Spring is a great time of year for noticing neighbourhood birds. Here are some simple ideas for helping the birds in Australian back yards, cities and towns * Change by degrees offers life hacks and sustainable living tips each Saturday to help reduce your household’s carbon footprint * Got a question or tip for reducing household emissions? Email us at [email protected] About 30% of Australian threatened species can be found in cities and towns, right in front of many of us. Dr Kylie Soanes, an urban ecologist at the University of Melbourne, says while Australians often think of the urban environment as the “opposite to nature”, it is really not true. That is especially the case with birds. Guardian Australia’s bird of the year poll is a chance to celebrate the birds we love and admire. There are lots of ways to support the birds living in our back yards, in street trees and local parks. Here are five. Continue reading...

Archaeologists say ‘catastrophic military event’ took place at site where 129 bodies have been found so far As construction crews churned up dirt to renovate a football pitch in Vienna last October, they happened upon an unprecedented find: a heap of intertwined skeletal remains in a mass grave dating to the first-century Roman empire, most likely the bodies of warriors killed in a battle involving Germanic tribes. This week, after archaeological analysis, experts at the Vienna Museum gave a first public presentation of the grave – linked to “a catastrophic event in a military context” and evidence of the first known fighting in that region. Continue reading...