My family was on track to kiss the legendary Blarney Stone during a recent holiday in Ireland. I had a different agenda – tracking down some equally legendary Irish sparrows. Our holidays tend to go that way, whether to view tourist attractions like the ancient and symbolic Blarney Stone or the sublime beauty of birds. There was no conflict however when it came to Blarney Castle – the home of the stone – just outside the historic city of Cork. My son’s girlfriend was … [Read more...] about House sparrow dialect falls on deaf ears
On The Wing
Passport to birdland
Birdland is a magical place where it’s possible to escape all the pressures and stresses of the environment of the city created and inhabited by one species – humans – and immerse yourself in a less one-dimensional world. Birdland is nowhere in particular, and does not have to be special or noteworthy. It could be in the wildest of wild forest, or in suburbia. It could be a pristine beach, a few hectares of eucalypt woodland, or a neatly manicured city park. It could be a backyard. That’s the magic of birds; they bring beauty and wonder to every corner of the planet, wild or untamed, and my On the Wing writing is their celebration.
Speedy swifties speeding to extinction
I missed out on seeing the arrival of the endangered swift parrots this spring because I was away on holiday in Britain. Instead I looked for them in the stuffed and mounted bird collection at the Natural History Museum in London. Thankfully, the world’s fastest parrot was not there, an indication it is not quite at the stage of being classed beyond saving. Each year when the parrots turn up in a favoured clump of blue gums on Mt Nelson I am filled with dread that this could … [Read more...] about Speedy swifties speeding to extinction
Vain search for master of disguise
Since the start of spring I’ve been searching for a pair of tawny frogmouths that throughout the rest of the year I see on my daily keep-fit walk. The frogmouths roost in a white peppermint gum in the Waterworks Reserve but come early September they vanish, only to return at summer’s end. Presumably they are off to breed somewhere close by but, even though I have searched high and low over the years, I have never discovered where. When I set out to search, I know that it … [Read more...] about Vain search for master of disguise
Feathered barometers track wobbly seasons
I arrived back in Hobart from a holiday in Europe at the start of the month feeling the cold. The striated pardalotes were feeling it, too, because they had delayed nesting. The migratory pardalotes are the first migrants to arrive at the end of winter and the first to scout nest sites. On cue in mid-August I began to hear their song and then saw these cavity nesters entering favourite nesting sites, gaps in the sandstone walls built to channel the Sandy Bay Rivulet … [Read more...] about Feathered barometers track wobbly seasons
Is it bye bye blackbird in Britain?
The spectre if a silent spring loomed when I listened in vain for the beautiful, lilting song of the blackbird. The metaphor that draws on the title of Rachel Carson’s acclaimed book on environmental destruction was not entirely apposite. It was not spring, it was autumn and I was far from where the refrain of the blackbird bookends the start and end of my day. I was in London, and not Hobart. The blackbird, of course, was imported to Tasmania from Britain in colonial times … [Read more...] about Is it bye bye blackbird in Britain?