He brought them long enough ago that the manufacturer’s label proudly marks them as a product of West Germany, and they have been used all across the country.
They most often get a workout at Gemmill Swamp in Mooroopna, where at 9am every day he goes for a walk and sees what birds he can spot.
In the past 30 years, Mr Roberts said, the number and types of birds he saw on his walk and over his back verandah, which overlooks the swamp, as well as around Rushworth, had dropped dramatically.
While his favourite bird, the red cat robin, is still plentiful in the swamp, he misses the grey-crowned babblers and superb parrots that used to fly around his backyard.
He has records for 213 birds around Rushworth and 215 at Gemmill Swamp.
“Some of those birds won’t be present in the next 50 years if the trend isn’t reversed,” Mr Roberts said.
Mr Roberts said climate change had been the main culprit, as well as less water in the Goulburn River system, meaning fewer floods.
“I use the word morbid, which might not be the best word to use, but I’m not happy about what’s happening,” he said.
“A lot of my long-term birdwatching friends would have the same opinion.
“I’ve run into younger ecologists out in the forest and they’ve said ‘I’ve had a good day today’ and they’ll list what they’ve seen and I say ‘we used to see 10 times that in our day’.“
He said he put birdbaths out in summer, but once the temperature hit 40°C or 41°C for more than a few days at a time birds, especially smaller ones, really struggled.
He said insects and other animals were also on the decline.
“Back in the day during a storm, you’d see hundreds and hundreds of frogs on the causeway when you drove across it. Now there’s nothing at all,” Mr Roberts said.
“We’ve tipped over already and we’re on the downward spiral.”
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