But, all things must come to an end and our EIM administrator, who seems to have been running this lovely weekly inchie challenge since 2012, has decided that she will not be continuing after the end of this year...this is sad news for me as I have so enjoyed participating with this small but friendly group of crafty folk...but I can certainly understand why a change is needed and congratulate Trillian for all her hard work in maintaining and hosting the group for so long...I simply didn't find it in time to participate longer.
On to today's bird, which is goose. I certainly have many stories about geese as my daughter Sarah can attest, but in the interests of family harmony I will simply draw a veil over those, not mentioning Gus and Gusset at all and use our "local" goose, the Cape Barren Goose, Cereopsis novaehollandiae, as my nominated species for this week. It is the only native goose species in Australia
Cape Barren geese are found along the southern coast of Australia from the islands of the Recherche Archipelago in Western Australia, of which the goose population is a sub species called Cereopsis novaehollandiae grisea, to Kangaroo Island and the Sir Joseph Banks Islands of South Australia and the Victorian coastal islands around Wilsons Promontory.
In Tasmania they are found in the islands of Bass Strait including the Hogan, Kent, Curtis and Furneaux Groups, of which Cape Barren Island, (indigenous name Trowunna) is the island from which they take their name. A population was relocated on Maria Island off the East coast of Tasmania during the 1960's during the push to reestablish bird numbers, where they are still thriving.
I have seen these birds in the wild in quite a few other places over the years, around the Tasman Peninsula, and in the North East of the State as they can migrate to the mainland when pasture or water is becoming scarce in their usual location.
They must have been tasty eating in the bad old days, for sailors and others travelling through these waters, and those living around their habitats had reduced them to an endangered status on the brink of extinction by the early 1950's. However, after a management plan was established they have become plentiful and are off the endangered list. They remain one of the worlds rarest geese.
They are bulky grey plumaged birds with black feet that look as if they have been paddling in mud, sturdy bright pinky red legs, a short black beak with a large greenish yellow cere. They are about the same size as a domestic goose, at 1m in length, 2m wingspan and a weight around 7.5k.
They can survive on quite brackish water which probably accounts for their ongoing survival on the small windswept and pretty barren little islands they call home.
I was a bit bored over the weekend, with no real projects underway at present, so I got out my beads and jewellery findings and tools and made up some dangly clips and stick pins. I don't use these very often myself, preferring minimal decoration on my own journals, but I know many folk do like to add them. I enjoy making them and asked Chris if he could put them in his online craft shop. That way I can make a few and not have them hanging about cluttering up my work space...
This is what I made...
Better go, paintings to finish, bye now,
Di