EVERY year there’s the bird that got away, the species that eluded me in the summer months. Last year it was the satin flycatcher, this year another migrant, the shining bronze-cuckoo. Cuckoo songs are loud and far-carrying, as much a part of summer as the whirr of the garden strimmer and lawn-mower. We all hear them in the suburbs without knowing of the birds making these strange sounds. Two of the four cuckoo species visiting Tasmaniain summer, the fan-tailed and pallid … [Read more...] about The cuckoo’s summer torment
Archives for April 2012
Macquarie Street
THE ODOUR was unmistakable. The smell of damp earth, of moss, of rotting logs. As a log truck passed, the scent of the forest was spread across the tarmacadam of Macquarie Street in the heart of Hobart. It was carried on sawdust and dried leaves, on pieces of bark and twig, mixing with the dry city dust, in gutters, in doorways and window sills. Walking to work one morning I was reminded I had not been able to get to the forest at the start of spring, when the swift parrots … [Read more...] about Macquarie Street