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
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
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
© Donald Knowler . All rights reserved.