This issue looks at the fantastic initiatives to help Hooded Plover breeding success rates along our local coastline with a generous donation by the Directors of The Cape. We also follow the trail of the secretive Buff-banded Rail around the estate and also look at how some of our fabulous home garden habitats are providing valuable biodiversity hot spots for our many creatures, small to large, even after just four years of growth.

I now have three year’s worth of detailed observations and supporting photographs recorded of The Cape’s wildlife and natural world along with an ever increasing library of issues of the Cape Chatter newsletter. Each time I sit down to prepare a new newsletter, I am now able to compare what is happening around the same time of each year. Hopefully we will be able to see some trends around the impact the development is having on the natural world as more homes are built along with greater human activity in addition to climate change. But I am also keen to record the impact the significant investment in ecological restoration, habitat retention, wildlife protection measures, and commitment to citizen science projects will have moving forward. Let’s hope it is all positive!

The Wombats are wandering, it’s raining Red-browed Finch, the Magpies are having a great season, there is a hint of a change of seasons in the air, and what’s happening at The Cape in the face of a wake-up call on the ‘state of the environment’. Enjoy the latest issue of Cape Chatter No. 74.