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 Sunday Tasmanian.
By Don Knowler
All eyes are on the skies during World Migratory Bird Day on May 9 to see if a remarkable long-distance record – a non-stop flight of 13,560 km – can be beaten. The record was set by a bar-tailed godwit which travelled from the place of its birth in Alaska to Tasmania two years ago. Although the … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
In the parlance of my craft, journalism, young reporters are urged to make their stories “sing”. Attending the opening of bird artist Belinda Kurczok’s latest exhibition, it occurred to me that the same applied to her art. Her birds, especially a painting of playful swift parrots, are alive, full of … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
It started out as a mission to win a bet and turned into a walk to remember in the wild. The bet with a birding friend centred on whether the Octopus Tree on kunanyi/Mount Wellington is a swamp gum or a gum-topped stringybark. Within a half hour or so tramping the Shoobridge Track, the identity of … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
The haunting whistle of a green rosella cut through the early-morning mist. A Bridgewater Jerry had laid a meandering carpet of pure-white cloud across the Derwent and I presumed the rosella had sought higher ground to escape the mist. The rosella, hidden within or behind a line of ornamental fir … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
People power has been in play to save birds from being poisoned by lethal rodenticides which also have the capacity to kill pets and harm children. Thousands of animal lovers have in recent year been campaigning to have the distribution of a new generation of rat and mice poisons restricted and now … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
A yellow-throated honeyeater was making the most of fine, warm weather during the autumnal equinox. Instinct honed over the eons told the yellowthroat that equal parts night and day meant winter was approaching. Although the first day of March is on our calendars the official start of autumn, … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
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