The grey fantails, the males still in striking breeding plumage, came through on a southerly wind, the warm sun at their backs. I watched them spiralling and fluttering, fanning long black-and-white tails which resembled elongated shuttlecocks. I was a world away from the reality of fantail existence, the birds facing a perilous flight across Bass Strait to escape the Tasmanian winter. A potential peril of a different kind dominated my life: a pandemic, coronavirus, lurked … [Read more...] about Fantails fly to a different world
On The Wing
A column for all seasons
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.
Cheery budgie brings comfort in ‘war’
For more than 170 years the budgerigar has been a feathered friend in times of war, pain and pestilence. The budgerigar’s sweet chirping has been a source of comfort and hope for those that have these colourful, loyal parrots in their lives. Dogs and cats might be the most widely owned pets but when it comes to birds, the budgerigar rules the roost. As someone growing up in the aftermath of World War II, I’m reminded that the ubiquitous budgie helped keep Londoners sane … [Read more...] about Cheery budgie brings comfort in ‘war’
Swallows on a wing and a prayer
The swallows have gone. No more flashing, swooping, soaring arrow shapes over the twin lakes at the Waterworks Reserve. I feel as empty as the skies, which are also clear of a swallow cousin, tree martins. The swallows and martins have left for their wintering grounds on the mainland, flying across Bass Strait to Victoria and possibly as far north as Queensland, where warmer temperatures over the winter months will ensure a supply of their flying insect food. It seemed … [Read more...] about Swallows on a wing and a prayer
‘Keep birding’ message in troubled times
Every autumn when the cold weather begins to bite and I get the sniffles, my friends joke that I might have “bird flu”. The joke is wearing a little thin now in these days of Coronavirus, or Corvid-19, sweeping the world. Bird-watching is these troubled times has actually been far from my thoughts but the pandemic is occupying the mind of the two biggest bird-watching organisations in the world, the Audubon Society in the United States and Britain’s Royal Society for the … [Read more...] about ‘Keep birding’ message in troubled times
Kookaburra ‘joke’ wearing thin
Kookaburras are no laughing matter when it comes to what they are doing to Tasmania’s fragile environment. They might appear the lovable larrikins of the bush but they are a bird out of time and place in our state. The kookaburra does not belong here – it’s a creation of the whim, and may I say stupidity that abounded in the last century. Kookaburras are an introduced species, brought here from the mainland where they naturally belong at the time of federation in 1901. The … [Read more...] about Kookaburra ‘joke’ wearing thin