It’s National Bird Week: a lovely reminder to connect with, and learn more about, the wonderful feathered friends who frequent your backyard, balcony or window ledge.

To celebrate, we’ve teamed up with the fine folks at Remember The Wild (Australia's first-ever nature connection charity) to live stream some native birds in their natural habitats. We’ll be streaming from around 8am to 8pm every day until the weekend, so you can check back at different hours and see what our avian mates are up to.

Chris McCormack, co-founder and managing director of Remember The Wild, has kindly set up four cameras across his lovely central Victorian property, perching them beside nests for optimal hatchling-spotting. Word has it that crested pigeons, dusky woodswallows, willy wagtails and brown treecreepers will all make an appearance, and you can learn a bit more about each of them over here.

If you’ve already picked up your 2021 frankie diary, we reckon it's a great time to pull out those bird-watching tips. Otherwise, get prepped with some of Chris’s excellent tips on connecting with nature:

HEAR NATURE – Sometimes you might catch yourself nodding along to what somebody is saying without truly listening. For many of us, such a scenario might accurately describe how we hear the natural world. We tune into its occasional pleasantries or moments of drama – a bird singing here, a crack of thunder there – but for the most part it fades into the background noise of our day-to-day. Give yourself time to really hear nature. Close your eyes and peel back the layers of sound in your environment. Understanding starts with listening.

TOUCH NATURE – The human hand evolved to explore and interact with the environment, but if you’re like me, it’s just the tips of your index fingers and thumbs that do all the interacting (and it usually involves pressing or swiping). You can go days – perhaps weeks – travelling to and from work without ever placing your feet on the earth. If we want to be in touch with nature, we best begin with the fundamentals. Investigate the textures of different leaves and fill your palms with dirt in the garden. Feel grass, soil, and sand against the soles of your feet.

WATCH NATURE (EVEN IF IT'S THROUGH A SCREEN) – If you can, spend time observing nature. Watch wildlife. Observe plants and the role they play for other living things. Enjoy the sun setting and allow your eyes to adjust to the darkness. Such experiences made up the bulk of human life for tens of thousands of years, so revel in them knowing there is no aim and no purpose that needs to guide your actions – the experiences are their own reward. Further, engage with nature through the screen if you need to. Screens may have their problems, but digital nature is better than no nature. Doing so will engage you with the natural world, and it might even make you feel good.  

Birdwatch with frankie, presented with Remember the Wild
WHEN: From around 8am – 8pm, October 20th – 23rd
LIVE STREAMS BELOW:
 frankie’s 2021 diary doubles as a handy bird-watching journal. Illustrated by Australian artist Cass Urquhart, it’s full of beautiful native bird drawings, with space to take notes and sketch as you learn to bird-spot in your local neighbourhood. Nab one from our online store or find your nearest stockist.