Week 4 – Exploring Albany and Denmark

With school holidays on, there haven’t really been opportunities for me to visit schools with A Shorebird Flying Adventure. So once I finished all the events I had lined up, I decided to make the most of having a bit of a holiday myself and explore Albany and surrounds!

Last Friday, I flew from Narrikup over to Denmark to catch up with Brad and Jill Kneebone from the Denmark Bird Group. Just before I took off, I caught up with Elyce from GWN7 News in Albany who did a story on Wing Threads.

Elyce snapped some beautiful photos of me with the trike at sunrise and got some great footage of me taking off from Narrikup. You can watch the full news story online here.

I also managed to get myself into the local paper, The Albany Advertiser! Here’s a link to the article (I think it’s behind a pay wall…). Many thanks to Kasey Gratton for her fabulous writing 😊

I must also thank my wonderful dream team of media peeps from BirdLife Australia and Remember the Wild helping me out behind the scenes with media releases – Sam Winniki, Alex Croft, Cathy Cavallo and Sara McMillan.

You are all amazing and I appreciate all of your support so much! 🤗

But back to my visit to Denmark!

In exciting news, the Denmark Bird Group have been instrumental in the recent approval of Prawn Rock Channel as a shorebird sanctuary in the Wilson Inlet.

Wilson Inlet supports over 20 species of shorebirds including resident species that nest in the Channel – Red-capped Plover, Pied Oystercatcher and Fairy Tern.

The northern end of Prawn Rock Channel will now be a dog-free zone. Dogs off leash are a major disturbance for shorebirds in Australia, which need to roost and eat in peace to conserve their energy for their massive migratory flights.

I wanted to capture the story on film and took Brad for a fly over Wilson Inlet and Prawn Rock Channel to document and celebrate their success. I also took Jill and Kirsty Anderson from the group for a fly as well.

This outcome is the result of over 10 years of data collection and a 7 year approval process. I am so inspired by people like Brad and the Denmark Bird Group whose passion and dedication to shorebirds translates into real actions on the ground. Thank you Denmark Bird Group!

Remember the Wild will be putting together a short film to share their story. Stay tuned! In the meantime, here’s a few pics from the flight.

After my stay in Denmark, I visited the Stirling Range National Park and did the hike up Bluff Knoll. All the reviews are true – it was amazing! I was fortunate to do the trek on a clear, sunny day and although it was cold, the freezing breeze at the top was welcome after hiking up 3.2 kilometres of stairs!

I was treated to beautiful scenic views all around. I highly recommend doing the walk, even though I could barely walk the next day because my calves hurt 😅

Here’s a few pics of the trek 🏔

Despite my sore calves, I headed back to Denmark on Monday to do a radio interview on Denmark 99.7FM on the breakfast show with Sue Howard. How could I say no to doing an interview with a radio station that has a Fairy Wren wearing headphones as their logo??? 🥰

You can listen to the interview online on their website here. Click on Monday 4th July and the interview with me starts at 21.40! 🤩 (Link no longer active)

After my radio interview, it was over to the Denmark Library to do a book reading of A Shorebird Flying Adventure as part of the school holiday program.

About 10 kids showed up with their families and it was such a hoot! I am enjoying the school visits very much. Especially when I see the kids engage with the story and illustrations. They are so switched on!

Many thanks to Jemma at Denmark Library for organising the event with such short notice!

That’s about it from me for now. I’ll leave you with a special moment I had earlier in the week where I found my book in a real book shop for the first time! Here’s a pic of me with the book at the Paperbark Bookshop in town (awesome book shop btw).

Oh what a feeling! 😄😄😄

Milly Formby
Author
Milly Formby is a zoologist, pilot, and illustrator of the children’s book, A Shorebird Flying Adventure She is currently flying her microlight around Australia in 2022/23 to share,A Shorebird Flying Adventure with primary students.
Image credits:
Book cover for A Shorebird Flying Adventure

A Shorebird Flying Adventure

Available Now

Join Milly on her microlight and discover how amazing and awesome migratory shorebirds are!

Milly Formby is a zoologist and illustrator of the children’s book A Shorebird Flying Adventure. Available now through CSIRO Publishing.

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