While setting up my book stall for the Aust Mammal Society conference a friend asked if I'd mind selling these gorgeous Team Kowari socks as well. Happy to support a great cause. Only later discovered that the socks were designed by my youngest daughter!🤯 #AusWildlife #nonfiction #conservation

So looking forward to this! If you're attending I'll have books available to purchase AND you can come ask me all your academic/popular science writing questions! See you there! #AMSABS #auswildlife

Professor Euan Ritchie FAMS@euanritchie.bsky.social · last mo.

It’s bump in time for #AMSABS! Monday-Thursday is going to be a celebration of all things mammalian! @science.org.au @ausmammals.bsky.social

Join me on July 9 for a conversation with KI echidna expert Peggy Rismiller, chaired by monotreme biologist Frank Grutzner. In person and online! Book here for details. #nonfiction #auswildlife #naturewriting. Signed books available to purchase events.humanitix.com/rssa-july-20...

RSSA July 2026 Meeting and Scientific Presentation

RSSA July Meeting and Scientific Presentation

events.humanitix.com

Yet MORE evidence that dingoes ARE dingoes, NOT 'wild dogs'. Time to stop the disinformation? "Our tests of over 300 free-roaming canines around Australia shows most carry overwhelmingly dingo ancestry. On average...88.3% dingo and just 11.7% domestic dog." theconversation.com/new-dna-evid...

New DNA evidence shows dingoes are almost 90% pure – and fall into eight distinct groups

Ancient and modern dingo DNA reveals eight genetically distinct groups of dingoes – and the limited influence of domestic dog genes.

theconversation.com

www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05...

'Incredible' colonial-era boat used for trade in Sydney Harbour uncovered

Maritime archaeologists are working to restore the oldest colonial-era boat ever found in Australia, discovered during the construction of the Barangaroo metro station in 2018.

abc.net.au

I don't often charge my car away from home but it was getting low when I went into town so I plugged in. Came back a few hours later to a fully charged car that cost $8.32 to fill. Not bad! #ev #electric #lovemycar

Thinking of streamlining my social media. BlueSky seems to have a super low rate of engagement - even for people with loads of followers. So I'm not sure it's worth the effort. I don't need to be here to talk to myself! Thoughts? Or do I just need to use #lists better?

#nonfiction book review

Danielle Clode@dclode.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Danielle Clode reviews ‘The Man Who Planted Canberra: Charles Weston and his three million trees’ by Robert Macklin with John Gray www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/c...

Electric trucks, buses, cars, trains. C'mon what more encouragement do you need? Diversified renewable energy supply makes sense environmentally and economically.

The future is electric - by train, truck, bus or car. www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/economy... via @thesaturdaypaper.com.au

B-doubling down on electric trucks

While the Coalition claims electric trucks are not capable of transporting heavy freight, overseas usage and current trials in Australia show they far outperform diesel on both overall cost and effici...

thesaturdaypaper.com.au

Echidna of the day (6) - Echidnas are surprisingly long lived for their size and adults tend to remain in the same fairly large area so this could well be the same one. They have really good memories too - maybe this one remembers seeing @katara27 before too?

Kat@katara27.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Day 99 - A few years ago an echidna walked up our drive way in search of food. To my shock it happened again today. I wonder if its the same one 🤔 #365Project #Day99 #photography #wildlife #fauna #wildlifephoto #echidna #animalphoto #photooftheday #photographersofbluesky @bskyphotos.bsky.social

Day 4 book countdown: Let's make this a book plus echidna post then. Because echidnas are great for any occasion! (Except maybe landscaping your garden). #TheEngmaticEchidnq out May 5.

Michelle Scott Tucker@mst-writes.bsky.social · 2y ago

This account is meant to be books and biography more than wildlife but when this one turns up in your driveway, what can you do 🥰

Book countdown Day 3: Echidnas have an amazing capacity to survive fires, both by burying themselves underground and undergoing torpor for several days afterwards. They are often seen with burnt spines afterwards but these soon grow back. Resilient animals! #TheEnigmaticEchidna May 5

Book countdown Day 2- #Echidnas have such incredibly long and quick tongues but they are usually quite hard to see. Have to be quick - takes a lot of ants or termites to fill up an echidna! #thenigmaticechidna out May5 Thanks to @kk-maker.bsky.social for this post from Perth Zoo.

KK@kk-maker.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Video: echidna slurping at a lick mat with their wormy sticky tongue. [via Perth Zoo]

Book countdown day 1: Reposting #echidnas everyday the next month in the lead up to publication day on May 5. This one from the Dandenongs in Victoria under the towering Mountain Ash forests. Thanks for sharing @yungenchee.bsky.social #TheEnigmaticEchidna

Yung En Chee@yungenchee.bsky.social · 4mo ago

An echidna-graced Easter is a blessed Easter 💚 Dandenong Ranges, land of the Wurundjeri woiwurrung

Danielle Clode reviews ‘The Man Who Planted Canberra: Charles Weston and his three million trees’ by Robert Macklin with John Gray www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/c...

Danielle Clode reviews ‘The Man Who Planted Canberra: Charles Weston and his three million trees’ by Robert Macklin with John Gray

We like to think that Australian cities are blessed with an abundance of nature – spacious inner-city parklands, proximity to national parks, and plentiful nature strips and street trees. Recent studi...

australianbookreview.com.au

Fascinating discovery about the origins of the #pineal gland or "third eye" which all vertebrates have except hagfish. Central for regulating #sleep and circadian rhythms (jetlag anyone?) this fossil suggests it was once a pair of fully functioning #eyes, not just light sensitive tissue.

Scott Forbes🇨🇦@theecologyprof.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Good ol' four eyes. Cambrian old. #Myllokunmingia www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/t...

Missed US cultural references are probably more common than we think. I can't shake my image of a "sloppy joe" as a very daggy unwashed sweatshirt. #language #idioms

Dr Space Junk (Alice Gorman)@drspacejunk.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Just realised I was missing a vital distinction in US culture, I thought Trader Vic's and Trader Joe's were the same thing.

Something quite distressing about a new resident flying a huge Australian flag off their gatepost. Feels deeply divisive and disprespectful. But the big Q is - are they English or bogans?

Another #AI email this morning full of effusive praise for one of my books. What kind of sick criminal industry steals my work and income and uses it to try and scam me out of the money I don't earn using fake praise? #writingcommunity

Adrian Tchaikovsky@aptshadow.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Latest anti-writer scam is a fake Goodreads Reading Challenge, using a gmail rather than a goodreads domain email. At this point any genuine contact is going to get lost in the torrent of spam. AI semi-targeted mass messaging is the parasite that kills the host.

Day off today. Converted the former TV nook into more shelving for the (now) craft room. Toss up between fabric storage and book stock - books won. Plus stuffed toys for school visits.

Reading Ruth Starke's thesis on the history of Adelaide Writers Week. #AWW What a cracker. Can we get this published by March?

Hsppy to see The Enigmatic Echidna featured in the Australian's Big Books of 2026. Out in May. #newbook #comingsoon #enigmaticechidna

So a Wikipedia entry (written by someone else who thinks you warrant one) is pretty cool. Not so sure about a Grokopedia entry. Even I wouldn't write that much about myself (although I guess I did at some point). Needs a good edit for repetion and hallucination.

Happy place! Was gifted a kayak/paddleboard by a friend. Just perfect for tootling around on the dam.

No surprises here.

Mylee Joseph@mylee.bsky.social · 7mo ago

“learning from synthesized LLM responses led to shallower knowledge compared to gathering, interpreting and synthesizing information for oneself via standard web links“

More countries should criminalise colonisation - historic and current - including Australia. This is not just a historic issue. Failure to accept that #colonisation was a crime, enables the same crimes to be justified today - as the invasions in western Europe and the middle east demonstrate.

Centre for the Sciences of Place and Memory@memoryplace.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Our researcher Paul Morin was live this morningon France Culture to talk about a memory law Algeria just passed on colonisation. www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

Haven't been able to set the old google sites as default on the phone but happily this is a great #AI-free #browser version works well. udm14.com: An easy-to-use shortcut for an AI-free Google search. udm14.com

Fantastic news.

First Nations Clean Energy Network@firstnationscen.bsky.social · 8mo ago

First Nations have successfully negotiated with AGL an affordable reliable clean energy solution for Point Pearce Aboriginal community in South Australia — rooftop solar for every house, plus a 10 kwh solar battery. www.firstnationscleanenergy.org.au/solar_on_eve... #auspol #mobsky #energy

Damn it. Some fool fiddled with the settings and agreed to a Gemini upgrade and now we're all forced to listen to chirpy US speech in Fahrenheit. Ugh. Can fix the temp but not the voice (no Aust options) or roll back to Assistant (which works better). More compulsory AI enshittification.