Alastair Wood
Known for its boom and bust ecological strategy, the Australian Banded Stilt breeds only when large desert salt lakes fill. This year’s rains brought 20,000 of these shorebirds to Lake Torrens in South Australia. Alastair Wood joined the research team monitoring this rare event.
Birds are good barometers for the health of any environment. Alastair Wood takes part in the annual bird survey at the Coorong, the vast lagoon at the mouth of Australia’s mighty Murray River, whose eco-system has for years been in critical condition.