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
Although thousands of wild birds each year have bands attached to their legs to plot their travels, only a tiny fraction of these are recovered. But when they do turn up they can reveal some remarkable statistics. One banding success story concerns a Tasmanian silver gull straying far from home to … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
Strolling through my local reserve I was stopped in my tracks by the rasping call of what I regard as the most beautiful bird of the woods, the satin flycatcher. It was not just the weather – hot and sultry – that told me we were heading into summer after a savage winter that seemed to linger well … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
It doesn’t take much to bring back the birds. Just a neglected space and a few pairs of willing hands will do the trick to create a home for our feathered friends. A year or so ago the enthusiastic members of the Waterworks Landcare Group took a long, hard look at an overgrown quarry on their … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
A waif of a bird we will call “tawny” was lying bedraggled on the cold surface of a suburban street. A waif being attacked by ravens. A bird bereft, a pathetic bundle of feather and bone. Awaiting the cruel fate of raven beak. Or the wheels of a car. A baby tawny frogmouth had somehow become … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
Tasmanian birdwatchers who traditionally gather on the state’s mudflats at this time of year to await the return of migratory shorebirds have been staggered to discover that one of the long-distance travellers has just broken the world record for avian non-stop flight. A bar-tailed godwit making … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
“Donny, there’s twitching within,” said Richard Flanagan when he signed a copy of his novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North during its launch a few years back. Sure enough, when I read the Booker Prize-winning work, I found the central character Dorrigo Evans doing a spot of birdwatching in the … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
© Donald Knowler 2018. All rights reserved.