Cate Storey Author

17/06/2025

🌼 Wildflower Wednesday! 🌼
I’ve fallen behind on sharing wildflower photos, but thankfully my day job and my wildflower hobby often overlap!
I work with the wonderful local non-profit and social enterprise, Bulimba Creek Catchment Coordinating Committee (B4C). This Thursday, our Catchment Meeting features a special keynote from Harald Geppert, President of the Australian Native Orchid Society (ANOS)—which gave me the perfect excuse to revisit some of my favourite orchid photos.
Native ground orchids are important bioindicators. They rely on healthy soils and symbiotic fungi, making them hard to transplant. They also need light and space, which makes them vulnerable to w**d invasion. Some of my best orchid photos come from road verges, which sadly also puts them at risk.
Here are a few local beauties:
📸 Slender Hyacinth Orchid (Dipodium variegatum)
📸 Fairy Lantern Orchid (Corybas barbarae)
📸 White Fingers (Caladenia catenata)
📸 Australian Christmas Orchid (Calanthe australasica)
📸 A Greenhood species – possibly the Blunt Greenhood (Pterostylis curta)

🌼 Wildflower Wednesday! 🌼
I’ve fallen behind on sharing wildflower photos, but thankfully my day job and my wildflower hobby often overlap!
I work with the wonderful local non-profit and social enterprise, Bulimba Creek Catchment Coordinating Committee (B4C). This Thursday, our Catchment Meeting features a special keynote from Harald Geppert, President of the Australian Native Orchid Society (ANOS)—which gave me the perfect excuse to revisit some of my favourite orchid photos.

Native ground orchids are important bioindicators. They rely on healthy soils and symbiotic fungi, making them hard to transplant. They also need light and space, which makes them vulnerable to w**d invasion. Some of my best orchid photos come from road verges, which sadly also puts them at risk.
Here are a few local beauties:
📸 Slender Hyacinth Orchid (Dipodium variegatum)
📸 Fairy Lantern Orchid (Corybas barbarae)
📸 White Fingers (Caladenia catenata)
📸 Australian Christmas Orchid (Calanthe australasica)
📸 A Greenhood species – possibly the Blunt Greenhood (Pterostylis nutans)

28/03/2025

For flashback Friday we are getting a glimpse of the roughs and final illustrations for Snuggled Away by the beautiful and talented Matsuda Artist.
The Spotted-tailed quoll, also known as the tiger quoll, is the largest of Australia's quoll species. They inhabit diverse landscapes from rainforests and woodlands to coastal heaths, making homes in rocky outcrops and tree hollows.
• Spotted-tailed quolls are solitary with large home ranges, up to 4,500ha for males!
• Females are particularly territorial and breed once annually, typically giving birth to five young.
Their low population densities and extensive ranges heighten their vulnerability to habitat loss and fragmentation. Other threats include poisoning from 1080 baits or secondary poisoning from second-generation rodenticide.

14/03/2025

For Flashback Friday, we're getting a glimpse of the rough and final illustrations for Snuggled Away by the beautiful and talented Sarah Matsuda Artist. Sarah and I have been friends since childhood, and she knew I absolutely love frogs—their funny faces and interesting life cycles lead to lifelong wildlife obsessions. Needless to say, Sarah spent a considerable amount of time making these illustrations perfect.

In these illustrations, we have: an Eastern Sedge Frog (Litoria fallax), Desert/Red Tree Frog (Litoria rubella), Striped Marsh Frog (Limnodynastes peronii), Spotted Marsh Frog (Limnodynastes tasmaniensis), and Peron’s Tree Frog (Litoria peronii).

13/03/2025

For this week's Wildflower Wednesday, we're back at the stunning Girraween National Park. These photos, taken in September 2024, feature some of the park's vibrant wildflowers.

Girraween is a special place with impressive granite rocks and colorful wildflowers. I first fell in love with it as a teenager when my mum did her research master's here, studying how wildflowers react to fire. She would spend weeks either camping or staying in the ranger’s hut.

As a kid, I was all about frogs—something that hasn’t changed! I used to spend hours chasing Eastern Stony Creek frogs and Broad Palmed Rocketfrogs around the campgrounds and paths leading to the Junction track.

Now, as an adult, I understand why my mum was so drawn to these wildflowers. In the photo on the left, we have Coronidium boormanii; top right, Diuris Sp. possibly Diuris chrysantha (Granite Donkey Orchid); middle right, Stypandra glauca (Nodding Blue Lily); and bottom right, Kunzea obvata (Pink Kunzea). Each visit here shows me more of this beautiful place.

You can also see of Girraween’s wildflowers in "The Perfect Hollow: A Greater Glider Story," beautifully illustrated by the talented Matsuda Artist.

09/03/2025

Rainy day . . . This blog is my latest brain dump . . .

Quality habitat, teaching children about Australian habitats, Australia's Threatened Species, Children's Books Australian Wildlife, Children books Australian Animals, Endangered Animals

07/03/2025

Girraween National Park and adjoining Bald Rock National Park are among my favourite places. I love exploring the uniquely Australian landscape of the Granite Belt. The rugged granite outcrops have forged a mosaic of micro-ecosystems, populated by sculptural, twisted trees that have arisen from the often sparse and nutrient-deprived soil.

A lifetime seems too brief to uncover all the stories inspired by this distinctive environment. Glimpses of these unique landscapes can be found in the illustrations of The Perfect Hollow: A Greater Glider Story, thanks to our gifted illustrator, Sarah Matsuda Artist.

My family and I visited Girraween National Park while Sarah was illustrating The Perfect Hollow and I passed on photos of various hollow-bearing trees. We recently visited again and while we were walking the Junction Track—a must for any Australian wildflower enthusiast—my daughter excitedly exclaimed, "I recognise that tree, Mummy!"

Readers of The Perfect Hollow may also spot this character-filled tree. oxo

26/02/2025

We're overjoyed to announce that Sunny Finds His Song, written by Cate Storey and Penny Watson and beautifully illustrated by Sarah Matsuda Artist, has been honoured as a Notable Book in the Eve Pownall Award category of the 2025 Children's Book Council Awards🎉. To say we're thrilled would be an understatement! 🌟

Sunny is a lonely Regent Honeyeater. Yearning for others of his kind, he searches high and low but cannot find them. In the recent past, Sunny’s kin travelled in flocks and the blossom-filled woodlands echoed with their song 🎶. Now only fragments of woodland remain and the flocks of songbirds are gone 🌳. One day, Sunny hears a unique melody full of hope 🎵. Will Sunny find what he is looking for?

This tale of loss, longing, and the search for belonging—is inspired by the research of Dr. Ross Crates and his team from the Difficult Bird Research Group at ANU. This story beautifully captures the ecological struggles faced by the critically endangered regent honeyeater and the species' loss of song culture 🐦💔.

Book Links - The Centre for Children's Literature Australian Children's Laureate Foundation Wet Season Books The Children's Book Council of Australia

22/02/2025

Did you know? The Critically Endangered Regent Honeyeater has a unique song that older males teach to younger males. Unlike many other animals, these birds don’t learn their song from their fathers. Fathers are often quiet during the raising of young, and the key learning period doesn’t begin until the young males have left the nest area. This means that young Regent Honeyeaters must seek out another teacher.
However, with only about 300 Regent Honeyeaters left in the wild, finding a teacher has become increasingly difficult. Some young males, unable to learn their species-specific song, may adopt the song of another bird species, such as the spiny-cheeked honeyeater. Without their distinctive song, these Regent Honeyeaters struggle to attract a mate, defend their territory, or find others of their kind to travel with. Alarmingly, if they don’t learn their song by the time they’re a year old, they may never learn it at all.
To make matters worse, there are now more male Regent Honeyeaters than females left in the wild, and the loss of their song culture threatens the very survival of the species.
Our book, Sunny Finds His Song, Written by Cate Storey and Penny Watson and beautifully illustrated by Sarah Matsuda is now ready for distribution.
This story has been a three-year labour of love, and we couldn’t be prouder of the final outcome. We owe a special thanks to Dr Ross Crates for inspiring this story, and we sincerely hope we’ve done it justice.

22/02/2025

The highlight of last year’s book week was attending my own children’s Book Week parade. My beautiful daughter chose to dress up as Sunny the Regent Honeyeater from Sunny Finds His Song. Last year, she was a Greater Glider (of course). Proud mummy moment!

22/02/2025

Have you met our amazing illustrator Sarah Matsuda Artist 🎨?
Sarah Matsuda is a third-generation Australian artist. Sarah’s mother, Robyn Bauer, is a fine artist, and her father, Mark Andrews, sculpted the famous "Sheep" at Teneriffe riverfront, Brisbane 🐑. Her grandmothers, Joan Bauer and Pixie Joan Andrews, were both well-known Queensland artists.

Sarah’s artistic journey began early with a joint exhibition at just 13 years old alongside her mother, featuring Lino prints coloured with watercolour and animal sculptures in clay 🖌️. Her first solo show was in 2022, coinciding with the launch of “Snuggled Away,” a visually rich children’s book celebrating Australia’s nocturnal wildlife 🌙🦉.

As a member of the Royal Queensland Art Society, Sarah was a finalist in the Queensland Figurative Competition in 2022 🏅. She also illustrated the cover of the poetry book “Drama Queen” by Ginnie Bale 📚.

22/02/2025

A three-year labour of love, Sunny Finds His Song is finally ready to share with the world.
Inspired by research by Dr. Ross Crates from the Difficult Bird Research Group, Sunny Finds His Song is a stunningly illustrated children’s book written by Cate Storey and Penny Watson and illustrated by Sarah Matsuda.
Sunny is a lonely Regent Honeyeater. Yearning for others of his kind, he searches high and low but cannot find them. In the recent past, Sunny’s kin travelled in flocks and the blossom-filled woodlands echoed with their song. Now only fragments of woodland remain, and the songbirds are gone. One day, Sunny hears a unique melody full of hope. Will Sunny find what he is looking for? A lyrical story of loss and longing, finding your flock and maybe . . . even love.
We would like to acknowledge all the fabulous people we consulted during the creation of this story, including Dr. Ross Crates, Mick Roderick, Woodland Bird Program Manager at Birdlife Australia, Allison Beutel and Jordan Mountney from Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, Dr. Daniel Appleby, and Sara Petrovic for sharing their knowledge on the Regent Honeyeater, as well as Quentin Bel, Sue Brunskill, and Karen Retra for sharing their knowledge of Victorian wildflowers. We hope we have done this beautiful songbird’s story justice. A special thank you also to Mick Atzeni for recently taking me to see my first Regent Honeyeater in the wild and Deb Metters for cultivating our love of birds.
The Science Behind the Story: Male Regent Honeyeaters have a unique song that older male birds teach to younger male birds. Unlike some animal species, Regent Honeyeaters do not learn their song from their fathers. This is because Regent Honeyeater fathers keep relatively quiet while raising young to avoid attracting predators to their nest. But most importantly, it is only once young male birds have left their parents that they are ready to learn the unique Regent Honeyeater melody. However, finding an older male song tutor can be particularly hard if you are one of only 300 of your species remaining in the wild.
Young birds that fail to learn the full Regent Honeyeater song can struggle to find a mate, a flock, or defend territory. And if a Regent Honeyeater does not learn the song before they are one year old, they may never learn it. Scientists now know that many young Regent Honeyeaters are struggling to find mentors to teach them the unique Regent Honeyeater melody. As there are fewer birds to teach and learn the special Regent Honeyeater song, the species' song is also changing over time, with the song now much shorter and simpler than the song sung by the species in the past.
These birds are nomadic, always in search of the best gum blossoms. They are particularly associated with box-ironbark woodlands found west of the Great Dividing Range. They once flew in flocks, with their range extending as far south as Adelaide and as far north as Gladstone. As woodlands have been cleared, this once common bird has disappeared and is now critically endangered. Next time you are travelling, have a look out of your car window. Of course, fertile plains have now been cleared and replaced by farmland. But it was the very trees that grew on these fertile plains that produced the most reliable nectar supply. Older trees also provide a more predictable nectar source, and the amount of nectar they produce within a small space cannot be replaced by smaller and younger trees.

22/02/2025

The stunning Regent Honeyeater, with its vibrant gold and black feathers 🖤💛, was once a common sight in eastern Australia's woodlands. Historical accounts describe these birds traveling in noisy flocks of over 100. 🐦🐦

These birds journey far and wide to find the nectar they need, particularly from blooming gum trees 🌳. Box-ironbark woodlands, with their diverse flowering eucalypts, are crucial for their survival. As these habitats have disappeared, so have the Regent Honeyeaters.

By the 1980s, their numbers had dropped to around 1,500, and by 2022, only about 300 remained. Scientists fear these rare birds are at high risk of extinction ⚠️.

Australia has lost 70% of its temperate eucalypt woodlands, and those that remain are vastly changed. During the mid-1800s gold rush, box-ironbark woodlands were heavily cleared for mining ⛏️, building, and firewood 🔥. Large, mature trees, which flower more often and abundantly, are now rare.

Even after the gold rush, these woodlands continued to be cleared for firewood, agriculture, and housing 🏡. The most fertile areas were quickly cleared, leaving less fertile areas where eucalypt trees grow more slowly and provide less nectar.

📚. This beautiful illustration is by the talented and beautiful Matsuda Artist 🎨.