was honesty, and how that is a virtue that includes not lying or cheating and living in integrity which meant accepting the truth even when it wasn't easy. That's a pretty profound thought to teach primary school kids.

I leave tomorrow morning at 11am - a 12 hour flight to LA then a 3-hour flight to Houston. Prayers appreciated! I am so stoked to get home. Godspeed. Love to all!

A view of the Glasshouse Mountains from a lookout on Mary Cairnscross Road, near Montville. They were named by Captain Cook, after glass houses in England.

A closer-up view of the Glasshouse Mountains.

A close-up of a scribbly gum. The scribbles are made by the larvae of a moth which eats underneath the bark.

Don, Brooke & Abby having a picnic lunch

A view of the bush - Eucalyptus forest

Brooke finds a caterpillar!

A dried Banksia flower. Lorikeets and parrots love these.


Catching flying insects with sweep nets in the bush at the Beerwah Scientific Reserve.

At the end of a long day, they collect night time insects using lights and a sheet.

Photos Copyright (c) 2008 Wendee Holtcamp

Tabletop Mountain

We went on a walk up Tabletop Mountain this afternoon, which is really more of a steep hill,not far from Toowoomba. It's pretty steep at first and goes through some scrambly rock beds and took about an hour or so. It was a good strenuous hike, and not too far.

A view of Tabletop Mountain from the lookout point in Toowoomba.

Part of the trail to the top involved going over these very rocky bits!

Rin and I on top of Tabletop Mountain. We had fun taking a bunch of self portraits. :) They have sunspots though... in one picture it was my "third eye"! I love this one!

The trail to the top of Tabletop Mountain.
Fields of grass on top of Tabletop Mountain.
I look like my leg is cut off - but this is me at the top of Tabletop Mountain! Joy! :) At the top of Tabletop Mountain, joyful Rin!

One last thing - check out this page, Right Brain vs Left Brain, and tell me what direction the lady is spinning for you. Some people see her spinning in first one then the other direction, but others she always goes in the same direction (at least for that day!). For me, she has always gone to the right and I can not envision how she could possibly reverse and spin the other way. It makes sense though because I'm totally in my emotions at the moment, emotional and creating and writing... so I guess when I'm back into my more scientific rational mindset she will switch!

explorations of Darling Downs

Copyright (c) 2000 Wendee Holtcamp
An algae-covered West Indian manatee looking very much like a rock at Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park, Florida.

I've spent the last couple days revising my introductory chapter for my book, then I need to get into the new ones. As everything, it's going slower than you think it will. But it is coming along and I'm excited about it.

This weekend Rin and I are going to explore a bit of the area. We think we're going to go out to Bunya Mountains National Park which is an area where Aborigines used to gather from all areas to harvest the Bunya pine nuts. This is a link to a Bunya Mountains website for accomodation but it has better photos than the actual Park Service website. Probably on Saturday we're going to take the kids to Crows Nest Falls National Park, where a lot of rock wallabies hang out. It's more of a dry scrub forest, with a lot of rocky outcroppings. I'll post some pics when we return! Now, I better get back to my book writing!