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
A cassowary in the rear-view mirror of my car. It’s one of my most bizarre bird experiences, almost as incredible an encounter with the bird itself. The southern cassowary sighting occurred while I was leaving Mission Beach in far-north Queensland after abandoning a search for the elusive … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
The morning television news reported gangland violence in Melbourne and Sydney. Closer to home, trouble stirred in my own backyard. A family of magpies – pushing out black-and-white breasts like in-your-face Collingwood supporters – had arrived in the ’hood. To say they had caused a flurry of … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
They say familiarity breeds contempt and each spring I certainly feel a little antagonistic towards the masked lapwings which prove a nuisance on my walks. It’s a familiar story. We all know in the suburbs and outer suburbs what it is like to be buzzed by the lapwings, commonly called plovers in … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
I was hoping to make an important announcement at the Waterworks community’s annual lantern parade which each year marks the end of winter. “The fan-tailed cuckoos are back,” I was hoping to shout to cheers as I sipped a mug of mulled wine. It was not to be. Usually the fan-tailed cuckoos, my … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
A persistent, noisy tapping on a window of my home woke me at daybreak. “Tap, tap, tap”. I followed the sound as I searched the rooms of the house before finally coming to the window of my study overlooking the leafy back garden. There I saw a male blackbird banging its beak against the window … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
My best birdwatching moments tend to come out of the blue, totally unexpected. So it was with my first-ever sighting of a superb lyrebird this winter. As I drove along the Lyell Highway, a lyrebird walked across the road in front of me. Although constrained by the car, and not being able to follow … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
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