Dancing on the Edge of the World
Everyone has a story about birds. They are all about us and are our contact point with nature. The birds I see are usually in an urban environment and so I concentrate on these in my writing. I don’t pretend to be an expert but birds of the city and suburb are also the ones that most people identify with, the species you do not need a compass and binoculars to seek out. A scarlet robin singing in a garden is just as exciting as a swift parrot in an ancient forest and is worth just as many words in my On the Wing writings, which appear weekly in the Mercury newspaper’s Weekend magazine.
By Don Knowler
The Pointer Sisters led the way in the quest to find a rare and protected bird ¬- the stubble quail. With keen eye, ear and nose the Sisters came with all the equipment for their unique trade to locate the elusive bird hidden in a grassy, wet paddock in the wild country surrounding Bothwell. The … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
Trying to identify the song of the only native thrush found in Tasmania, I received a shock when I discovered the ABC had dubbed the species the “fart bird”. I took a double take: was I really reading this about the Bassian thrush? But there it was, not so much in black and white, in audio on ABC … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
Singing lessons for a bird? It seems implausible in the wondrous world of nature but that is the prospect in store for captive-bred teenage honeyeaters looking for love. The regent honeyeater is one of Australia’s most threatened bird species and conservationists have hit a snag in their efforts to … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
Ancient rituals linked to the winter solstice have been given a modern twist in Hobart in recent times with the advent of Dark Mofo and its mid-winter swim. I didn’t need a cold plunge in the Derwent, though, to tell me we were moving from the dark into the light with the lengthening of daylight on … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
Every year during the annual Tasmanian gull count I’m reminded we must never under-estimate these amazing birds even though in some quarters they are derisively called “rats with wings”. The truth is our gulls are highly intelligent and not quite as unhygienic and unsanitary as we might imagine. … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
Far off-shore a gannet wheeled in the sky across the Derwent Estuary. It paused as if frozen in mid-air and then plunged into the water, sending up a huge spray of water. It emerged with what looked like silvery fish before the seabird was beating the air again with huge black-tipped white wings. I … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
© Donald Knowler 2018. All rights reserved.