It was normal for kids to go off and play all day when Dignams Creek resident, Maggie Clowes, was a child in England. She was busy identifying the insects, butterflies and birds listed in her little I Spy books. Maggie’s lifelong fascination with observing nature persisted when she moved to Australia.

‘You’ve got these wonderfully colourful birds just flying around everywhere! My husband was very patient on our winter camping trips when I wanted to stop and look at birds.’ Maggie soon became a member of Bird Life, the not-for-profit organisation that advocates for native birds and the conservation of habitat. Members receive a monthly magazine, and it was in one of these issues that Maggie read about a course at Charles Sturt Uni and soon enrolled. ‘I thought I’d breeze through it because it’s my passion, but it was really very difficult. It opened up opportunities for me.’

Maggie ended up with some paid work, including on Barunguba/Montague Island. ‘My professor’s wife was doing a thesis on parasites in colony-nesting birds. She was heavily pregnant and Parks preferred her not to go onto the island in case something happened, so I gathered her data. My work focused on seagulls, the smartest birds. My job was to get samples of their nesting material to see if there were any parasites. Because seagulls are quite aggressive towards each other, they don’t nest in close colonies, so I didn’t find any parasites. I was working there over the course of a month, marking eggs, catching chicks, taking blood and checking feather growth.’

Later, Maggie became involved with Birds Queensland. ‘About four years ago, they were looking for expressions of interest for joining a group going to a National Park, close to Winton. I thought I would love to do that but didn’t have much of a chance as I was from NSW. I got on the list with about fifteen others. Due to an arrangement with Parks, we had the campsite to ourselves and had a fabulous time with a great group of people from all walks of life. I’ve gone every year since. Some of the places we go are very remote. You have to take everything with you for the fortnight with no phone or internet, but the range and depth of knowledge makes it really interesting.’

The grey falcon was Maggie’s nemesis bird. ‘I’d been looking for that bird since 1974 and I didn’t see it till last year! I almost decided it didn’t exist. It’s one of Australia’s rarest birds and I saw it in the Diamantina [far west Queensland]. I was over the moon for the twenty minutes we were watching – also because it was a pair of them, and they had an immature juvenile with them. We were not allowed to publish any photos due to concerns about poaching.’

Closer to home, Maggie has seen nearly 130 species of birds in Diggies with about forty different species visiting her place every month. ‘I don’t get the numbers I used to. The fire that came through here was very hot and many birds would have perished, along with their juveniles at that time of year. I haven’t seen New Holland honeyeaters since the fires, when I used to see twenty in the bird bath.’

The decline is also to do with the reduction in habitat. ‘Birds that live on the edge of woodlands do much better, like magpies. I haven’t heard boobook owls for a while. A barn owl flew into a neighbour’s car, and he arrived on my doorstep with it. The lyrebirds are wonderful, but did you know that bowerbirds are also mimics? I once thought I heard a brown falcon, but in the camellia bush there was a bowerbird mimicking one. Sometimes we see black-shouldered kites. The predators are very important – the little eagles, sparrowhawks and wedge tailed eagles. If you’ve got raptors over your property, you’ve got a healthier environment.’

Maggie is pretty practical when it comes to supporting the wildlife. ‘You can’t save the world, but you can look after your patch. Plant grevilleas and banksias, things that attract honeyeaters and bees. Keep water around. If you see a tree is used for nesting, don’t cut it down. Particularly preserve nesting hollow trees. There is a real competition for nesting hollows and not just among birds but possums, sugar gliders and others will kick birds out. Birds are important because they have been so well studied and written about, so they become a benchmark for what’s happening in the environment. Experiment with the apps that help you identify birds and learn their calls.’

While Maggie doesn’t have a favourite bird or bird call, when someone calls her, it’s the unmistakable sound of a magpie that her phone sings out. ‘I forget to turn it off sometimes and people think there’s a magpie in the room. At a friend’s house in Bermagui my phone went off and she and the dogs ran around looking for a magpie. I laughed and told them it’s my phone!’