A kingfisher swallowed a cane toad near Kakadu | A woman in south-east QLD

saw rainbow lorikeets fall from the sky | A flock of brolga fished for frogs in an algal

bloom | Outside Cairns, a bush-stone curlew bounced off the bonnet of a speeding

ute | Near Broome, a grey nomad pulled a blue-faced finch from the radiator of his

4WD | A satin bowerbird choked on a plastic bottle cap | A wandering albatross

regurgitated a squid jig | A woman in Parkes discovered a pile of dead galahs

Two red balloons were extracted from the swollen belly of a grey-headed

albatross | A marine biologist found a barn owl, face in the sand,

next to a half-eaten rat | Not far from Adelaide, an Australian

gannet drowned in a fishing net | A magpie strutted back

and forth on the bitumen beside his flattened mate

Flocks of bar-tailed godwit landed in a car

park that used to be an estuary | The

gang-gang cockatoo, emblem of

the ACT, did not return after

the bushfires | A boy

in Wollongong

wrote to Bun-

nings “We

found a

dead

sooty

owl in

our

back-

yard

which

has

been

killed

by

your

stupid

rat

poison”

Bun

nin

gs

d

i

 d

n

o

t

 r

e

p

l

y

Author note:

This poem is composed from information found in Australian newspaper articles and research papers.

It was inspired by a Sydney Morning Herald article titled ‘Off-the-shelf rat poisons killing owls too – and Bunnings asked to act.’

In the article, journalist Miki Perkins, cites BirdLife Australia-commissioned research that found 97% of dead powerful owls in the Sydney region (n=38) had second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides in their livers and 60% had levels high enough to cause impairment.

These poisons have been restricted from general sale in the US, Canada and the European Union but can be bought in supermarkets and hardware stores across Australia.

According to BirdLife Australia, there are about 25 rat poisons available at Bunnings stores, and all but two are second-generation anticoagulant poisons.

Overland’s Friday Features project is supported by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.