October is a great month for bird watching. There is a bit of warmth, some humidity and rain, plenty of blossoming plants, and lots of invertebrates starting to appear in the air. There is heaps of chattering and chirping from our feathered friends and why wouldn’t there be! The past week has also been National Bird Week which included Birdlife Australia’s Backyard Bird Count, which is a fun exercise in citizen science where you can see how many birds in your vicinity you can identify in 20 minutes and then upload your observations via an app. It is a great way to learn about the local birds in the local area and the data is invaluable for researchers in identifying the ‘state of the nation’ of our bird life.