Clare Hawkins

@clawkins.bsky.social

3369 Followers 649 Following

Conservation biologist in lutruwita/Tasmania 🌍🌏 Coordinates citizen science to monitor threatened species: NatureTrackers & more with the Bookend Trust & the University of Tasmania https://naturetrackers.au/

Well over 100 cockatoos, partly lit up white & partly in shadowed dark grey, fly in a circular shaped flock against a pale blue sky; below, against some grey-white cloud a grey/brown/white young sea eagle flies across the photo towards the left of the frame.
Eagle rising up in flight off a dead branch - looking off to the right and like it’s in a hurry!
Where? Where? Wedgie! trip to survey for Tasmania's raptors (& 3 cockatoo species) among work colleagues in 2022. Four people point fingers & binoculars to the distant left of the photo, standing on a grassy roadside near a car surrounded by fields. Photo: Clare Lond-Caulk
Evening light on a lagoon in northeastern lutruwita/Tasmania – with reeds in the foreground, clear water in the mid-ground and misty pasture and trees further in the distance.
A histogram listing the 12 countries with the most threatened species world wide in 2025, according to the IUCN. Madagascar has 4074; Indonesia 2839; Ecuador 2815; Brazil 2790; Mexico 2632; Malaysia 2379; USA 2165; Philippines 1957; Australia 1952; Colombia 1946; China 1763; 1752.
A small raft is being punted by someone dressed as a squire; on the raft is a life size model of a horse, entirely covered in red and white squared cloth, and ridden by an armoured knight. They on a calm river and floating past some promising looking bittern habitat (reeds) Photo: Jim Whitehead
Flying far eastern curlew against a plain pale grey sky.
Far eastern curlew on low wetland vegetation in Tasmania, showing off its immensely long, slightly downward curved bill.
Small, green wildlife acoustic recorder set up at Moulting Lagoon, Tasmania, to record ultrasonic and audible sounds made by wildlife: recorder on stake in foreground; dunes, sand and sea in background
Picture of a Tasmanian velvet worms Ooperipatellus decorata, recorded from Balfour by Simon Grove on iNaturalist. It is very regularly patterned in diamonds & stripes of grey-blue, olive green and cream.
A small far-off raptor hangs stationary above sea, bushes and a street light in a cloudless pastel post-sunset sky
An Australian white ibis drinks from a very shallow puddle on a tarmac road at the Brisbane Roma Street bus station - to do so, it bends down and lays its bill sideways, flat against the road.
‘#ICCB2025 I'm presenting at the International Congress for Conservation Biology 2025 Meeanjin Brisbane, Australia | 15 - 19 June’ (in front of the beautiful blue/green Aboriginal graphic design for ICCB2025 with places and lines, fish & turtles)
First leg: Clare grinning for a selfie in front of the Hobart to Launceston bus
Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagles coming close together in flight against a blue-grey sky
Silhouette of Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle perched on a thin horizontal branch off the top of a dead tree, against a grey sky
An especially dark Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle takes off from a thin dead branch, against an out of focus blue hillside
đŸ“· Kat Stuart - taken during Where? Where? Wedgie! surveys. Three people stand near the edge of a broad river, backs to the photographer, pointing and looking at the sky.
A map of some of the Tasmania-wide 4 km x 4 km survey squares – designed to get an annual snapshot of eagle abundance across the state.
A warmly dressed women in the right foreground of the photo points her binoculars over a wide landscape of river, fields and far-off mountains under a blue sky filled with white, puffy clouds. Taken during Where? Where? Wedgie! 2020
Soaring Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle, primary feathers and wedge tail sharply silhouetted against a pewter sky, photographed during a Where? Where? Wedgie! 2024 survey by Keith Martin-Smith
A person strolls along a path surrounded by sea containing - as they move further along - decreasing numbers of fish; there's a sign out to sea saying 'Normal'. https://fritsahlefeldt.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/slg0066-shifting-baseline-syndrome-frits-ahlefeldt.jpg
A 3 cm Ooperipatellus species, with a mosaic of grey/brown diamond patterning on its back, over brown & pale grey, very gradually, alternately moving its legs down a piece of wood. Found by Bruno Bell on our Tas Field Nats yesterday.
Small green acoustic recorder set up on a light, portable pole, with forest and a creek surrounded by wetland (leading into Tooms Lake) behind.
Australasian bittern hiding among reeds, eyeing the photographer dubiously and standing upright with bill pointing upwards to blend in. It's hard to make out through the reeds, but it's the size and shape of a stocky heron, with streaky cream and brown breast and long, solid bill. They're rarely seen - much easier to detect by the male's booming calls.
A plaster sculpture of a man leaning against a wall, wearing a dark coloured hat & a red top, beside a dark animal. In shade under a little roof. Above on the same wall is a sign ‘Kulgera Hotel; the 1st & Last Pub in the NT’ There is some grass beside them and a cactus.
Magpie lark beside binoculars on shaded wooden café table, outdoors surrounded by small trees in very bright sunlight.
Greyhound bus with a trailer full of mail, with low scrub & sunset behind
Bureau of Meterology forecast - max 43°C today
2 Australian ringneck parrots can be spotted high in a tree, in the bed of the dry, sandy Todd River, with more trees in the background.
Video of waves lapping around a mangrove & a few rocks on a little Darwin beach.
Video of the view through the bus window about an hour south of Darwin: open, grassy woodland comprising small trees with bright green leaves, in front of a small wooded hill.
Front of a red Greyhound bus with door open to receive passengers, destination Alice Springs, at the Darwin bus stop.
A dark green bioacoustic recorder is in the foreground, cable tied to a slim pole. Behind is wetland vegetation and a creek leading into a lake, and forest rising up a slope all round the right hand side of the lake and towards the viewer
An echidna ambles slowly towards the camera on a rocky track, then digs, mainly with its beak, for ants. It has a very rolling gait.
Two Tasmanian native hen parents stalk around tussocks & short grass beside a house, keeping watch over 4 small fluffy black chicks. The adults are greyish brown, about the size of a smallish chicken but with somewhat longer legs. This species is endemic to Tasmania. You can hear their loud, grating ‘looking out for our chicks’ call near the end of the video in the first post of this thread.
4 fluffy chicks in cream, grey and black respectively, potter about an enclosure & drink out of a shallow water bowl alongside their golden & dark brown speckled bantam mother. You could easily fit at least 2 in your hand - they’re only a few days old
Slime moulds - A row of tiny fluffy bright yellow balls along the surface of a licheny stick. They look as though they've each gently exploded, to reveal fine fibrous innards.
Metallic shield bug Scutiphora pedicellata - a metallic shiny green and black bug, with two large orange spots at the top of its abdomen and an orange lining around its wing cases. Oval shaped with a point at the tail end.
Central North burrowing crayfish (Engaeus granulatus) on leaf litter beside its dark muddy burrow in a wet forest remnant in northern Tasmania. Not a common sight; we had temporarily captured this one under permit for schools education. Burrows of this typically 10 cm long, brown crayfish can be over a metre deep, reaching down to the water table, and that’s where they spend most of their time. Close examination of its substantial larger front claw reveals a granular surface explaining the species’ scientific name ‘granulatus’. Current records, if all smooshed into one area, would cover less than one square kilometre.
We're up to 83 squares booked for the requisite 2+ days of surveying - image shows a screenshot of the tally on the naturetrackers.au website
Picture of a mechanical counter in someone's left hand, counting '1' in a sunny Tasmanian bush background. These counters are a fabulous, enduring design but sadly don't record times, let alone downloadable ones.
A Wildlife Acoustics Songmeter recorder (which detects both audible bittern booms & ultrasonic bat chirps) placed in thick wet, ferny forest in NW Tasmania
Australasian bittern in flight. A streaky brown and cream with dark legs out behind, the shape of a stocky heron with a big, solid bill. It's in front of a blue-greyish background above its classic pale brown rushy wetland habitat. It's been suggested that there may be fewer than 100 left in Tasmania, after the Millennium Drought. However, prior to the CallTrackers project, up to date info has been very limited. Volunteers have been finding them in a variety of spots around the state...
Picture of three eagles against the sky, at descending heights from right to left, combined with graphs modelling eagle detectability against certain environmental parameters - to convey the significant mathematical component of the project in combination with the inspiring nature of the biological subject. Words: PhD opportunity - Estimating Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle population abundance & trend.