Work continues apace with the return of the Mt Pleasant Street Party and Parade in December. A mostly new committee has taken over the reins and they are working hard to ensure we have a great celebration.

We are hoping to put out a Christmas Buy Local supplement to the newsletter, as we have often done in the past, and urge our community to support our local businesses. Thanks to Kath for chatting with shop owners and taking photos. Stay tuned for that one.

After my little piece on the Blue Wrens pecking at my car mirror, I was interested to hear that David Bevan’s guest on this morning’s radio was Dr Grianne Cleary, who I’ve heard before, and she has some interesting and funny observations about our feathered friends - including why wrens peck at mirrors and windows. Apparently it’s all about sex - or more specifically - the mating season, and should cease once there is no need to protect his claim to his female. Whew! That’s a relief. She also spoke about Plovers and why they have this need to have their nests in seemingly ridiculous and unsafe places. That too is the result of evolution, whereby if they had their nests in the open, it was much easier to spot predators. Sadly, that also means that evolution hasn’t caught up with things like trains and planes, and picking fights with them never ends well for the Plovers, that clearly defend unto death.

The link to Dr Cleary’s book ‘Why Do Birds Do That?’ is below.

The newsletter this month also has some recommendations for books that sounded really interesting, and as gift giving time is fast approaching, might be good options for bookworms.

https://www.angusrobertson.com.au/books/why-do-birds-do-that-grinne-cleary/p/9781761067235