Underwater musical experience
If you were at a particular public pool in Melbourne this week you may have seen an unusual sight. Saturate, is an underwater musical experience staged as part of the city's Rising festival. It involved around 60 people together in a public pool listening to the music, underwater. Saturate is the brainchild of sound artist Sara Retallick, who joins Jesse from Melbourne.
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RNZ News
18 hours ago
- RNZ News
Australian country music star Brad Cox is here!
Brad Cox is an Australian country music phenomenon. Most recently he performed to almost 6 million viewers at the State of Origin rugby league finals But not content to just ride the wave of the genre's resurgence in popularity, he's also been pushing the genre in new directions. Ahead of his upcoming fourth album and NZ tour Brad chatted to Jesse. Tags: To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.

RNZ News
3 days ago
- RNZ News
Threatened microbat living in urban Illawarra, Australia stuns scientists
By Brooke Chandler , ABC Scientists believe there are only about 10,000 Southern Myotis left in Australia. Photo: Supplied: DCCEEW A bat about the size of a 20-cent coin has been found for the first time living in urban areas of the Illawarra's low-lying grassy woodlands. The discovery of Southern Myotis by researchers from the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) confirms Wollongong as the threatened species' most southern home in NSW. Weighing up to 40 grams, microbats are tiny flying mammals known to favour the variety of vegetation and protection offered by heavily wooded areas. But senior threatened species officer Beth Mott said microbats suffered from habitat loss due to urban sprawl. "This woodland [the Illawarra Escarpment] is certainly not in the same footprint that it used to exist in," she said. Eight Southern Myotis were captured during a first-of-its-kind harp trap survey in the Illawarra. Photo: Supplied: DCCEEW "We've lost about 80 percent of the woodland and there's about 20 percent of it left and it stretches from Corrimal all the way down to Bawley Point. "So this is super exciting." Mott estimated there were 10,000 Southern Myotis living in Australia. The breed of microbat is recognised by its disproportionately large hairy feet. Beth Mott (left), with Holly Parsons, says she is often cold and wet but full of excitement when conducting night-time microbat surveys. Photo: ABC Illawarra: Sean O'Brien Mott and her team captured eight of the animals during first-of-their-kind night surveys using harp traps near Yallah and South Nowra between February and May. Mott said she was shocked to find the animals foraging, in some cases, within 100 metres of housing estates rather than relocating away from new developments. "We would have expected in some ways that some of our vulnerable species of microbats do hang on in the area," she said. "But to see them moving into the urban spaces is something really special." The Illawarra Escarpment, which frames Wollongong, is a popular home for many animals and plant species. Photo: ABC Illawarra: Justin Huntsdale Microbats typically seek shelter in caves and hollowed-out trees, according to Mott, but she said road culverts were becoming the species' next best option. "If we start to lose things like large hollowed-out trees, we [could] lose our bat fauna," she said. Although bats are often referred to as noisy, messy creatures who emerge during twilight hours, Mott said they played an important role in the broader ecosystem and needed protection. "They allow us to have a better time, like not getting eaten by mozzies when you're out at the barbie," she said. "They're eating a vast amount of insects every night - sometimes as much as half their own body per night." The discovery of Southern Myotis in urban Wollongong was made during a first-of-its-kind harp trap survey. Photo: Supplied: DCCEEW More than 350 of the mosquito-munching animals were caught during Mott's harp trap surveys. The technique uses two or more rows of fishing line, stretched across a frame, with a cotton collection bag. "We generally check the [traps] every two hours, all throughout the night, measure the bats and then let them go straight away so they can get back home," Mott said. "We're actually still doing acoustic detection work at the moment so we should be able to add to our understanding of microbats very soon." Eleven different species were found during the survey, including long-eared bats. Photo: Supplied: DCCEEW Mott said the survey results would be used to make urban spaces a more suitable home for microbats and other small creatures. "So making sure we restore water courses to make sure that they're healthy and be careful that we use less impactful lights at night," she said. "Planting trees that have really flaky bark can be fantastic because that will allow lots of roosting bats to find a place to sleep." The Department of Climate Change will soon partner with the community, including Keira High School, to install nest boxes, plant roost trees and conserve tree hollows. - ABC

RNZ News
4 days ago
- RNZ News
How to take beautiful wildlife photos with your smartphone: a beginner's guide
By Peter de Kruijjff, ABC enviroment reporter Bird photography takes patience but can be done with a smartphone if you have a tripod and remote camera trigger. Photo: ABC Science/ Peter de Kruijff Lying belly down on the grass, I saw my quarry cruising along the bank of Perth's Swan River. It's a pelican paddling towards my position. I'm a few metres back from the river's edge where I've set up a tripod low on a small sandy shore. With the click of button on a remote trigger, I take a snap with my smartphone. If you want to start getting into nature photography, there's a lot you can do with your phone before you consider getting a dedicated camera. I've teamed up with photographers to see how to get the best out of a smartphone to take wildlife images, use macro functions to snap tiny creatures, and catch birds in action with minimal impact on them or their habitat. One of the easiest ways to get into nature photography, and that doesn't require the most spectacular image quality, is to shoot for citizen science projects. Sites such as iNaturalist allow users to upload their snaps online, where a community of experts and other amateurs can help identify what you've captured on camera. This way, you can take photos and learn about different species at the same time. Uploading location data can also help scientists better understand the range limits of a species or even changes in its population over time. But you do need to be careful about what you share on open sites and not swamping single locations where a species has been recently sighted (more on this below). Jumping spiders are fairly easy subjects to engage for macro photography as they will turn their body towards movement. Photo: ABC Science/ Jacinta Bowler To get started, you can use the stock camera app that comes with your phone. From a technical perspective, phone cameras tend to have small sensors, which means they need a lot of light to take sharper images. That means while shooting during the day is generally fine, you'll need additional light to shoot at night, according to James Dorey, a evolutionary biologist and photographer at the University of Wollongong. "You'll probably need to have a torch or have a friend with another phone that can light your subject from the side." Check whether your phone has an optical or digital zoom function too. Optical zoom is when your camera lens actually adjusts to magnify your subject whereas digital zoom often crops an image, making the quality no sharper than if you didn't zoom in. Dr Dorey also recommends taking multiple shots from different angles if you are shooting something for identification purposes. This means scientists can get a good look at colours, patterns and other key features of an animal. "Bees, for example, it's often really important to get a good photo of the wings and the veins on the wings," Dr Dorey says. By targeting flowering plants you will likely come across pollinators such as bees. Photo: ABC Science/ Peter de Kruijff If you're looking to get a little fancier with your nature phone photography, the next step might be macro. Macro photography is where tiny subjects look life-sized. Dr Dorey, who is also an award-winning macro photographer, usually uses a digital camera but says phones are improving in capability. "A lot of phones have multiple lenses now and are actually pretty good at getting macro," he says. Invertebrates, such as a spider in your house or a bee in the garden, make great macro targets that you don't have to chase around too much. To get a good close-up, you simply need to switch to the macro mode and get your lens nice and close to the subject, about 2 to 5 centimetres away. If your subject is on the ground or close to a surface, you can spin your phone around so the top is balanced on the ground (so the lens is at the same level) for a steadier shot. Larger insects like dragonflies, with their compound eyes and intricate wing vein patterns, make good macro subjects for phones. Photo: ABC Science/ Peter de Kruijff Keep the subject in the centre of your frame for the best performance out of your lens. Whether it's bugs or larger species like lizards and frogs, try to get the lens at your subject's eye level for the most engaging portrait. Using macro mode often requires a lot of light. In dim conditions, it may be too difficult to take a photo just holding a phone in your hands. One way to get around this is to use a cheap tripod and a LED ring light. Ring lights stop you covering your subject in your shadow. Little red flying-foxes fly over the Ord River in Kununurra. Photo: ABC Science/ Peter de Kruijff A lot of nature photography is done with cameras using large telescopic lenses. While you can buy external magnifying lenses to attach to your smartphone, award-winning West Australian bird photographer Georgina Steytler says phone photography requires you work smarter. "The best tip to get bird photos is to sit down and let the birds come to you," she says. Your choice of location is, unsurprisingly, important. If you lie on a bank next to a lake or wetland, at some point a bird is probably going to swim or wade past. You can get closer to your subject by using a selfie stick (the extra cost is the self-awareness that people will think you're self-obsessed among the ducks). There are also selfie sticks that double as a tripod and come with a remote control for triggering photos via a Bluetooth connection to your phone. That means you can be even further away from the birds and hopefully get a closer shot. For the best shots, use the pro mode on your phone. In this mode you can pick a shutter speed that is at least 1/250 of a second, or 4 milliseconds, fast. This should get you a freeze frame of a subject that's not moving too much, but if the subject is a little blurry, you may need to go faster with your shutter speed. One good thing about phones is you can see on the screen whether the shot is too dark or light to take, and adjust your setting accordingly. The background of your photo is another element to consider, Steytler says. "Try to pick birds like a seagull on a bench or standing on a pole because you have a clear background." Steytler says standard photography tips such as shooting around sunrise and sunset also apply to phone shoots. Free editing apps can not only sharpen up images, but they can also combine shots to create dynamic images. To do this, Steyler recommends taking a photo with a black background first by underexposing it (this is where not enough light is captured so the image is dark). That image can then be combined with another shot taken at the same angle where you focus on getting a good exposure of the bird. Taking photos can be a nice way to immerse yourself in nature or learn something new, but how you go about it is just as important (so you're not derided like an influencer grabbing a wombat). Birdlife Australia has got a set of guidelines for birdwatching and photography. Edith Cowan University conservation biologist Rob Davis, who co-authored a study on biodiversity damage from social media, also has several tips for ethical photography, including: Dr Davis says it is generally illegal in Australia to handle native wildlife and flora without a permit. Besides that, you can inadvertently spread killer diseases. "If you handle frogs you can spread chytrid [an infectious amphibian disease] from animal to animal," Dr Davis says. Besides, many species react badly to human interference. Some bats will abandon roosting caves for good if disturbed by people. Dr Davis notes another example where photographers damaged the ground burrows of rainbow bee eaters at a suburban lake after people became aware of their seasonal arrival. "Think before you share," he says. "There's really rare stuff my wife and I have seen which we don't put on any platform. "That can be a good choice sometimes as sites do get trashed." -ABC