Heaven on earth

This extraordinarily beautiful photograph was taken last week by wildlife conservationist Nick Mooney who was in a helicopter west of Cradle Mountain Lake St Clair National Park searching for Tasmania’s endangered wedge-tailed eagles.

“The fluffy monster”- a warm down-slope wind known as a föhn or foehn - was pouring like dry ice off Tor Mountain.

Mooney took out his phone and asked the pilot to swing the helicopter for a better view.

“We intended going over the ridge but clearly, visibility would be zero, so around we went," he said. "Cutting through the corner of the cloud under the ridge that was looming above the aircraft, the Squirrel B3 was violently buffeted, more just another adventure than any problem considering the excellent machine and pilot. Minutes later, it was glorious sunshine: that’s Tasmania for you!”

Mooney has experienced many katabatic winds in Antarctica (where high-density air from higher elevations falls down a slope under the force of gravity) but "nothing as visually spectacular as this". 

And yes, four new nests were found, now logged on Tasmania’s Natural Values Atlas. Wedge-tailed eagle searches are undertaken outside breeding to minimise disturbance. The idea to use helicopters to locate nests so industry could be kept at arms’ length was pioneered by Nick Mooney in the 1980s when the rate of development started outpacing the rate of searching for nests on foot.

Thanks for sharing this with us Nick!