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Donald Knowler

Dancing on the Edge of the World

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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, which appear weekly in the Sunday Tasmanian.

Lyrebird sings of its own demise

August 24, 2025 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

Coots spring into romance

August 17, 2025 By Don Knowler

The coots on the twin Waterworks reservoirs were behaving in a dilly, odd way. Chasing each other furiously, coming face to face and then shaking their heads, dunking bills into the water and sending up a spray of droplets. Suddenly I realised that there was a reason for the madness. Spring was in … [Read More...]

Filed Under: On The Wing

Gold at the end of the birding rainbow

August 10, 2025 By Don Knowler

A pair of French “twitchers” happily photographing a tawny frogmouth in the Waterworks Reserve gave weight to a news item I had just read reporting that birdwatching tourism was pumping billions of dollars into the Australian economy. Usually the wave of international birders comes in spring and … [Read More...]

Filed Under: On The Wing

Black-headed honeyeaters back in town

August 3, 2025 By Don Knowler

The black-headed honeyeaters are back. All winter I’ve been hearing their “peep-peep” call after they fell silent in recent years. Once they had provided the background sound of my garden, the song also accompanying me along the routes of my favourite walks on the lower slopes of kunanyi/Mt … [Read More...]

Filed Under: On The Wing

Goose almost cooked but it’s been saved

July 27, 2025 By Don Knowler

Tigers, lions and a gorilla named Guy. There was much to hold a schoolboy spellbound in the London Zoo. The schoolboy’s focus, though, was firmly on a curious goose, grey in feather with a striking green patch of bare skin on its beak. The label attached to the wire of the wildfowl aviary revealed … [Read More...]

Filed Under: On The Wing

Pardalotes warm to the idea of a Tasmanian winter

July 19, 2025 By Don Knowler

United States President Donald Trump might describe climate change as a “hoax” but rising temperatures are certainly having an impact on the environment across the world, including in Tasmania. Tropical fish not usually found this far south are turning up in Tasmanian waters, little penguins are … [Read More...]

Filed Under: On The Wing

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PUBLISHED BOOKS

The Shy Mountain

shy mountain

Silent and brooding, the Shy Mountain does not have to speak her name. We know she’s there, watching … [Read More...]

The Falconer of Central Park

Although written more than 30 years ago, The Falconer of Central Park has remained popular ever … [Read More...]

Riding the Devil’s Highway

Tasmania might be known internationally as the home of the Hollywood cartoon character, Taz, based … [Read More...]

Dancing on the Edge of the World

Dancing on the edge of the World by Donald Knowler

Dancing on the Edge of the World is a collection of essays that had their genesis in the “On the … [Read More...]

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Recent Posts

  • Lyrebird sings of its own demise
  • The Birdbath
  • Coots spring into romance
  • Gold at the end of the birding rainbow
  • Last stop on the shimmering way
  • Black-headed honeyeaters back in town
  • Goose almost cooked but it’s been saved
  • Pardalotes warm to the idea of a Tasmanian winter
  • Ballet on the mudflats as the world rushes by
  • Birdlife varieties a feather in city’s cap

© Donald Knowler . All rights reserved.