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I think I'm going to blame my parents. I grew up on the shore of Loch Ness in Scotland and they own a garden nursery, so I was permeated with plant names since day one, says specialist bird and nature guide Cat Davidson, of her early connection to nature.

"It's just a place that you feel very alive and you feel nature feeling very alive around you," says specialist guide with Inala Nature Tours, Cat Davidson of Bruny Island in southern Tasmania. It has amazing, diverse habitat types, specialist birds and animals and a strong community. It is home.

We will often be sent a wish list by someone before they even arrive on Bruny Island, Inala Nature Tours guide Cat Davidson says of visiting bird-watchers. Nearly every single time the critically-endangered swift parrot or the endangered forty-spotted pardalote is high on the list.

Take a moment to think about a species you care about, and the emotions you feel when you think about the interactions you've had. You might feel a sense of magic or a loss of words. Ecologist and PhD student Edith Shum wants to understand that feeling and how it connects to place and environmental change.

Dog management on Bruny Island is a big issue, writes bird ecologist Dr Eric Woehler. He has many photos of dogs predating on vulnerable eggs, chicks and adult nesting birds - and he's urging dog owners to put them on a lead.

It's well documented that people with a connection to Nature - or to something they like - are far more active in conserving it, writes BirdLife Tasmania's Karen Dick. The Bruny Island Bird Festival occurs every two years and is a critical event to help develop that connection. It's also a time to inspire the next generation.

On a wild windswept day, a packed Adventure Bay hall joined Inala, the Bruny Island Environment Network and Kuno's event "Crowdsourcing the Nature of Bruny"

A photographer alert to the environment sees more than a simple landscape. Photograph: Nick Monk

Bruny Island is one of the most important breeding habitats for the Swift Parrot. It has the habitat that the Swift Parrots need to produce their chicks in tree hollows, and it is also free of the Sugar Glider – a key introduced predator.

Bruny Island is one of the most important habitat sites for a number of threatened species. It is a refuge area, like many islands around Australia and across the world. Bruny Island contains the most important breeding habitat for the Swift Parrot

BirdLife Australia is one of the peak bodies for birds and bird conservation across Australia. Their overarching goal is to halt the extinction crisis and recover threatened birds across Australia.

A critical problem for Forty Spotted Pardalotes breeding is a native fly which lays its eggs inside their nests. When the eggs hatch, the maggots come out and burrow under the skin of the 40-Spotted Pardalote nestlings and suck their blood. But a unique conservation project might have found a solution