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www.katherinetimes.com.au KATHERINE TIMES, WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 13, 2013 7
With its head, back andwings a deep blue and itsbelly white, the Forest King-fisher is easy to spot and canbe seen during the day perch-ing on tree branches and logsor even on power lines intown.
It catches its dinner eitherin the air, in shallow water orby pouncing from its perch
onto the ground often landingwith a thud caused by itsbreast and legs hitting the dirt.
The Forest Kingfisher is adaytime hunter and uses sharpeyesight to hunt many differ-ent small animals.
It will scoop up anythingfrom bugs and grasshoppersto small frogs and lizards.
It returns quickly to itsperch and will often kill itsprey by hitting it against abranch after catching it.
This also knocks off partsof the prey which the birdcannot eat, such as the wingsof insects.
In Australia, Forest King-fishers breed between Octo-ber and January and have aninteresting nest building tech-nique.
Pairs of birds will buildtheir nests in termite moundsfound in tree hollows manymetres above the ground.
The birds take turns to flystraight at the nest site from acouple of metres away with
their bills pointed forwardlike bullets.
Each time they hit the ter-mite mound they chip away ata little bit of the mud.
The parent birds keep thisup until they have a hole eightto ten centimetres wide thatleads down into a short slop-ing tunnel.
The short slope on the tun-nel is important as it helps thebaby birds eject their drop-pings, but their houseworktechnique is not perfect andthe nest can become quitedirty by the time the littlebirds are fledged.
Even though the ForestKingfisher is very common,the clearing of its forest homein some places has affectedthis beautiful little bird.
No trees means no treehollow termite mounds to nestin.
Luckily our National Parksand Reserves provide safenesting sites for these andmany other birds and animals.
Connect to Country - with Ranger ClareDo you want to know more about flora, fauna and parks in the Katherine region?
‘Like’ Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife on facebook.
Coconut and raspberry cake
Ingredients:Cake170g almond meal220g raw caster sugar90g desiccated coconut4 large eggs 2 tsp vanilla extract200g margarine, meltedand cooled60g fresh or frozen rasp-berriesChocolate ganache2 ripe avocados70g cold-pressed virgincoconut oil100g dark cocoa powder120ml agave syrup 1 tsp vanilla extractTo serve1 1/2 tbsp cocoa (cacao)nibs
2 handfuls shaved co-conut Fresh raspberries Method: 1. Preheat the oven to180 C. Lightly grease a 24-cen-timetre springform orloose-bottomed cake tinand line with bakingpaper.2. In a large bowl, mix thealmond meal, sugar andcoconut together.3. In a medium bowl,whisk the eggs and vanillaextract until combined.Slowly whisk in themelted spread or butter.4. Add the egg mixture tothe almond mixture, stir-
ring until smooth.5. Pour the batter into theprepared tin, then dot thetop with the raspberries.6. Bake for 45 to 50 min-utes, or until the cake isgolden and the topsprings back when youpress it lightly.Allow to cool completelyin the tin before icing.For the ganache, blitz allingredients until smoothand glossy.Smother the cooled cakewith the ganache, top withtoasted cocoa nibs andcoconut shavings. Serve with fresh raspber-ries.
DAN Brown’s Inferno is anaction packed thriller, fastpaced, like all of Brown’sother books.
Even though Brown has apatterned formula for writinghis thrillers; I quite like read-ing them.
Because the main charac-ter is always pressured tosolve the crime (and theworld) in only a few daystime, I tend to read it at thatpace.
At the end of each chap-ter, I feel like I have to read
one more because of the in-tensity of the writing.
I actually do understandthe term “can’t put down”when it comes to DanBrown’s books.
In Inferno, Dan Brown’sfourth book with lead charac-ter Robert Langdon, the Har-vard professor once againfinds himself in the most un-believable circumstances.
He wakes up in a hospitalwith amnesia.
He is saved by a doctorfrom an assassin, and thenthe adventure and the puz-zle-solving begins - as do thetouristy and historically in-
formative sets of discussionsbetween the two characters,as they travel across Italyand Europe.
The puzzles are centeredaround the theory and ac-tions of Bertrand Zobrist, atortured genius geneticist.
Zobrist believes that theEarth is nearing doomsdaypopulation, when the re-sources will finally run outand people will begin to be-have like the plagued andmad masses from Dante’sversion of hell in ‘Inferno’ .
With references to thiswell-known and incredibly vi-sual text, Brown then ties the
narrative of his own Inferno,referring to the original on atleast every other page.
I really enjoy readingBrowns books, and it is obvi-ous he researches his sub-ject matter thoroughly, andthus the reader learns quitea bit about whatever the sub-ject is - Zobrists, Opus Dei, Il-luminati or Priory of Sion.
Even though Dan Browncan get slightly repetitive inhis writing style, I always lookforward to his next book.
> Dan Brown, InfernoAvailable at Top News
Katherine
HHaavvee yyoouu rreeaadd ......
> By CLARE PEARCE
> PAM TUPPER
On Sunday I hit my 200th day on this challengewhich was very exciting.
This week I would like to discuss the fat andsugar content in food.
I was introduced to sugar free chocolate in theHealth Section of the supermarket last week, andthought that it might be ok to eat.
By what I could see in the nutrition guide on theback of the wrapper it all looked ok.
However, my husband showed me a hidden pieceof information on the wrapper where it stated thatthe chocolate was actually 38 per cent fat, which ofcourse is a ‘no go’ on this challenge.
I would like to encourage everyone to check thecontent of their processed foods very carefully be-fore believing that they are ok to eat.
If it’s packaged or processed, it usually means itis unhealthy.
One other tip I have about eating healthy is this.I have always been partial to eating ‘comfort food’when I’m tired, stressed or feeling a bit down.
During this challenge I have had to be very care-ful to have something in the cupboard for these timesthat is healthy.
If you are like me and occasionally need some
365 Days without junk food - by Debbie Unwin
Week 30
On April 25 Katherine mother-of-two Debbie Unwin embarked on a ‘365 Day No Junk-foodChallenge’ to raise money for Carers Australia and to raise awareness about Healthy living.
For the next year Debbie will be publishing a diary of her efforts and the success of her proj-ect in the Katherine Times. To support Debbie send an email to [email protected]
or visit her website online at http://365daynojunk.com.
comfort food, maybe keep some dried fruit in thecupboard, because that is the healthiest form of ‘lol-lies’ you can get.
It works for me.A delicious source of protein, sure to become any
family’s favourite is homemade chicken pizza.Ingredients:2 chicken breasts ½ teaspoon garlic powder ¼ teaspoon paprika ¼ teaspoon white pepper 2 teaspoons olive oil 1 cup passata ½ cup carrot puree 2 pieces Lebanese bread 2 cups mozzarella Preheat the oven to 230°C. Sprinkle the chicken
with the garlic powder, paprika and pepper. Heat the oil and brown the chicken until cooked
through. Once cooked, allow the chicken to cool slightly
before thinly slicing. Mix the passata sauce and carrot puree until com-
bined. Place the bread on a baking tray lined with grease-
proof paper and spread the sauce evenly over thebread.
Top with the chicken and sprinkle with the cheese. Bake until the cheese is lightly browned.
